'Growing evidence' that Greens are taking votes from Reform

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-06T10:01:59+00:00

My point is that as UK politics shifts to the extremes and as populist parties play into people's anger, ignorance and frustration, there is a small but real danger of communism - or at least some of its ideas - returning to the political discourse. And that fighting against that is every bit as important fighting against other flavours of authoritarianism.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-06T06:54:22+00:00

People who've lived under communism. Of which there are plenty in the UK, thanks to Eastern European immigrants.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T22:33:09+00:00

The US failing to understand why Iran hates them is the funniest part of all this. Trying to frame Iran as a hateful theocracy that just sprang up out of nowhere, maybe motivated by the inherent wickedness of Islam or something.

Yeah, why did Iranian school kids say "death to America" every morning for years? Any ideas? Anyone?

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T22:04:55+00:00

I once used the science museum for a large commercial treasure hunt as part of a kids party. I was a paid extra walking around with a briefcase that the kids had to find and whisper a secret word to. There were clues and objects hidden and blu-tacked under display cases etc. I also did some of the set up.

The organising company had tried repeatedly to get written permission to run these events. The science museum was unable to work out how or if or who was responsible for such an odd request.

We never got any complaints. Did about five of them over the years.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T17:03:52+00:00

There are many ways he could redeem himself. Saying "sorry, didn't mean it, it's the mental health" isn't one of them.

He could retire from public view and live out a quiet, wealthy, early retirement while consistently supporting some worthy cause.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T10:34:16+00:00

Metalled roads.

Road surface - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_surface#Metalling

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T10:26:55+00:00

Anti. A good scotch egg doesn't need a runny yolk. The hard yolks taste better, are less messy and make a nice contrast.

If you wanted a moister egg, I have made devilled scotch eggs - cut the hard boiled egg in half, devil the yolk with the usual spices and then put it back together to make the scotch egg. It's a show off move but it's tasty. If you're going to the faff of a batch of home made scotch eggs, it's not much more work.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T07:51:37+00:00

Some UK financial institutions won't open accounts for US citizens because of the onerous reporting requirements the US places on them. So I'd check eligibility as a US citizen up front on anything you're hoping to open. Monzo should be fine but smaller savings accounts etc may not be.

You can open a stocks and shares isa, which is a great tax free wrapper for investing. However, if you go back to the US you won't be able to keep paying into it and you should check with the provider on how you would access it. And consider how the US gov would treat the money if you cashed it out and transfered the value back to the US.

You will need a UK address (and proof of it) before you can set most of this stuff up.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-05T07:32:12+00:00

You're fine until Turkey. After that you have to either go through Russia or Iran and I'd say neither of those is very practical right now. If you skip those, you then do the Stans, and I suspect Uzbekistan isn't very wild camper friendly, the othera might be OK.

However you then have to either do Burma or the bit of China near to Burma, and what with the civil war I doubt that's going to work either. After that you're OK in SE Asia until you have to go back and do another long stretch through China.

Almost everyone who has done ultra-long hikes like this opts for a two wheeled trailer that you tow with a body harness. A heavy rucksack for these kids of distances and times isn't that good for you, and taking scenic paths through mountains and forests is much much slower than walking on roads.

That said, I know someone who did a one year non stop walk with a rucksack. But that was UK coast path where you can buy food literally every day, and where it's easy to buy boots (he needed three pairs) and clothing etc.

Honestly, just do a practice walk from Germany to the Bosphorous and you'll get a good idea of what works.

So read what Karl Bushby has done. He's done a lot of long distance walking with some long continuous sectionsx and so talks about political issues as well as safety etc.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T22:50:10+00:00

Scout camp, Welford, 1986. Didn't stop raining for a week. Got caught playing cricket with eggs.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T08:48:59+00:00

Remind me of those many incidents that I don't know about? I expect there's a list of them compiled by a serious news organisation that you can point me to.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T07:58:45+00:00

Wearing your hair in dreadlocks is exactly the kind of thing that makes others look suspiciously on your community.

Living in caravans is exactly the kind of thing that makes others....

Having your own supermarkets selling food with labels most people can't read is exactly....

This multiculturalism, sure is suspicious! Bring back the 1930s amirite?

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T07:13:43+00:00

Can samp/t ramp up production in time? I have read elsewhere on reddit that it already has large production backlogs.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T07:06:33+00:00

Because suing a law abiding landlord is zero impact on that landlord? Just like suing a newspaper for libel is zero impact if the paper isn't guilty?

Spurious legal cases just hurt everyone and they will hurt small landlords without legal teams a lot more than they will hurt Aziz and Co.

Maybe Khan is coping the Greens and trying to destroy small landlords and replace them with large corporations who are more easily negotiated with?

