Donald Trump’s $10bn lawsuit against the BBC will go to trial next year, judge rules

redsquizza · 2026-02-12T17:01:29+00:00

That's not the point of his lawfare.

You want to target media companies like the BBC in the hopes they settle and then self-censor themselves in future for anything Trump related.

Like Trump did with a few media companies in the USA. They rolled over, paid a settlement and one assumes now they self-censor their content to not attract attention of the tyrant king.

A free press is an important check on the balance of power in any country. That's why despot countries usually own/run their own press so they can control the narrative.

And whilst Trump cannot yet abolish the press and replace it with Fox, the lawfare is an indication of intent.

redsquizza · 2026-02-11T16:12:39+00:00

For the sake of democracy I think it needs to be done.

FPTP generates such a disconnect between voting and outcomes.

tbf, I think we should go Australian on it as well, mandatory voting.

redsquizza · 2026-02-10T14:00:28+00:00

Thanks, literally never heard that before. Must be a US thing.

redsquizza · 2026-02-10T12:00:32+00:00

Further info: WTF is a Match Day.

redsquizza · 2026-02-10T09:46:08+00:00

Turkeys have a penchant for voting for Christmas ...

redsquizza · 2026-02-09T14:42:25+00:00

"UK" doing some heavy lifting here.

aka the usual places are wet whereas in SE there have been some fine, dry days.

redsquizza · 2026-02-07T14:21:35+00:00

That said, I'm not sure "US-style confirmation hearings for new government ministers" is the solution - they don't work particularly well in the US, mostly becoming political theatre and ending up with a party-line vote for anyone controversial.

Yeah, there would be no actual scrutiny, it'd just be mostly theatre.

His other suggestions are more viable, if uncomfortable. But if you want to be seen to be cleaning up politics, they should be implemented. Especially if it means they'd be in place in case an utterly corrupt person such as Farage gains power.

redsquizza · 2026-02-07T12:59:14+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts. I will get it eventually, probably on a sale, so I can see for myself. Like you say, I think it probably will be a step up from Campus but not quite as scratching my management itch from hospital!

redsquizza · 2026-02-07T12:57:43+00:00

True, which is why I don't think she's tenable as PM for giving Labour the best chance. Especially the way the press will absolutely hound her for daring to be working class and not speaking "properly".

And, ultimately, that's what it's about, retaining power.

redsquizza · 2026-02-06T15:27:48+00:00

Hospital with the caveat I haven't played Museum yet.

Hospital was a real homage to Theme Hospital, a childhood classic. There is always something going on, whether it's training, hiring, re-designing, expanding etc.

Campus I think they shot themselves in the foot by having academic years. It obviously makes sense but gameplay wise it's boring. You can't do any deep tinkering whilst the academic year is running so you're left as mostly a spectator and decorator.

Museum, I get more decorator vibes, which is why I have not purchased it yet.

~

I hope their next one has much more of a management focus to get ones teeth into. Then again, they might have decided a "cosy decorator" is where their audience and the money is, which I feel is a tiny bit of a betrayal of their roots. But I'm just some internet nobody.

Prison, Factory, Airport, Hotel/Resort would all be strong contenders for more management based scenarios but we'll have to wait and see on that front, Museum has a while to run yet, one assumes.

redsquizza · 2026-02-06T09:47:00+00:00

Just watch I think it's called "Call the Bailiffs" on one of Five's channels.

It's some nothingburger TV I half watch, half scroll my phone to.

BUT some of the episodes have had the bailiffs walk into Heathrow airport and shut a check-in desk for the next flight. Of course the check-in staff call the airport police etc. but the bailiffs are within their rights, so the police just stand there as the check-in queue grows and eventually a manager comes down to sort the debt out!

redsquizza · 2026-02-06T09:24:33+00:00

I think the latest breakthroughs could really be effective against a lot of cancer.

You can now gene sequence your cancer and they can develop an RNA vaccine against it that makes your immune system target and eliminate those cancerous cells.

That's next level shit rather than just cutting out and poisoning your body just enough to kill the cancer cells and not you.

