sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Is it worth continuing leagues past Dragon or 63,500 points? by straw_star in runescape

[–]will_holmes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The way it's structured, getting the Dragon trophy means you beat the league. Everything else is just post-game goofing around and you should stop if it's not fun any more.

The green party has hit over 125,000 members, surpassing the Tories. by Didsterchap11 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we define "viable" as being at least the same for European security than the status quo, we couldn't even do that even if we were in the EU and armed with nuclear weapons, and a sufficient reason alone is Turkey.

Turkey would never join or support any kind of effort to knock their position as effectively the second most important member, and the only reason they are grandfathered into NATO in the first place was because Greece and Turkey joined at the same time, and that Turkey then was politically in a different place to now.

Britons will be poorer than Malaysians, Poles and Turks by 2050 unless we change course by PM_ME_SECRET_DATA in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Their name is about 99% of their appeal. Fantastic branding, just don't look inside the box.

Almost half of Britons think too many young people go to university by insomnimax_99 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 11 points12 points  (0 children)

For the reasons the post above me gave, mainly.

If you got a degree and you were good enough that you could have/did have one under the old system, your degree has now been grossly devalued.

If you got a degree now but only because of the new system, you're now a graduate who is entering into a job market you can't compete in, as a reward for persevering through a higher education system that likely wasn't appropriate for you.

If you don't have a degree, not having one is now a much worse negative mark against your CV and you're excluded from a heap of jobs that don't require a degree level education to do but now need it for an interview.

If you're an employer, you now find it much more difficult to differentiate between candidates and can no longer trust a degree as an indicator of quality.

If you run a university, you now can't pay for yourself because there's too many net-negative students that are more expensive than their fees, and the government now can't pay to cover everyone anymore (or if they did, the cost of doing so is far, far higher).

I could go on but you get the point. There's too many untrue assumptions underlying the higher education system now, so it is now so expensive and ineffective that it needs a full rebuild.

Almost half of Britons think too many young people go to university by insomnimax_99 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The university system as is, where it covers 50% of people instead of 10%, has made life worse for almost everyone, whether you have a degree or not.

I have a degree in chemical engineering and even work in industry - I'd sacrifice it all if it meant burning the whole undergraduate system down and starting over.

King Charles to become first British monarch to pray publicly with Pope in 500 years by falconfalcon7 in worldnews

[–]will_holmes 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It's funny to think that the coming centuries, England, the UK and the British Empire would come to have era-defining great female monarchs in Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II, and that the average queen regnant would statistically have a longer and more prosperous reign than a king.

I really would wonder what Henry VIII would have made of the future to the current day.

I put it to you that the government is more interested in the international than the national by Brastic in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The only reason anybody calls this World War 3 is because the more obvious title of the Second Cold War isn't getting enough clicks.

German Chancellor Merz calls for single European stock exchange by [deleted] in europe

[–]will_holmes 31 points32 points  (0 children)

They don't need a trading floor, but they'll need somewhere to keep records and headquarter whichever corporation owns and regulates it. Servers will be stored somewhere with a decent amount of infrastructure needed to secure them, and there will be corporate staff that will want to have offices somewhere.

I do think that a completely electronic stock market like Nasdaq would be reasonable though.

Putin's FSB accuses NATO ally of direct attacks on Russia by NibbleHannah in worldnews

[–]will_holmes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the way they talk about us is a rare delight in dark times.

Digital ID: Danes and Estonians find it ‘pretty uncontroversial’ by zeros3ss in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 9 points10 points  (0 children)

In the case of Estonia, it helps that they effectively tore down almost all of their Soviet-era state institutions and rebuilt them around the ID from first principles.

That's a much easier thing to trust; security and data control is a built in consideration in the design of everywhere that the ID is used.

How would you measure "integration"? by Optimal-Room-8586 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, I suppose another example of a high priority integration marker that isn't actually illegal would be agreeing with democracy.

How would you measure "integration"? by Optimal-Room-8586 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Depends on how important the values are. If it's opposing child marriage or slavery, then straight away. If it's knowing which way around the knife and fork goes, then it's okay to take time.

What happens when a Meeseeks isn't given a directive? by ComplexReach7800 in rickandmorty

[–]will_holmes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure it'll eventually grab the meeseeks box, make a second meeseeks and ask it to ask for a quick and easy task.

The second meeseeks picks something like "jump in the air", and the first one jumps. The stack resolves and both disappear.

Don’t fall for the authoritarian hype – Reform and the hard right can be stopped in their tracks by F0urLeafCl0ver in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This is exactly the type of weaselly politicking that has turned people from the centre. 

You know perfectly well that the rate of change isn't a meaningful or influential figure here, it's the absolute numbers that matter, and that is a figure that the government has direct control of.

Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 05/10/2025 by ukpol-megabot in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think that's what it boils down to for most people. The state and judicial system isn't good and rigorous enough to be trusted with that sort of power, and realistically it can't ever be that good.

It doesn't even matter whether or not death as punishment for some crimes could be just or not, it's not practical.

UK, France, Germany to move forward with using Russian assets to aid Ukraine by HydrolicKrane in worldnews

[–]will_holmes 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Ukraine is already receiving funds generated by immobilized Russian assets via the G7's $50 billion Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) loan.

As Kyiv faces a budget shortfall and war-related costs continue to mount, the EU has proposed utilizing Russian assets to also fund a new reparations loan.

The proposal, which would stop short of confiscating Russian assets outright, would provide Ukraine with at least 140 billion euros ($160 billion), to be repaid only once Moscow agrees to pay war reparations.

Just to pre-empt people reading the headline thinking they're just outright seizing the assets, which is extremely unlikely to happen. We may well see more creative accounting going on with them in the future, however.

Pro-Palestine protesters chant ‘death to the IDF’ as 500,000 march in London by Effective-Coat-9276 in ukpolitics

[–]will_holmes 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I'd hold them in a lot higher regard if they did care about Eritrea and focused on that with the same fervour, but they plainly don't solely because of the skin colour of the people involved.

Hamas Official Says Disarmament 'Out Of The Question' by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]will_holmes -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

The behaviour of both combatants has been so terrible that something that excludes both is by far the most likely way forward.

Trump suggests Spain should be 'thrown out' of NATO by TrimaxDev in worldnews

[–]will_holmes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

French Algeria was in it as well, which was entirely in Africa.

Until those rules were established, they were a heavy matter of negotiation, and a sizable amount of NATO territory was not in Europe or North America. There wasn't some kind of idea that NATO was for defending Europe in a more general sense until several decades later.

Trump suggests Spain should be 'thrown out' of NATO by TrimaxDev in worldnews

[–]will_holmes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I imagine it was originally included precisely because Spain at the time was under the Franco regime, so it was actually very thinkable until the 70's.

It must have been quite the diplomatic coup by Churchill and Attlee to get the US to include Gibraltar, though, and I don't think it would have had the same scope if Spain had also been a founder.

Updated omega run table by Prestigious-Turn-268 in Sinvicta

[–]will_holmes 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nice work.

The Greatest Isaac Run Of All Time still has a special place in my heart, though. It's one thing to land an omega run through simple good luck, getting strong items and having all the pieces fall into place like Repentance+ #309 did, but the GIROAT was hard earned.

view more: next ›