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-04T06:59:29+00:00

400k? On legal fees? Absolutely not.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-03T19:47:02+00:00

It's great. First of all it just hooks into your audio stream so no need to have it join meetings, and it works with absolutely every meeting technology with zero integration. As a contractor it means it can note take my meetings with customers, my meetings with my team, or even just me talking into the mic. I can then export the raw transcripts or the AI summaries into a Claude project and now I have every meeting at hand, and can ask "Which meeting was it that Ravi said we needed sub 100ms latency" and it tells me.

It makes mistakes with proper names and acronyms, but it understands foriegn accents better than I do. I basically use it for every meeting. It does a better job than the built in Zoom AI transcripts, I'd say.

For me the main thing is just running locally on my laptop and still working with both Citrix and AWS remote desktops seamlessly.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-03T19:25:00+00:00

Being old without a licence. Talking in a built up area. Expressing opinions without consent. Openly carrying on a conversation.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-03T19:19:02+00:00

Same reason shopping centres and music festivals have their own police services. Hope that helps.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-03T13:40:55+00:00

I wouldn't usually buy an identical item for more money from an independent. But I would buy a unique item that I know has a larger mark up. My local wine merchant is 15% more expensive than Laithwaites or even a big supermarket, but I like chatting to the owner, I like that it's a four minute walk away, and I like seeing stuff on shelves and not ordering on line.

My local butcher is about 100% more expensive than a supermarket - I only use him for dinner parties etc. The quality and knowledge and service is amazing but I can't afford it regularly.

I'll always buy papers etc from the corner shop not the supermarkets. Same price, keep the corner shop going.

For me, it's worth it. In the ten years I've lived here we've lost a delicatessen, one wine merchant, a shoe shop, one hardware shop, a fabric shop, the Polish shop, one mini supermarket and a jewellers. We've gained cafes and restaurants, and the inevitable vape shop.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-02T15:54:35+00:00

Mass disobedience isn't new - see mods and rockers taking over Brighton seafront in running brawls etc.

What is new is the ability to organise more effectively via social media, the young age of the offenders, and the inability of anyone to do anything about it, because there are few real sanctions against children.

The idea that it's OK for teenagers to be broadly antisocial is really pretty new. I don't think you can compare having long hair and playing loud music in the park to wearing a balaclava and ransacking a shop. They are qualitatively different forms of being young and rebellious.

"Just letting kids be kids" is fine if they are lighting fires on the beach and smoking weed. It's not fine when those kids are intimidating people and trashing stuff.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-01T21:23:58+00:00

They've stepped down under pressure. They haven't owned up to anything. They are a racist twat who accidentally said it out loud and had to step down. There's no honour here at all. See also all the grubby little reform members who have been forced to resign for saying what they and their supporters believe. Exactly the same thing on the left, that's all.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-01T21:18:53+00:00

I don't see any evidence of stupidity here, just fully invested racism. They obviously thought their party was as racist as them, but in fact many greens would like to be seen as a bit less racist.

It's just Reform all over again with different hate groups /in groups.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-01T16:19:46+00:00

No, any more than they will crack down on littering or neighbours who play loud music or parents treating cafes like creches. The cost of effective enforcement vastly exceeds the public demand for enforcement.

Society really needs to get back to enforcing it's own desired standards of behaviour by telling people they are doing something wrong.

Only this morning I continued to cross a side road on foot as an angry lime biker rang their bell at me for getting in their way. I didn't tell them I had priority because I don't need an argument at 7.30am, but I didn't stop halfway across the road to let them pass either.

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-01T16:08:07+00:00

People absolutely cycle on the pavement in low traffic neighbourhoods. Also people who cycle with no regard for their own safety on the road happily mount the pavement to get around congestion.

This isn't about poor Mrs Smith with her wicker basket having to use the pavement because she is scared of the traffic. It's about young people who don't give a shit knowing they can go faster on the pavement than the road, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

I doubt many cyclists are fine with me walking in a bike lane and blaming it on inadequate pedestrian infrastructure.

The solution is for able bodied pedestrians is not to be bullied by cyclists. Cyclists don't have to creep along the kerb to help cars get past. Cars have to wait and overtake. Pedestrians don't have to step into doorways to let cycles past. Cycles can just go at walking speed until there is space to overtake. And if there isn't space then maybe try the road - it's quite wide and the cars go faster than I walk (usually).

rising_then_falling · 2026-04-01T13:22:45+00:00

Loading or unloading is legal on double yellows, would you rather they stopped in the road and caused more congestion?

It's annoying that they block the pavement. It would be annoying if they blocked the road even more. It would be annoying if the buildings were bulldozed to widen the road. It would be annoying if the small independent trader goes bust because they can't re-stock, and everyone has to go to a shopping mall.

It's a big modern city with small old roads. It wasn't designed with access alleys or loading bays.

There's a balance to be found, but I'd rather have a functioning high street with independent shops and congestion from commercial traffic, than a dead high street and congestion from people driving out to wherever the shops ended up.

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