Britain - The Official Thread

[TenEightyOne]

The Isle of Wight exists in its own parallel universe that's 50 years behind the rest of the country.

The Isle of Wight exists in its own parallel universe that's 50 years behind the rest of the country.

I see watcha did there

 

[UKMikey]

I see watcha did there

Nice of you to spell check his post.

 

[UKMikey]

Sunday Times poll:

 

[Liquid]

As always, that's % of people asked. Nice that the Welsh weren't asked about Irish unification or Scottish independence.

I do support Welsh independence but I don't see it happening any time soon. Primarily, there is a very concerted effort by the Tory party and its machines to generate fake support for unionism and deflect any support for it. AstroTurf campaigns and "think tanks" (read: propaganda machines) whose financiers are not public or whose financiers are American and Russian are extremely common and very difficult to overcome.

The biggest one at the moment are the AstroTurf, black money financed campaigns of anti-devolution campaigns. There are several unidentified groups trying to get Wales to vote itself out of existence and I really do not see that as an exaggeration. They want Walesshire. They want a green welly playground, a mere extension of England.

I've always said that in terms of support levels Wales is about 20 years behind Scotland. I still believe that to be true now but I feel the conscious effort of Tory unionism combating independence in Wales is now greater to overcome than that that was in Scotland this time 20 years ago, in a country with a smaller population but a large amount of Tory second homers, which skews many demographics and sandbags efforts of discourse.

Whatever people's personal opinions on the various independence movements are, it is crystal clear that the UK is fractured and needs an overhaul no matter what.

 

[UKMikey]

As always, that's % of people asked.

That's how statistics work. They can't interview everyone in the country so they pick what is hopefully a representative sample. Let's see if subsequent polls contradict this one before dismissing it out of hand.

 

[DK]

Is your great British business suffering under the load of tariffs and paperwork? Her Majesty's Department of International Trade is here to help...by telling you to set up an EU subsidiary!

 

[Liquid]

Let's see if subsequent polls contradict this one before dismissing it out of hand.

I'm not dismissing them out of hand, just pointing out that it's important to remember that it's only a % of people polled not, in each case, the whole country.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Is your great British business suffering under the load of tariffs and paperwork? Her Majesty's Department of International Trade is here to help...by telling you to set up an EU subsidiary!

That's a good idea! Will we get a say in the rules?

 

[UKMikey]

I'm not dismissing them out of hand, just pointing out that it's important to remember that it's only a % of people polled not, in each case, the whole country.

That goes for all polls except referendums though. Not sure how accurate this chart is but it looks like they estimate a just over ± 3% margin of error for the sample size taken (1,059/1,926,668 Welsh adults). Otherwise we might as well ignore all polls except elections, referendums and phone-in votes, lol.

 

[Liquid]

Otherwise we might as well ignore all polls except elections, referendums and phone-in votes, lol.

You're overestimating how dismissive my posts are coming across. They're not supposed to be.

That goes for all polls except referendums though.

And I honestly think it should be pointed out as often as possible. It's three words. The simple addition "...of people polled" would go a long way in the fight against misinformation and disinformation. Maybe it's just me but I think it's very important.

 

[UKMikey]

You're overestimating how dismissive my posts are coming across. They're not supposed to be.

And I honestly think it should be pointed out as often as possible. It's three words. The simple addition "...of people polled" would go a long way in the fight against misinformation and disinformation. Maybe it's just me but I think it's very important.

That'd be the sample size quoted in the lower left hand corner of the graphic.

 

[Liquid]

That'd be the sample size quoted in the lower left hand corner of the graphic.

Yeah but you know that that is usually ignored in speech and reporting. A lot of people will look at that and just take in the numbers but not the context of the sample size.

Still interesting figures though. The front of The Times ran a Disunited Kingdom headline today. It's becoming an increasingly mainstream news story/topic of discussion.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Guardian take on the cost of Brexit.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...is-johnson-brexit-is-coming-punishingly-steep

 

[UKMikey]

Yeah but you know that that is usually ignored in speech and reporting. A lot of people will look at that and just take in the numbers but not the context of the sample size.

I don't think three words are going to make much of a dent in their collective confirmation bias.

Still interesting figures though. The front of The Times ran a Disunited Kingdom headline today. It's becoming an increasingly mainstream news story/topic of discussion.