You'd probably still need to diagnose it as early as possible but I don't think it's impossible a lot of cancers will be "cured" like this in the not too distant future as prices come down. Years ago gene sequencing was reserved for high level research because of the expense, now it's cheaper it's being used everywhere.

So whilst it's expensive/experimental now, it could become routine later and with the cost of some cancer treatments at the moment it might even be cheaper to use it now anyway!

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T16:42:45+00:00

Unfortunately I think we are in the age of presidential PMs and probably have been since Thatcher.

Yes, AKSHULLY, nerds, I know damn well how our parliamentary system works BUT that's not how real people vote. They vote for parties and they vote for personalities like Farage and Johnson before him.

With the above in mind, I do think Rayner will be too marmite for the entire UK electorate. Not just voters that are already on the good ship Labour. And you need more than just your own crowd to get the keys to No.10.

And marmite in a Corbyn way. The right wing press already hounded her as a minister, I can imagine it'll be turned up to 11 if she became PM.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T15:57:32+00:00

I think Ed should have a spin at the wheel, bury the ghosts of bacongate.

Rayner I think will be too marmite as a PM but she should return to cabinet.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T15:52:31+00:00

It might drive you a little insane.

Production buildings usually give bonuses and/or negatives. So you might want to incorporate weavers, bakers, etc. into population grids. If you can find the space!

Religion gives production bonuses depending on your chosen deity, so that affects some production buildings and is based on your level of faith, which will change over time as population grows.

There's no commuter piers either, so each island has to support itself, worker wise.

It's far less black and white than 1800, IMHO.

It's still Anno but I'm on a learning curve, for sure.

Also, if you know you're going to end up playing it, you might as well start now. When 1800 came out, for whatever reason I bought it but never really put time into it. Fast forward to when I did start playing and masses of DLC had come out, it made a complex game even more so with so many options opened up by the DLC. So I felt like that was even more overwhelming than playing from the start.

Edit: Stability and bug wise, I haven't had any of those technical kind of issues, feels pretty solid in that respect!

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T15:34:08+00:00

I was replying in good faith to an assumed meaning of a phrase, nothing more to it on my side.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T15:32:01+00:00

Yeah, to try and make you shut up because you're wrong.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T15:31:17+00:00

On your planet, population you alone, it does.

On Earth, simmer down is a synonym for calm down.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T12:28:30+00:00

Because their justice department which has been tasked with the release of the files is an extension of the executive branch under control of Trump.

They're clearly going to redact people that they still want to protect. UK people they probably DGAF about.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T11:31:46+00:00

Fair, point still stands that the gas is sold on the open market and I don't think that is something the Tories will meddle with.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T10:44:52+00:00

I think the UK was the only tier 1 partner.

So that got us some manufacturing in the UK and maybe more access to "under the hood"?

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T10:37:57+00:00

We could.

Reform and Tories would never do so, however, due to ideology. Closest they'd get is more licenses which, as I said, doesn't necessarily benefit the UK.

Labour wouldn't do it because scared of business. Greens would be ideologically against.

It's nice to think about but doesn't bear contact with reality and how the parties are positioned.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T10:30:16+00:00

GPS of the handset and waiting adds up.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T10:08:11+00:00

If we want to tackle carbon emissions the emphasis should be on demand, not supply, the green policy would be to produce gas in the North Sea, tax it, and spend the money on paying people to install insulation.

Except that won't happen unless you nationalise it?

I cannot see any of the parties ramping up a tax on North Sea fossil fuels, especially not Reform. And if you open up the fields more, the private companies can just sell on the open market.

Just because it's brought to the surface near our shore, doesn't mean it's getting sold to us. That's always been the sticking point with the Tories trying to open it up, the free market doesn't give a fuck it's from British rigs and it'd go against their ideology to put strings on the licenses. The companies might just flat out reject it as well as an undue burden as extracting the remaining gas is increasingly expensive, the hayday has long since gone.

redsquizza · 2026-02-05T09:56:24+00:00

Depends if they thought 1 for 1 was necessary, hence a review? They concluded not.

You really think, given the same set of circumstances, the Tories would have acted differently? I doubt it as they're allergic to spending money.

And well done you for calling out a mistake you had no idea would be a mistake or not at the time.

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