Oh, hello!

Barchester
Joined September 2021
I'm going to start a thread of policy suggestion threads that would be popular, a good idea, or are necessary. This is the first one. 1/🧵 The Pub Revival Act - to save British pubs:
My Pub Revival Act would halve VAT on beer in pubs & remove it completely on British alcohol, halve duty on all alcohol in pubs, scrap business rates on independent pubs, increase VAT on alcohol sold in shops, & give pubs the option of being smoking or non-smoking venues.
6
11
1
81
66,643
STEPHEN GLOVER: Burnham is ducking all the big decisions while wasting time on the trivial and ridiculous. He has no idea how to save a country heading for bankruptcy trib.al/4fIf0ay
30
98
7
312
12,130
No urgency to commit to a timetable to raise defence spending but start hoarding water because war is coming.
“Be ready by having some everyday essentials… three litres of water per person per day, tinned goods... to last a few days” Speaking to @vicderbyshire, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting details advice to households to be prepared for a “dangerous and turbulent world”. #Newsnight
1
2
11
341
Taz retweeted
Making politicians responsible is why they hate Brexit is so such Every day it shows them up to be sub par and without ideas That was not a waste of time
🇪🇺🇬🇧 Brexit was a waste of time. Rejoining would be too.
4
17
91
1,479
One point which is missed is that the well ordered multicultural societies aren't liberal democracies. To the extent they're democracies at all, it's more democracy as an afterthought, with ordered government coming first.
Can multicultural societies work?
1
1
3
276
As soon as you have a multicultural true democracy, ethnic groups become politicised to look out for their own interests, and of course you get social and political conflict.
4
96
This would be a good idea. One of the few good ideas to ever come out of a Liberal Democrat.
3
352
This government is taking preparations for war so seriously that the MoD is being forced to make £3.5Bn of in-year ‘efficiency savings’ during 2026-27. "we needed to make some savings to bring them into line and balance the books. I have taken decisions to stop doing some things this year” says Streeting.
24
87
11
490
28,877
Taz retweeted
Absurd. UK post-Brexit immigration was a political choice, not a Brexit certainty. If Britain doesn't like that choice it should make different ones, not surrender the privilege of making such choices at all. You don't give up your passport when you're fined for excess baggage.
One of the great ironies of Brexit is that we replaced freedom of movement with a worse migration system: higher-volume, lower-quality migration from countries that are often far more culturally different. Young Europeans often came here for a few years to work, study and contribute, then went home. Instead, under @pritipatel and @SuellaBraverman, we massively increased migration from developing countries, where migrants are more likely to settle permanently and, on average, contribute less economically than culturally similar EU migrants. That was not taking back control. It was swapping one migration system for a worse one. I’m a Brexiteer and I don’t think we need to restore full freedom of movement. But I would absolutely support much greater reciprocal mobility between Britain and Europe, perhaps on an Australia-style model, in return for better trading terms with the EU and deeper security cooperation.
5
52
2
373
8,356
Trump has been a catastrophe for rightwing parties outside America. If it wasn't for the fact that he seems to be the only thing blocking the giveaway of the Chagos Islands, I'd be saying unequivocally, the sooner he goes the better.
Replying to @yuanyi_z
After Pierre Poilievre lost 18 months ago, I shouted from every rooftop that Trump was a danger for the international right. At the time, the message was unpopular and I was called a liberal, but people finally saw the obvious. spectator.com/article/donald…
2
6
500
Britain is facing existential challenges, from declining birthrates, to ethnic replacement, to AI & what that means for man's place in the economy & the world, to foreign threats, to an unsustainable welfare & debt burden, & instead our PM is talking about the EU & devolution.
1
2
179
This is the fundamental flaw with mass democracy: the electorate.
We can laugh at all the chips 'n' gravy I-love-Oasis-me professional northerner stuff, and the Gogglebox pandering, but there is obviously a constituency for it. Caring about relatively abstract stuff like the national debt & gilts & mortgage rates is unusual.
4
5
57
1,627
The problem with Reform being caught up in so much controversy is that now there's nobody really able to raise immigration - which should be Burnham's weak spot - without there being something else for editors to put on the front page of newspapers.
4
17
955
Reform can shout about immigration all it wants, but as soon as they do anything it will be followed up by "despite the recent scandal" in every article and news broadcast, distracting from the message
4
145
We’re just governed by such low-calibre morons. All over the democratic Western world we have midwit a political class leading countries into decline and ethno-religious sectarian fracturing. Fuck, it’s depressing! We cannot survive the idiocy the mass democratic process produces
5
4
74
1,072
I don’t know how one can look at the post-war period & call it a success. For all the tech, with the exception of medical advancements, the benefits are questionable, society has become uglier, atomised, frivolous & vulgar. Everybody is miserable, scared, & constantly stressed.
1
5
125
There is an enormous appetite for solidly right-wing policies among western electorates. There is no electorate for governments full of groyper weirdos who worship a fat guy in a foreign country. xitter.cf/yuanyi_z/status/211444…
Replying to @yuanyi_z
This is not to say that the CPBC did not run on a solidly right-wing platform, including the slaying of many progressive sacred cows. The important thing is that they aren't weirdos and aren't simping for a foreign power. xitter.cf/yuanyi_z/status/211443…
9
37
4
400
13,999
It’s pretty obvious that Burnham spent his whole election campaign lying through his teeth. For someone who claimed he wanted to do politics differently, he’s probably the most dishonest politician to be in No.10 in living memory.
Andy Burnham will require loyalty from ministers if he pushes ahead with plans for a return to free movement and rejoining EU amid cabinet splits The prime minister is expected to include his Brexit plan in Labour's manifesto, meaning ministers will have to back the plans even if they have concerns One senior government source said the issue was likely to be the subject of a motion at the next Labour conference, which meant the party was more likely to support rejoining the EU Ministers will also be bound by collective responsibility once the options for closer alignment with the EU have been announced on November 20, meaning that they cannot publicly express a view thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
7
18
1
175
2,010
I'd love to ask whoever wrote this article, how many additional sex crimes that otherwise wouldn't have happened in Britain, how many additional victims, are a fair or worthwhile trade off for whatever benefit it is we're supposed to get by accepting people from these countries?
17
251
5,960
Argentina’s ability to take a joke is only paralleled by their ability to take the Falklands
60
322
13
9,571
113,985
Meanwhile, Labour have just cancelled the Type 83. We're governed by morons.
🇨🇳China’s DDGX is coming. Both Jiangnan and Dalian shipyard have stopped producing Type 055 and 052D destroyers mysteriously. Why? Because rumours said both shipyards are preparing to launch a brand new 9000-ton Multi-Role Destroyer, with the code name Type 057X
5
297