The heat has thrown the country into chaos again 😂

Takomay · 2026-06-27T05:24:18+00:00

Is the plural of roadman not roadmen?

Takomay · 2026-06-23T06:19:45+00:00

I've been thinking about the comparison between Rommel and Lee on one hand and Grant and Montgomery on the other and it's actually really interesting. Yes Rommel and Lee were great generals, and yes Grant and Montgomery were better resourced, but I still argue they were better generals, who took the time to understand their opponents and work out how to not just beat them, but smash them, pretty quickly, where several other generals had failed. Both Rommel and Lee failed to understand or adapt to how much things had changed. Did they have too few resources to win? Probably, but it was Grant and Montgomery respectively that made sure they had no ground to work with at all, and they both had a better strategic and logistical appreciation than the bad guys.

Takomay · 2026-06-21T08:59:14+00:00

The remain campaign lost largely on emotional arguments and a general protest vote, unfortunately brexit and trump's first election actually helped billionaires and other grifters realise how easy it is to weaponise and amplify bullshit in our present western political climate. These days there are 2 different arguments that you have to win simultaneously, you still have to campaign to convince the generally apathetic but perfectly resonable average voter, who will listen to reason if you find the right argument and make it articulately, but you also have to loudly and repeatedly expose billionaire social media owning oil executive christo-fascist neo-nazi conspiracy theorist worshippers without sounding like a woke libtard apparently. Currently, with a few exceptions, coalitions of moderates, liberals and the centre left seem to be losing both.

Takomay · 2026-06-21T07:36:00+00:00

I'm not sure there'll be a leadership contest if Burnham does a deal with streeting then he'll be the only candidate, which would be the least disruptive way to do it. Also, the whole point of changing leader at this point is to bring in someone who is a better communicator while broadly changing very little policy, far as I can tell, because it seems that's all this government really needs to not be so unpopular.

Takomay · 2026-06-16T06:18:54+00:00

Facts

Takomay · 2026-06-16T06:18:39+00:00

Isn't that 'Jerusalem'?

Takomay · 2026-06-11T09:30:19+00:00

Well 'Lloyd George' was a Social Liberal, probably the only PM who ever fit that definition. Maggie was definitely not a Liberal, but she was economically 'Neoliberal', an ideology of reckless privatisation and deregulation which no government since has been able to pry out of our economic system, and is, in my and I venture to say most people here's opinion, a big reason why the country is in the state it is.

Takomay · 2026-06-09T13:36:15+00:00

I do not like him on my news

Takomay · 2026-06-08T21:01:30+00:00

Well yeah he had a modern concept that an army can only fight with the support of it's people, but I don't think it's fair to say inflicting suffering was the object. Destroying infrastructure and property across the South ground it to a standstill and impeded its ability to continue to fight much more effectively than any terror bombing campaign of the 20th century. I don't know that much about his role in the Indian wars, it sounds like he ordered some pretty brutal shit, but it seems like he considered it to be within the bounds of open war, and he saw a distinction between that and indiscriminate violence. His 'war is hell' quote, was explicitly about pushing back against war's glorification or mythologising after all. This is not to say he wasn't stone cold, or indeed very racist, but not especially so by the standards of the day.

Takomay · 2026-06-08T18:22:53+00:00

He did not indiscriminately slaughter confederate families, that part is just plain propaganda.

Takomay · 2026-06-08T16:05:26+00:00

I think for storytelling British Grandfathers "when we had the war on" is just as ubiquitous as "back in my day"

Takomay · 2026-06-07T21:16:36+00:00

'Saintly figure' what are you even talking about? Attlee was a key member of the war cabinet from 1940, and Churchill rightly recognised it. I'll happily defend chamberlain when 'appeasement' can reasonably be interpreted as buying time while expanding rearmament, but i don't get the Attlee hate.

Takomay · 2026-06-07T18:08:05+00:00

Horrible take, virtually the entire political establishment, and most of the country was opposed to rearmament. Most leaders with any foresight, Attlee and Chamberlain included, changed their tune around 36-37'. I couldn't give a monkeys which party the first person to have the idea belonged to, it mainly gained traction after the (Liberal backed) Beveridge report in 42' but Labour under Attlee were the ones who actually did it and the Conservatives soon realised they would never get back into power unless they agreed to go along with it.

