European News and Poland Thread - part 4

....and lotsa people are!

Thing is they rarely decide to vote Left next time.....

Fortunately our voters tend to.

....wondrous british party landscape! :)

Where the fvck are "our voters"? Where you ran from, where you live, or what you call "home"?

Do you have a "home"?


...a decaying shlthole without a constitution, free speech, and the right to defend one's ass...

What a place...

Four years is a long time in politics. I think it unlikely given how things stand at the moment, but the Conservatives were riding high in 2019 and dead in the water by 2024.


Many people don't feel that way. It's impossible to ignore because it makes news headlines so often. Labour have a lot on their plate given that the Tories trashed the country, and it will take a long time to put things right, but I feel that unless they get a real handle on this, they won't get voted back in.

I'm not standing up for the Tories, but they were unfortunate that COVID-19 came along in those years. They made many bad decisions, and that was probably their downfall. I don't think Labour would have done any better, with Starmer and his terrible shadow cabinet pushing for longer lockdowns. In fact, I think the Tories and Labour are the uniparty, and there is nothing much between them.

4 years is indeed a long time, and I fear, if there's not an early election, then Starmer will run the country in to the ground, judging by what he has done in his first 15 months in power.

What government (apart from Sweden) didn't make many bad decisions then?

I guess most did, but some made more bad decisions than others.

Quite, and sadly so many public utilities are still in the hands of 'private equity' companies with anonymous foreign shareholders. Some of them borrowed heavily and indebted the businesses so they could pay dividends (some paid 100% dividend) and then expected the country to keep paying them money so the water and electricity still flow. Theft really, and as much as part of the Tories legacy as the food banks (7 existed when the Tories took office, 2500 existed when they left).


It will, however we're the party who achieved the NHS, National Insurance, two day weekends, paid leave from work, maternity and paternity leave, pretty well all health and safety at work legislation, council housing, school dinners and equal pay for women; all that against the opposition from the right wing.

Nevertheless, in just a year, we've introduced an Employment Rights Bill giving day-one protection from unfair dismissal and stronger rights for workers, begun renationalising passenger rail through the Rail Nationalisation Bill, launched Great British Energy as a publicly owned clean-power company, ended "no-fault" evictions through renter reforms, delivered a major October 2024 Budget with new investment in housing, infrastructure, and public services funded partly by higher taxes on wealth and non-doms, introduced the Warm Homes Plan to lower energy bills, means-tested Winter Fuel Payments to focus help on poorer pensioners, and eased prison overcrowding through an early-release scheme.

That's quite a lot really; more than that charlatan Farage has ever done or tried to do. He can't eve; be bothered to show up in his constituency, and said he'd never met the r*SSian ambassador despite being photographed next to him grinning at a reception given in his honour at the r*SSian embassy.

Mr. Brexit....Is he still alive?

Just about. Living in a house bought with his money but in someone else's name to avoid tax. Nowhere near the constituency he's supposed to represent and coming out with increasingly nasty stuff, ost.y across the Atlantic where he makes money giving lectures. Maybe he need it now he's lost his income from regularly appearing on r*SSia Today.

His main donor goes on trial this month for accepting bribes from r*SSia.

Meanwhile, several of his local councillors who unfortunately got in during the local elections are awaiting criminal trial. Usually about money.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, diversity continues to be the countries strength as three jihadis were arrested for a terror plot that planned on assassinating the prime minister (among other targets)....

x.com/washington_EY/status/1976550770179797010

Belgium has always had chaotic politics.

There is a difference between "chaotic politics" and being suicidal morons like the Brits.

BTW, how is that open borders policy serving you, Euro azzholes?

How many thwarted conspiracies to kill the PM on religious grounds before?

But enough of that.... hee's another sickening story for the left to dismiss!

Far left German mayor who adopted two children from Africa (why?*) tortured by them almost to death.... the ringleader seems to be the daughter, now 17 who police won't arrest.

