A thread to link to and discuss news stories, opinions and the what's so right/wrong about society.
Here's a couple of articles about class in the UK (both from the Guardian).
Unpeople? We used to call them working-class
"In modern Britain, the inhabitants of places like Ashington are treated as unpeople. Their very existence is barely acknowledged in the media. It isn't necessarily vindictive: it's partly the legacy of the demise of local newspapers; the result of cuts to national newspapers that have left journalists increasingly chained to their desks; and the fact that many of our top hacks – over half of whom went to private schools – may as well have grown up on a different planet."
Chav: the vile word at the heart of fractured Britain
"That word slips out. This time it was used by a Lib Dem peer on the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Baroness Hussein-Ece tweeted: "Help. Trapped in a queue in chav land. Woman behind me explaining latest EastEnders plot to mate while eating largest bun I've ever seen." When challenged, she said she hadn't meant chav in any derogatory way. Of course not. But take a look at the venomous class-hate site ChavTowns to see what lies beneath."
The stuff about 'chavs' as a kind of go to blame point for the ills of society is interesting I reckon, although rather overdone in the article. What you think?
News/Current Affairs/Politics/Social Commentary
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On a lighter note:
Ninety Gaffes in Ninety Years
"From Papua New Guinea to Stoke-on-Trent, Prince Philip has left his mark around the world. As his 90th birthday looms, Hannah Ewan recalls the soundbites that could only have come from one man"
12. "A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone's working too much. Now that everybody's got more leisure time they are complaining they are unemployed. People don't seem to make up their minds what they want."
10."People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still drying out Windsor Castle." To survivors of the Lockerbie bombings in 1993.
Well, quite.
Can we flag everything he's ever said as offensive?
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Ha. Should have been known better than posting Prince Phil quotes here.
Decriminalising possession. 20+ high profile celebrities have signed a petition (because 30,000 plebs won't do), to call for David Cameron to decriminalise possession, as it shafts the wrong types (kids experimenting, addicts...etc.)
Thoughts?
There's no doubt the war on drugs is a losing battle but, decriminalising possession doesn't honestly do much, does it? Aside from maybe saving money on prison terms.
Takes away one of the main deterrents for doing drugs in the first place, too. And fuels the drug economy even more, unless this sudden release of police man hours results in the dealers being banged up.
Who the fuck do Sting, Dame Judy Dench and Richard Branson think they are?
Yep. The problem is not decriminalising possession, it is the simple fact that drugs are illegal in the first place.
All drugs should be made legal.
Fact: You're not going to stop people taking drugs because they're illegal.
Fact: If people want to take drugs, criminals will be glad to supply them because of large profit margins.
Fact: By putting the supply in the hands of criminals, you are giving these gangs access to large amounts of money.
Fact: These criminals can increase their profits many times by mixing these drugs with other substances which can make them far more dangerous (or, simply dangerous in the first place, there is actually no evidence that pure heroin is particularly bad for you, for instance)
Fact: By allowing criminals to sell the drugs, you are allowing people who have a vested interest in someone continuing to use drugs into regular contact with the user.
The only argument against legalising drugs is that 'more people will take them', however, I've yet to see any evidence for this assertion. And frankly, even if they did in the short term, it would be worth studying the effects of these changes in the long term to see how the effects play out.
This is a very interesting read on the subject, and the source of the fact of heroin not actually being harmful.
http://www.nickdavies.net/2001/02/01/what-s-wrong-with-the-war-against-drugs/
Once you legalise it, though, you open the floodgates for the vice to get to people who would never consider taking drugs in the first place.
Not to mention the social issues that'd be raised by it. Just look at nicotine and alcohol. Look at how much that strains the NHS.
Yoss, I've lived through having a brother as a serious drug addict for 5 years where all kinds of hijinx and shenanigans ensued. As liberal as I tend to be, I've never seen a convincing enough argument for total legalisation bearing in mind all the shit my family had to go through. As Shindig says, it will open the floodgates.
I'm with Yoss on this. Legalisation takes it out of the criminals hands, and allows taxation, proper control of contents, minimises health risks etc. I'm not convinced there are many people who wouldn't mind trying heroin but haven't so far becasue it's illegal.
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Indeed, adored.
@Shindig, the major strain that something like heroin puts on the NHS is due to people taking impure drugs through dirty, shared needles. That could be eliminated through legalisation. And, as stated, there has yet to be a proper, comprehensive study on the short and long term effects of the legalisation of drugs because no country has actually decided to try it. My hunch is that yes, in the short term, drug use would probably go up, but that in the longer term it would fall as the people who want to buy drugs have to do so through sources that would be able to help them stop if they wanted. But, as I say, without a proper study being done on this, it is impossible to say what the effects would be.
And Stoph, I'm sorry to hear about your brother, but if he could get drugs legally, through properly regulated channels, then the pressure on your family would have been greatly reduced.
Doctors used to prescribe heroin in this country, if an addict could get heroin on prescription, there would be no need to turn to crime to feed their addiction and so the social consequences of drug addiction could be all but eliminated.
Legalisation just sends completely the wrong message. I'd also count against any tailing off as y'know, smack and coke are incredibly addictive.
Work on the assumption that people are sheep.
Surely you mean that everyone else is a sheep?
Besides, define what you mean as the 'wrong message'. Based on the repost by, was it Nutt or Nuttall?, the drugs tzar who was sacked for daring to challenge the Labour government's drug policy, alcohol causes far more personal and social harm than many illegal drugs, yet alcohol is legal and something like ecstasy isn't for no reason other than someone said 'look, a new drug, better make it illegal'. In what way could that be considered the right message?
Alcohol's probably a good advert against legalising drugs, if we're honest here.
My brother from another mother Bunny Colvin has this to say R.E drugs and civic/social acceptance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2fV-_eiKxE
Adroit like a motherfuckah.
There's a 'news' story going around on Facebook and various sites today, about how two men have been sent to prison for twelve months for painting a poppy on a mosque. Obviously it's baloney, especially as it's reprinted word for word on a load of white-power style sites. There may be some grain of truth in there but as the men are nameless, I would suppose that if they even exist a whole set of previous charges are not being mentioned. I can't find anything resembling an actual news story related to this. Anybody have a source for it of some kind?
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Cheers for that.
Predictos for tomorrow's bout of placard-ridden agitiations anyone?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15300751
And what a screencap.
Pah. November the 9th will be where it's at.
Sampling the Arab Spring episodes in the same instance as the #Occupy business doesn't sit well.
No, it's egging the pudding somewhat, and I was slightly more offended by the Dr. King stuff, but the central analogy whilst fairly obvious is quite powerful.
I like how the Jarrow March those students were planning only wound up having about a dozen participants. The west is shit at protest.
Harsh reality from The Guardian today. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/18/coalition-cuts-consett-country-durham
Come on mate. Surely there must be something else you can do...?
Later on the different guy says he was turned down at GAME.
So Gaddafi's dead then.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/20/gaddafi-killed-sirte-falls-live
Gamertag: sgt pantyfire PSN: pantyfire Wii: What's yours?...Yeh thought so.
Really?
XBox Live & PSN: gman808
We're moving house. Come with g if you want to live...
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Western approved executions always leave a bad taste in the mouth. I feel genuinely sad about this.