@the-last-prydonian

But you had a special line, all for you. Didn’t you notice?

@pedant
I now want to re-watch so I can spot the clues – agreed, it was a world-class fakeout. But Dracula is in twenty five minutes.

This has been a difficult year and a difficult decade for many of us.

So, may 2020 and the new Twenties become a story of finding light in the darkness. For ourselves, and for the Doctor.

A Happy New Year, especially to those who are finding it difficult right now.

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@blenkinsopthebrave

Yes, the Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the great Christmas Carols. Happy to welcome you to the fan club.

@whisht

I don’t remember ever hearing much of a coherent argument for principled reasons to leave the EU (a lot of empty phrases and lies).

I would say that this was possibly because the ‘principled reasons’ weren’t your primary goods, so you may have dismissed them as empty phrases – not realising that they were deeply important to a lot of p…[Read more]

@whisht

Gosh, I go on holiday and come back to six mentions.

There is one thing on which we agree absolutely.

But within a few minutes we covered quite a lot off ground because we fusking listened to each other.

Yes. A thousand times yes. We need to f*ck*ng listen to each other. Not shut conversations down. Don’t assume one side is virtuous…[Read more]

@janetteB and @blenkinsopthebrave

I very much enjoyed the new version of A Christmas Carol. A faithful retelling it certainly isn’t. But it works, I think, if you take it as a work of art in its own right, based around Dicken’s novella.

There’s stuff I could critique about the writing, but it’s beautifully directed and acted. Well worth a watch.

Hi folks!

Currently away, so a short post.

One question to throw into the ring: if one side says they are ‘uncomfortable’ about current levels of immigration and the other side says ‘that’s because you’re racist’, how is it possible to discuss immigration?

As @thane16 is saying dis-ease is a couple of steps away from anger. I’d also say it’s a…[Read more]

@whisht

They’re not racist, but… they’re uncomfortable.

Absolutely agree. I think one of the pressure points for leaving was that ‘uncomfortable’ feeling – as I said above, one-third of the Leave vote agreed that ‘control over immigration’ was the reason they voted Leave. But I also think that there’s been far too much of confusing a ‘pres…[Read more]

@thane16

Well, I suppose you could say an 12.8% rate is rare. Sorry, I didn’t know you’d lived in the States (so have I).

Look, I seem to be misreading you. Please remember that I’m dyslexic and that it’s very easy for me to miss nuances and subtleties. You asked if busy folk have time to read pamphlets and I picked up on that. Your real point…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Looks like a very busy New Years Day – Doctor Who AND Dracula.

Interesting that the BBC thinks Sherlock is the big selling point.

@thane16

it’s a complicated mess.

This. Times a thousand. As you can see, Brexit brings up very strong emotions in the UK.

The main problem with Brexit is that both sides are right. But in politics, especially if you know that you are right, it can be very hard indeed to take a step back and try and see that. That, in fact, the Remainers and t…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I found the ‘not my President’ thing profoundly depressing because it was coming from people who’d spent the last eight years insisting that President Obama was everyone’s President, because that’s how the Constitution works.

Within a matter of days people shifted from a principled defence of the Constitution to ‘eeek, Trump…[Read more]

@pedant

Have a good evening, and if you don’t want to argue about it, that’s fine.

@blenkinsopthebrave

Yeah, I would be up for compulsory voting – though I will say that until fairly recently Britain also had the ‘everyone abides by the umpire’s decision’ attitude. 2016 shattered that attitude, painfully and spectacularly. For that matter, I voted for AV proportional representation in the 2011 Referendum and didn’t even dream…[Read more]

@pedant

This is your decision. The government will implement what you decide.

In writing. In the 2016 government leaflet. Sent to every household in the country.

Of course, after the vote to leave the EU, suddenly the legal point that it was ‘advisory’ became quoted rather more by the Remain side than the embarrassing statement (in writing)…[Read more]

@thane16

if the falsity of the referendum wasn’t exposed. Are they owed the truth?

The ‘truth’ has been extensively discussed in the UK, in huge and nit-picking detail, for the last three years. And each time there’s an election, a large number of people quietly trot down to the polling stations and effectively say ‘Yup, we really, really m…[Read more]

thane16

If the message of the referendum is deliberately misleading, then legally, I suppose, one could find an alternate measure of more accurate reasons for Brexit.

One law for rich and poor alike, that allows them equally to take time off to fight extensive legal cases?

In the event, I didn’t vote Lib Dem. They don’t like me. 😉

Because of…[Read more]

@thane16 Syzygy Snr

did Jewish families move accounts off-shore or was this a deliberate ranting?

I realised a bit too late that I should have put that bit in quote marks. 🙂 It’s untrue, and was a deliberate rant. It combines two racist tropes about Jewish people – one, they’re all rich. Two, they’re not ‘really’ loyal to their…[Read more]

@thane16 Syzygy Snr

Is it consistent though? If the wrong message was sent to the wrong people -ie “Pakis are taking all your jobs; more mosques than Christian chapels” & a vindictive social media campaign propelled a lop-sided message, would it be appropriate to have a “do-over?”

Was immigration a factor in the vote to leave the Europea…[Read more]