The son tried to help cover up the crime (is he the one who said she was attacked by a group of men?)

Apparently things had been going wrong at home for months... she'd been attacked by the daughter before (and earlier had been photographed with her arm in a cast).

the natural question that arises is..... how on earth did she expect to run a town when her own home was a den of violence and abuse?e

x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1975921655152075216

*some suggestion that it was a diversity stunt to showcase her tolerance (if that was the case.... then karma is a b1tch on wheels) also unconfirmed reports of her attempting to trans one or more of the children.... (in which case my sympathy for them increases)

Lots of speculation and none of it leads to a good place (and neither does studious silence in the hope that the story will go away)

Who knows. Politics is politics.


Hard to know why you think the SPD is "far left" (have you had some of PAK's very few brain cells transplanted in or maybe twitched t( curtains at the wrong part of the Overton Window.?) and even harder to know why this (very well publicised) story Is anything to do with either left or right. It seems to be about a disturbed teenager attacking an adopted parent.


Probably the same way that she had a professional career, not that attending a monthly meeting in a place with 22,000 people is especially onerous.


She's still Mayor.

Even before Covid. They were the party of austerity. Under them, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Don't get me started about the farce that is Brexit.


Sadly, this appears to be the case now. Labour have done so much to benefit the public in the past but they are not the party I remember and I've been a lifelong Labour supporter. They might as well be called the new conservatives.


I find it infuriating. They should never have been privatised in the first place. All utilities should be nationalised again. The public have been ripped off while fat cat bosses are raking it in with little to no accountability. I'm thinking water pollution here. None of the water company bosses have lost their jobs. As for Ofwat, Ofgem etc, get rid of them too. Always seems to be that they set a limit at which bills can be raised, the companies appeal the decision, and then they're allowed to hike bills higher than the initial allowances.
This has happened with my water company and my region is now one of the most expensive in the country.


They've done a lot which is right but much that is wrong in my opinion. Small businesses are being crucified with the changes to National Insurance and the fact that this country is so expensive and difficult to do business in is putting people off. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, are pulling out of investments because the government won't spend enough on new medicines.

It will take decades to put things right and people are fickle. They want to see change sooner rather than later. I feel the same. Council tax is becoming like a second mortgage for ever decreasing services and our council will likely go bankrupt next year due to the high cost of adult social care and SEND provision. Once that happens, bills will be raised way above the permitted 5% and we have no choice but to pay them.

Energy prices are still through the roof, and for businesses, the most expensive in the world. Why the hell are we buying oil from Norway and the US when we have it in the North Sea. Ludicrous. Miliband needs to go with his obsession for net zero by 2030.

Nearest NHS dentist taking people is 200 miles away from me. Had to have a root canal and crown the other week. Cost me £1400. Soon only the rich will have decent teeth and the rest of us will be having false ones as it was a couple of generations ago. Yet we're one of the richest countries in the world.

To be honest, I could write reams on things I'm not happy about, but most of it boils down to government being out of touch with the people. Nothing new there, but I no longer feel that Labour is for the people as it once was. They've attacked pensioners and the disabled trying to claw back money from the welfare bill. but those at the top are still getting richer.

Apologies for the rant but it's been a crappy week at work.

I don't think I will vote at the next election which will be a first for me.

@Feniks
The discontent generated by a credit based boom which was the one trick the neoliberal revolution had can be debilitating. Convincing people to live on credit was one thing but basing economic policy on it is another. Servicing government debt removes room for manoeuvre from government and enriches the non productive. It's a vicious circle that is difficult to break.

I wonder what would happen if all the countries simply told the banks to f*ck off and stopped paying their "debt". Those banks never lent them real money anyway - they just created electronic impulses out of thin air and called it credit. So, if banks can do it, why can't countries issue such fiat currency at will to facilitate the exchange of goods and make people work and produce things - because that is where the wealth comes from: human work.

Something is essentially flawed in the current economic system all over the world.