As I said, they're the ones who commissioned the poll.

 

[MaxAttack]

Aaah the Isle of Wight, it looks quaint and has some nice beaches but the level of education is appalling and there is so little to do that Newport often looks like a zombie apocalypse in the middle of winter. When all the tourists have left the only people still walking about are the drug addicts and kids who want to fight everyone outside of McDonalds. And idiots on scooters, apparently.

It's lovely.

It has its problems, but it's lovely. But do please keep believing our propaganda as we haven't forgiven the British holiday maker for defecting to cheap package holidays in Spain.

As for people who want a fight outside McDonald's, you may want to check Lewisham before you have a go at Newport IOW. The average Newport chav is about as threatening as a blue sky.

I resent, as a chap currently stood on the Isle of Wight in winter, being profiled as an uneducated drug addict forward slash violence enthusiast. Perhaps if a company with more decency than Ascencos ever came to set up business here, the youth might not be so tragically underutilised.

Nevermind that though, as we have been a Tory safeseat since time immemorial, and the only citizens of ours that seem to have any kind of visibility over the water are the elderly cohort who continue to vote them in.

I'm also still very angry about the 30mph limit in Arreton, it's beyond neurotic.

All jokes aside think before you disparage us. We are supposed to be a county of England but we have a totally broke council and repeatedly have to beg the government not to bend us over. If you want to find the discontented and ignored people of England this isn't a bad place to look.

 

[Moglet]

It's lovely.

It has its problems, but it's lovely. But do please keep believing our propaganda as we haven't forgiven the British holiday maker for defecting to cheap package holidays in Spain.

As for people who want a fight outside McDonald's, you may want to check Lewisham before you have a go at Newport IOW. The average Newport chav is about as threatening as a blue sky.

I resent, as a chap currently stood on the Isle of Wight in winter, being profiled as an uneducated drug addict forward slash violence enthusiast. Perhaps if a company with more decency than Ascencos ever came to set up business here, the youth might not be so tragically underutilised.

Nevermind that though, as we have been a Tory safeseat since time immemorial, and the only citizens of ours that seem to have any kind of visibility over the water are the elderly cohort who continue to vote them in.

I'm also still very angry about the 30mph limit in Arreton, it's beyond neurotic.

All jokes aside think before you disparage us. We are supposed to be a county of England but we have a totally broke council and repeatedly have to beg the government not to bend us over. If you want to find the discontented and ignored people of England this isn't a bad place to look.

I didn't mind the 30mph limit in Arreton after that poor couple ended up with a truck in their house and then a few weeks later got rear-ended, as they were trying to turn into their driveway, by someone gawping at the damage from said truck. As for the kids wanting a fight outside McDonalds they weren't the most threatening but it's still not that nice! I enjoyed my time living there but it's just not as nice as people think it is. The landscape is very beautiful, though.

 

[Famine]

I resent, as a chap currently stood on the Isle of Wight in winter, being profiled as an uneducated drug addict forward slash violence enthusiast.

Kicked the habit, or can't afford the drugs?

Also, as someone who spent far too long in Gosport, I'd be amazed if islanders were dumber, druggier, or violenterer than Gosport's population.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Ah, England's own Tasmania.

 

[Keef]

Sunday Times poll:

View attachment 986736

I don't really know enough about the demographics to judge these polls but I'm going to assume it's mostly rural vs urban, old vs young? Are there wealth or ethnicity factors? Is the UK dealing with similar problems to the US where rural conservative people are belligerently pro-isolationism and want to reminisce on the good old days where everybody was poor due to lack of economic cooperation? The whole Brexit thing and the fact they won't reverse it is still mindblowing to me.

 

[MaxAttack]

Kicked the habit, or can't afford the drugs?

Also, as someone who spent far too long in Gosport, I'd be amazed if islanders were dumber, druggier, or violenterer than Gosport's population.

Re: the first statement - well, I never said *all three* were untrue . But for a more serious response, as much as alternative smoking herbs are pretty standard fare here I don't really see that as any different to the rest of the UK, which stinks to high hell of bush from border to border.

I am sick of seeing junkies in Ryde where they stick out like a sore thumb but it is nothing on the hordes of Southampton or other major mainland towns.

Gosport is... Yeah, you have the right of it there.

