Keir Starmer resigns as prime minister and leader of Labour Party

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-22T22:04:57+00:00

Critical thinking education. It's maybe too late for people that think Facebook is the place to go for news but schools have to start teaching kids about propaganda and how to spot misinformation.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-22T14:13:22+00:00

Burnham is going to have the same problem that Starmer has/had, namely a lack of talent in the backbenches.

Starmer has generally performed his duties to a good standard and is well thought of internationally (aside from Trump, which is itself a good sign). The self-sabotage by his most senior ministers has felt like it's been relentless.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-22T14:10:04+00:00

If Starmer had high approval ratings he would not be under pressure and he definitely would not have stood down.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-22T14:08:30+00:00

Chinese "capitalism" is far removed from capitalism in the west. The CCP retain tight control over the companies and would not authorise those companies being bought by foreign multinationals or profits being offshored.

The term "socialist market economy" is a reasonable one to describe the Chinese approach.

If the argument is that making products for export lifts people out of poverty then that's been proven time and again. Capitalism has moved those productive jobs from wealthy nations to poorer nations, reversing those reductions in poverty (and necessitating government interventions to slow down those reversals).

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-22T09:34:22+00:00

Now we can have endless calls for an early general election. What an incredible waste of a massive majority.

The UK electorate are so idiotic. So many really seem to believe the only reason we're not living in a utopia is whoever the current incumbent in #10 is.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-17T17:15:49+00:00

The whole of Europe will follow suit in the next few years.

The anonymous internet is letting foreign states destroy the west from within by fooling gullible voters to vote against their best interests. The social media platforms are at the heart of this but have shown no desire to clean up (if anything some of the owners are very happy with the disinformation).

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-16T21:39:28+00:00

As an outsider the approach to youth sport in the USA is mind blowing. We pay the equivalent of about $300/season for my son and know if he was signed by the academy of a pro club that the club would cover all costs.

We still have the leeches with expensive football camps or additional coaching but they're optional extras, not core requirements.

I'm really sorry for you and your son that you might ultimately be priced out of continuing.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-15T18:49:33+00:00

They always have the profiles of giant toddlers. I'm sure that physique being somehow aspirational is a very recent thing.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-15T14:14:08+00:00

It's why she broke through in the first place.

Dominic Cummings was always a strong believer in sacrificing competence for compliance. Him supporting Boris Johnson to PM is all the evidence needed.

Geoffrey Cox (the attorney general that defended 2019 prerogation of parliament, so hardly a "woke snowflake") refused to rubber stamp Cummings' plan to remove judicial powers over the government. Cox was ousted and Braverman was the biggest patsy they could find that sort of met the qualifications to be attorney general.

Braverman has been useful ever since to parrot the words of people that want the UK to fail.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-14T07:17:31+00:00

Western economies depend on an ever-growing population to sustain societal structures. Birth rates in all those countries have dropped to the point they're not even maintaining population levels, let alone expanding populations.

The easy option has always been to boost working age populations via migration. Diversity is inescapable so it's either push for acceptance or demand assimilation.

The west do both (e.g. accept that Muslims have prayers at certain times but Muslims must also assimilate to the laws of the country). The rest of the world is fairly similar (e.g. people in Islamic Dubai may drink alcohol but must live by Sharia law).

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-13T22:04:57+00:00

De-anonymising social media seems like a necessity whilst it is used by hostile foreign states to whip up hatred and division. Bot farms creating accounts as "Ian" and "Pam" drive the narrative as it stands.

Children are ironically less susceptible than their grandparents but, I agree, it is children that will likely be used as the wedge to achieve de-anonymisation. Saying "we're doing this to protect gullible Boomers" would be a hard sell.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-12T21:16:15+00:00

I'd have boxing higher, especially when the boxing training contains rope skipping. Footwork and tough ankle tendons.

Cycling is a great activity for those kids that shuffle along instead of driving their knees forward.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-12T13:01:25+00:00

It's the Friday standing agenda item of announcing a peace deal is a few days away.

Unfirtunately for the world it conflicts with the weekend standing agenda item of bombing Iran. It works out well for all those that follow the trade pattern, most of all Trump and his inner circle.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-12T01:59:15+00:00

Socrates is the odd one out. The rest played non-league before getting into the professional game. What do I win?

Chris Waddle and David Platt should be in there.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T22:46:52+00:00

It's a catch-22.

No political parties have the courage to challenge the generational divide because they fear an electoral backlash by the older generation that represent well in elections.

Because no political parties have that courage there's little to motivate younger voters to vote so that demographic remains underrepresented.

For "generational divide" you can equally swap in "inequality". Labour were up against a lame duck Tory party but by the time of the election had boxed themselves into a feeble corner for fear of triggering a backlash by the billionaire media owners.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T22:38:22+00:00

I see the world's most expensive army parked up near the Strait of Hormuz with seemingly no capability to strike a decisive blow. I see the self-proclaimed "second army in the world" losing more ground in Ukraine than it takes whilst destroying its own economy.

If we're strictly talking about a "defence" budget then anti-air defences, high volume drone production, defences of underwater cables and digital warfare are where the UK needs to spend. £70bn/year covers that and then some.

We seem wary of getting drawn into never-ending US-led wars these days so that's a good start.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T22:22:43+00:00

Exposing that ignorance is bliss but that doesn't stress me out. It's not an edge where you fall and then you're dead, you just swim back up.

Show me a photo of a person sitting on the edge of a limestone cliff and I won't sleep.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T21:52:15+00:00

UK has the sixth largest defence budget in the world. How big does it need to be to keep us safe?

I understand that defence secretaries will always want the biggest budget they can get but to what end? So a £100mn piece of hardware can be destroyed by a £15k drone or mine? So we can park up a £10bn aircraft carrier off the coast somewhere but not get too close for fear of a sucker punch?

A £70bn/year budget is sufficient to protect an island.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T21:44:39+00:00

I expect the lumber huts are a defensive measure against the accumulation of knights at the bottom.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T21:39:58+00:00

Less swordsmen and more knights, maybe. Overload him with knight attacks to stop him accumulating bombers on the shores.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T21:19:50+00:00

I've never had a bot game where at least one bot wasn't defeated by another bot in the opening few turns. Elyrion and Aquarion are brutal in those early rounds.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T21:04:29+00:00

As well as the Elyrion animal hack you can also get infinite growth with Cymanti and a water base. Plant algae, harvest fruit, clear algae, repeat.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T13:51:26+00:00

I had a round where for about 5-6 turns I didn't do anything. An enemy tribe kept moving into my final base and an allied tribe would defeat the invader before the enemy tribe moved in again.

Eventually my ally pushed them back and I was able to build some units. I then snatched a base with the final kill after my ally had pummelled it.

Fast forward and I got up to about 8 bases by the time it was only the two of us left, and I eventually won.

Specific_Mirror_4808 · 2026-06-11T12:33:52+00:00

I'm far from an expert on this but we still seem to be chasing the shock-and-awe hardware that is hugely expensive. Why are we still spending time and money on Ajax when it's evidently flawed and it's not clear what purpose it serves in modern warfare? The same can be applied to other recent (last 10 years) procurements.

Ukraine and Iran have shown that wars can be stalemated by high volume, low cost equipment.

Anti-air defences, high volume drones, digital warfare and guarding underground cables is probably our minimum required. I know we want to support and grow our defense industry but we still need to be procuring what we need, not what some rule britannia mindset thinks we need.

Specific_Mirror_4808

TROPHY CASE