Another thing - almost every single country in the world is ears deep in debt. To whom? To whom does the Planet Earth owe money? Mars? Venus? This is all some sort of huge scam.

@Torq


Well the last time Poland tried that didn't work out so well - long queues round the block and nothing in the shop when you got to the front

Erm... I don't see how PRL is relevant here.

And I meant ALL the countries, not just Poland. Simply free the planet from the bankster shackles of usury. Just like that. What's the worst that could happen? People would still work, farners would cultivate the land, miners would mine, tailors would tailor, builders would build - you're catching my drift.

Just like a biblical jubilee year. Forget all the debt. Like God commanded us.

#FreePlanetEarth #StopUsury

You would go to something like 1990s North Nigeria - a barter society. How would a young man build a house without credit ? How would the tailor sew without first being able to stock up on cloth ? The farmer could only plant by using last years seed and would never have the capital for a tractor

Capitalism is far from ideal, and it's performing even worse at the moment mainly because it needs to go hand-in-hand with the rule of law, which is getting weaker even in the most advanced democracy.

So I'm open to other systems but without some form of moving capital towards production and invention then we would be at a medieval level

The last time statesmen (particularly Blair and Clinton) proposed a jubilee on foreign debt, the rightwing screamed the house down because it would make their bankster backers less obscenely rich.


Elon Musk's wife would have to buy a dress for $35,000 instead of $40,000 and the middle class minor shareholders of the banks would have to shop at Carrefour instead of Piotr i Paweł. My heart bleeds for them.

In a democracy, the government does what the voters asked for since the voters vote for the representatives they like.

Why would you, complainers, vote for those who you disagree with?

...from ourselves?

In a tyrannical country like Russia...OK.

In free and democratic Western Europe? It makes no sense since bankers do what the democratically elected legal representatives allow them to do.

So what's up with all that unhappiness?

@Torq
Today is a day for revelations so forgive me for some obvious stuff.
Developed economies need a banking system, the interest charged is not in the usury bracket yet but the volume of debt is unsustainable. Regulating the banks so they can't collapse (or threaten to) the economy again is where I would start. The taxable profits would be reduced and the economy would take a hit. I think this would be worth it in the long run. Removing ridiculous financial instruments may cause the billionaire class some embarrassment among their peers but wouldn't stifle growth.

In short government needs to protect citizens by regulating gambling, why should you or I suffer because of a bet someone else lost.

Feniks, for most Americans, Euepe is the sea if rotten teeth and crooked, smelly smiles. Sorry, Fenix, but I speak from experience.

If you stop banks from making high-risk loans, you are a racist pig or a woman hater.

If the applicant is both a woman and black, your are fvcked big time.

@Torq
Are you serious, Torq? It's a utopian fantasy. While I would like to see restrictions on the excesses and abuses of banks and insurance companies, the idea that people would work-miners would mine, builders would build-feels like a bridge too far. Throughout history, there have always been abuses and abusers, and there always will be.

What we hope for is balance. The current system is so corrupt that it will inevitably collapse sooner or later. Socialism and especially communism are not the ansfer
boundaries and forced restraints seem to be a better alternative.

Of course. The banks, however, should be state-owned, operate on low-profit margins, and serve the people by facilitating economic growth; they're not supposed to fill their own pockets with workers' toil and blood.

I've pretty much had it with those greedy billionaires, banksters and their political b*tches. I come to the inevitable conclusion that they are enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady Saint Virgin Mary.

Hasta la victoria católica, siempre!



October, as you well know, is a month of Rosary prayer, so let's pray that Our Lord will may lead the rich abandon their evil ways and accept their coming fate.


Of course not. Catholic Brotherly Republic, on the other hand, sound like a possible solution. Based on the social teaching of the Catholic Church and the policy of zero tolerance for evil greedy bastards. Details are certainly negotiable but I am giving you the foundation of a better world - ad maiorem Dei gloriam et beatissimae Virginis Mariae honorem.