They bring that up regularly, but it’s a false equivalence. At the time of the independence vote it was absolutely true to claim that voting No was true best way to stay in the EU. There was no expectation, none, from anyone that Brexit was on the way. So, at the time, if Europe was the issue then voting to stay in the UK was the logical choice to make.

As for now - well, Swinney (and before him Sturgeon herself) was talking in terms of winning a majority of seats being a mandate for opening independence talks. That’s clearly nonsense, since a majority of seats is possible with a fairly small plurality of votes. And, it’s looking like it’s a moot point anyway, since the SNP seems to have taken a right good kicking this time round.

So Sturgeon is probably not bringing this up tonight because she’d look ridiculous to do so given the (apparent) results in Scotland tonight. If this was a referendum on independence as she and Swinney have suggested, then the result would appear to be a solid No.

Two Tories defected to them, and neither of them were standing for election this time, it was just a gesture against Sunak (although I do wish Labour had told them to fuck off).

And as for the S*n, they just put their weight behind whoever is going to win.

Labour and Starmer are far from perfect, but I think they will be far better, even if just from a competence and basic human decency standpoint.

It’s a tricky one, I want the Tories annihilated, but less so if it brings Reform in, shudder.

Not a website, but here’s a (low res, sorry) bingo card:

Peter Mandelson? I think he had a point in that Starmer has changed the party from unelectable with Corbyn (which sadly, they were) to a more than realistic prospect for a sensible alternative to the Tories.

You’re right of course that the Conservatives have utterly fucked the pooch (not to mention the country) but Starmer has nonetheless made a massive change in making the party palatable to many, many more people (not that I personally agree with quite a lot of his policies and policy reversals)

“humans - such as I am”

PMSL :-)

A party like Reform getting even a single seat is bad for the long-term prospects of this country.

Yeah, puts a real damper on seeing the Tories get the electoral shit kicked out of them to see those fucking Reform loons given access to the Commons.

130 too many, but I’ll take it!

Oh ok - is the browser dodgy in some way? I’m not familiar with it.

Idi Amin was Uganda! ;-)

Great thread this, loads to check out.

I’ll recommend Songhoy Blues from Mali, and Gaspar Nali of Malawi, both excellent.

I’ll need to check that out, sounds good. In return, I’ll recommend the Beginner’s Guide to African Funk, a 3 CD set full of absolute gems.

Why? I’ve never used it, so not disagreeing, but that seems a pretty strong reaction to a search engine.

Agreed. It’s properly fucked up. Genuinely worried about the state of the States in the next few years if the Dems don’t get their acts together and win in November (and even if they do, tbh)

Wow, I only saw the last half hour, but what a game that seems to have been! I’ve not even seen any of the goals yet!

I watched all of Georgia v Turkey earlier and it remains my game of the tournament, but I think if I’d seen this one it might just have topped the earlier game.

What a save at the end, absolutely unbelievable.

I agree, that’s how it would go. But you can’t start advocating for a Democratic president to murder his opponent with official impunity, just because of some politically motivated bullshit SCOTUS ruling. That way total anarchy and facism lies.

If people start calling for that, then it’s no better than the shit show of a second Trump presidency may be. The rule of law matters, and it should apply to all equally. If Trump did it and got away with it, it would be bullshit, he should not get away with it. If Biden did it, he should not get away with it either, whether it’s “official” or not. Murder is murder.

Don’t worry.

That’s great!