Jim Hacker: Humphrey, I'm told there's a situation at Diego Garcia.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Only geographically, Prime Minister.
Jim Hacker: Geographically?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. It's still in the Indian Ocean.
Jim Hacker: Humphrey, Iran fired missiles at it!
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Towards it, Prime Minister.
Jim Hacker: Towards it?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: One missile ceased to function and the other was intercepted. So the island remains entirely where it was.
Jim Hacker: I'm not worried about the island moving! I mean the implications.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Ah. Strategically speaking, the implications are extremely stable.
Jim Hacker: Stable?!
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. Since nothing actually hit us, we can express grave concern without the administrative complications of retaliation.
Jim Hacker: But the base is on British territory!
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Indeed, Prime Minister. Which means we are in the enviable position of being attacked in principle while remaining uninvolved in practice.
Bernard Woolley: It's what the Foreign Office calls a very tidy situation, Prime Minister.
Jim Hacker: Tidy?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes. Untidy situations are the ones where the missiles land.
@FormerylNurgle@mr_james_c Doesn’t more exploration beget more discovery’s? Even if the result is the U.K. extracting 45 bcm / yr that surely better for carbon reduction and exchequer intake than buying LNG.
After eleven years, it's time to update my London Underground concentric-circles-and-spokes map. Completely redrawn from centre to edges, it's so much better than before, and more geographically accurate than the official map.
Congratulations to Sir Keir Starmer - the first ever YIMBY Prime Minister.
We are optimistic about the next 5 years and look forward to seeing the government make good on their pledge to get Britain building!
@eraiwo We could grow our own population, but as we move towards cities where the economic growth is people have fewer kids. On the farm kids are free labour and so you have lots of them. In the city those kids are financial burden, so the incentive is to have fewer or no kids at all.
@samofsamshire Yes great idea, then there are even fewer of the working age population to pay for the retirement of our ever expanding pensioner class. The solution is grow the economy by building the infrastructure not wollow in managed decline.
Not really, because secularism & Dawkins’ own brand of evangelical atheism are both expressions of a specifically Christian culture - as Dawkins himself, sitting on the branch he’s been sawing through and gazing nervously at the ground far below, seems to have begun to realise.
@gabyhinsliff@riversorare Ps. Those same students won’t end up retiring until they are 75+. What so the richest generation in human history gets to retire at 55?
@gabyhinsliff@riversorare There is zero chance of any student getting recompensed for the changes to Tuition fees post 2012. Despite everyone from the government down telling young people to go to university. These same people neglected to mention that the change functions like a permanent graduate tax.
Allow me to share with you one of my deepest fears.
The whole anti Israel crowd…
I am not worried about their ignorance.
I am not concerned with their violence. (Ok, maybe a little.)
I am not bothered by their hatred.
What really scares me is how confidently they share their lies.
Not a day goes by where I don’t ask myself “Does this psychopath really believe his lies or does he know he’s lying?”
I mean, every single antisemitic trope in history has resurfaced and now that we live in an era of social media, those lies are reaching hundreds of millions of people.
And the confidence…
What haven’t these lunatics said?
- Jews killed Jesus? ✔️
- Jews are harvesting organs? ✔️
- Jews control the world/media? ✔️
- Jews are poisoning people✔️ (did we start drinking their blood yet or do I still have something to look forward to?)
- Jews are so horrible and that’s why so many countries kicked them out? ✔️
- Jews are committing genocide just like the Nazis did to them? ✔️ (this is a new one but it’s a doozy!)
- Jews have double loyalty? ✔️
I’m sure I’m missing many more but you get the point. The same lies as always.
The thing is, in 2023, it really doesn’t matter if something is even remotely true or not. What matters is how well the tweet/post is drafted and then how much traction it gets.
The confidence of the whole anti Israel/antisemitic (same thing…) is terrifying.
These people are not limited by anything. They can literally claim anything and if the lie is told well, it must be true.
I’m terrified by this not only for the Jews who are the recipients of the resulting violence, but I’m also petrified for western civilization because when truth and critical thinking go out the window, the next step, which has already begun is total moral bankruptcy and then chaos.
What can you do? You can stop taking antisemitic news as fact and do your research before hitting that RT button.
Words matter. Truth matters.
Your keyboard is now a weapon. Use it responsibly. Thanks in advance.
It's almost four weeks since the horrific terrorist attack on #Israel. A lot has happened, the public debate has become heated and confused. Find thoughts from Vice-Chancellor Robert #Habeck in the video, putting the events in context. 📣With English, Hebrew and Arabic subtitles.