I didn't mind the 30mph limit in Arreton after that poor couple ended up with a truck in their house and then a few weeks later got rear-ended, as they were trying to turn into their driveway, by someone gawping at the damage from said truck. As for the kids wanting a fight outside McDonalds they weren't the most threatening but it's still not that nice! I enjoyed my time living there but it's just not as nice as people think it is. The landscape is very beautiful, though.

It's oft quoted that Arreton has the 30mph limit because a councillor lived there - the truth of that is a matter for much debate. I don't think the 30 there is completely dumb, but it is rare anyone crosses the road which is remarkably wide and well paved for the Isle.

It still took the fatality of a woman in her 30s to get Newchurch changed to 20 - the village with the narrow, chicane parked, walled 12% gradient road with no streetlights taking until 2020 to get the safety treatment that Arreton has had since what... 02? Lends some credence to the "where councillors live" theory.

As I've said before, we have our issues, and I don't mean to accuse you of arsery with your post, as it's quite clear you didn't intend to touch any nerves.

The island isn't going anywhere for as long as anyone with any forward momentum in life realises there is very little for them here in terms of career opportunities etc. Governments continue to fail to recognise the unique circumstances the island is under, so our youth will continue to have crap services and schools.

After all, it's the island - being 20 years behind is our identity, right?

Yet in the face of all this logic I can't bring myself to call somewhere else home. There's no place like Ventnor in all the land, whether your preference is for, as implied, squatting on a windswept bench fiddling with rizla, or eating prime seafood and enjoying jazz at the fringe festival.

Pretty much all of Britain's old school seaside resorts are in a neglected state, but anyone who's been to Sandown recently will tell you it makes the rest look like Monaco.

I'd also like to clarify that I've never hung out in Church Litten in a tracksuit.

 

[UKMikey]

I don't really know enough about the demographics to judge these polls but I'm going to assume it's mostly rural vs urban, old vs young? Are there wealth or ethnicity factors? Is the UK dealing with similar problems to the US where rural conservative people are belligerently pro-isolationism and want to reminisce on the good old days where everybody was poor due to lack of economic cooperation? The whole Brexit thing and the fact they won't reverse it is still mindblowing to me.

Knock yourself out.

https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/03/a-reminder-of-how-britain-voted-in-the-eu-referendum-and-why/

 

[TenEightyOne]

Nice to see one of Britain's heritage societies getting an upturn in engagement.

 

[Liquid]

It Sherwood be a disappointment if these mistaken new followers quickly unfollowed.

(groan)

 

[Nessy]

It Sherwood be a disappointment if these mistaken new followers quickly unfollowed.

(groan)

On the contrary, i think some members of the society really wouldn't give a Fri-ing Tuck about it.


(more groan, grabs coat, finds exit)

 

[UKMikey]

On the contrary, i think some members of the society really wouldn't give a Fri-ing Tuck about it.


(more groan, grabs coat, finds exit)

I don't know if they did any research before clicking follow, but if so, it wasn't Much.

(Anyone? Anyone...?? *camera pans back to show theatre is empty*)

 

[TenEightyOne]

So we've made merry an' done the jokes, they weren't good so it will scar lots. I'm out.

 

[MaxAttack]

I'm not sheriff you guys haven't maid a terrible mistake with this pun thing...

 

[UKMikey]

I think @MaxAttack is right as it looks like this second-rate wordplay Azeem groaning. I better stop as I don't want to Herne anyone's disrespect.

 

[Touring Mars]

I just discovered that my friend's husband is now the Communications Director for the Scottish Conservatives and is standing for election as a Conservative MSP this year Holy 🤬 balls!

I've only ever met him once... he is quite a character. We met once when my friend had just finished her Ph.D, and we went for a drink with her, and she brought her new boyfriend along. It turns out, he used to be a journalist for The Sun (?!) and was an investigative journalist who wrote several books on organised crime and Glasgow gangsters. In 2015, he was the victim of an acid attack when a gangster attacked him at his home a few days before Christmas, but although he was injured, he managed to get the better of his attacker and punched him in the face so hard, he knocked the gangsters false teeth out of his mouth

 

[TenEightyOne]

he was the victim of an acid attack when a gangster attacked him at his home a few days before Christmas, but although he was injured, he managed to get the better of his attacker and punched him in the face so hard, he knocked the gangsters false teeth out of his mouth

It's just real-life Rebus all the time up there?