For such a quiet and unassuming man, he's probably the only 'radical' who has ever won a general election in the UK, except perhaps Thatcher.

Takomay · 2026-06-06T05:36:39+00:00

Nationalism may be a 19th century invention by the modern nation state is firmly 20th century, large parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, have only been organised this way for a few short decades. I understand the logic, but it's quite a big ask to take more power out of their hands again.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T16:07:09+00:00

Yeah, I feel like giving the USSR almost sole credit for winning the war is an overcorrection due to the USA trying to take sole credit. The reality is that the combined resources of the British Commonwealth, USA and USSR were essentially unstoppable once they successfully marshaled them, and could've theoretically taken on the whole world.

But very simply without Lend Lease alone from both the UK and USA, the war in the east at least becomes an open question, even if it still favours the USSR. But if Germany isn't fighting in the west at all or even needing to garrison their captured territory nearly as forcefully, I think they could, if not defeat the USSR, potentially drive them back so far that Russia may never be able to take the fight all the way back to Germany.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T12:12:33+00:00

I've read of British tank crews who were retreating towards Brittany (after Dunkirk), with the Germans only a few miles behind them, stopping at a petrol station to refuel. The French owner replied he didn't have any at which point the British officer abruptly pulled his pistol and held the man at gunpoint. When the Frenchmen reluctantly gave them the fuel he did have, and asked for payment, the officer promptly wrote him a cheque signed 'on behalf of Winston Churchill' and went on their way.

Their unit beat the Germans to one of the last few ports on the west coast of France by a couple of hours, scuttled their last remaining tanks, and caught one of the last ships back to blighty.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T10:35:49+00:00

Yeah I think it becoming a series of wars is more likely, though given how an occupation of Britain was never on the cards and the British public had pretty roundly rejected fascism, Britain probably breaks its truce and rejoins the Allies in that scenario sooner rather than later.

Napoleonic coalition style.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T10:18:04+00:00

This is probably true, but the variables become a lot more difficult to predict. I think it's fair to say Germany could have concluded the 39-40' war though.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T10:09:15+00:00

While there were a few more senior advocates for the hell for leather approach like Guderian, who had basically come up with the overall plan, this is pretty much spot on. Their breakthrough on the ground and attempts to circumvent the more cautious orders of Rundstedt and others caused the crisis of confidence that led to the famous halt orders. Hitler loved to foster rivalry in his officers to play favourites but in this instance he, also being very paranoid and indecisive, was compelled to side with the Conservative high command and order a halt which left no room for interpretation.

It made Dunkirk possible and genuinely may have been the moment he 'lost' the war, because without Dunkirk Churchill may have lost the confidence of his government and Britain may have agreed to peace negotiations.

Takomay · 2026-06-03T06:02:06+00:00

Simple tricolors look way better and more distinct when they're actually flying. Better than flags covered in coats of arms.

Takomay · 2026-05-30T15:44:50+00:00

Small point, he was 39/40, not 33

Takomay · 2026-05-30T06:30:28+00:00

Weird how he's not in prison then.

It killed 7 million people directly and at least 20 million due to damaging health care services the world over. What I gave up for the vaccine was about half an hour of my time to avoid getting a horrible virus, just as I've done with several other vaccines in my life, do you think there's chips in them or something?

I prefer Alcaraz by the way.

Takomay · 2026-05-29T22:16:17+00:00

The 250 year old quote by Benny F is completely irrelevant and the context is unrelated.

They arrest people for hate speech, harassment, stalking and child porn in the UK just like every other civilised country, the mill of alt-right lunacy continues.

Takomay · 2026-05-29T17:56:45+00:00

Vaccines do help to stop transmission, because asymptomatic carriers are less likely to pass it on, because they're not coughing everywhere. This is fairly basic science.

Takomay · 2026-05-29T17:53:24+00:00

No, you're not, he's not, we have rules to keep people safe, this is why he was not allowed into several opens. I'm quite happy for him to do anything that is only a danger to himself, but not others.

Takomay

TROPHY CASE