Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Public sector pay is shit. Budgets are shrinking. But hey! Let's set aside £8 million of taxpayers' money to hand out "free" pictures of an old scrounger.

Ministers have been accused of “losing the plot” after setting aside £8m to offer every public body a free portrait of King Charles.

In a move that drew criticism amid complaints of shrinking budgets across Whitehall and local government, Oliver Dowden, the cabinet office minister, said it was part of plans to celebrate the new reign and bring the nation together.

Dowden, who has also been co-ordinating the government’s response to the public sector strikes over pay, said local councils, courts, schools, police forces and fire and rescue services will be among the public institutions eligible for a free portrait, before the coronation at the beginning of May...

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... d-shameful

This is on top of the estimated £100 million the "slimmed-down" coronation is costing us.

The subject mentality still lives...

Conceptual analysis:
1
People who think this is a good use of money are endorsing a hierarchical paradigm for society.
That hierarchy is not based on merit, age or knowledge, it is based purely on birth and privilege.
Tories buy into that paradigm rather than merit etc.
They promulgate that paradigm through acts of visible subservience and tribute, such as Royal Yachts, pictures, Bibles in schools etc.

2
There is an immediate assumption that their weltenschauung is shared by at least most of the population, and that schools, hospitals etc. will willingly display their subservience by putting pictures of a hereditary monarch in public places; furthermore public places where young people might be influenced. The inability to see alternative points of view indicates a lack of functional and emotional intelligence. As studies have shown right-wing opinions are most likely to be held by the least intelligent members of society.

3
The use of public money is more acceptable when used to promote the subject mentality than to end food poverty. The amount involved is small by the standard of what would be needed so would not end food poverty, but it would be a step, and a marker, in the right direction.

4
This is performative, and indicates a lack of real political insight.

davidjay wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 12:51 am

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:10 pm

mattomac wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:18 pm The crowd in these selection photos never changes.

Makes you wonder whether the Tories are hiring "members" form a "talent agency".

They do all look like they come from central casting.

Rent-a-cunt is one of Brexit Britain’s few growth industries…

“Talent” doing some heavy lifting there

Watchman wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 5:18 pm “Talent” doing some heavy lifting there

Always has been when proceeded by "Britain's got"

The Jews control the media. Odious little fuck.

Youngian wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 8:00 am The Jews control the media. Odious little fuck.

ConservativeHome's got plenty of this stuff.
Cultists who don't get out much obsessed with "smashing the charities".
The horror of a poor child gets some free food and having their entrepreneurial flame forever extinguished.

Back in the eighties, Stephen Fry wrote about how senior people in broadcasting (and attendant political departments) would moan about "all the clever/funny/creative people [being] on the left". Both he and Charlie Brooker have said they think this is largely true, and put it down to prerequisites for the above being curiosity, open-mindedness, willingness to compromise, teamwork and empathy.

The right wing are always really obsessed with crushing stuff. I think they’d all be happier working in a scrapyard.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:34 am The right wing are always really obsessed with crushing stuff. I think they’d all be happier working in a scrapyard.

As James O'Brien put it - the footballisation of politics. It's noticeable that crushing the opposition used to be the preserve of extremists but it's now government policy.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:12 am Back in the eighties, Stephen Fry wrote about how senior people in broadcasting (and attendant political departments) would moan about "all the clever/funny/creative people [being] on the left". Both he and Charlie Brooker have said they think this is largely true, and put it down to prerequisites for the above being curiosity, open-mindedness, willingness to compromise, teamwork and empathy.

And how often is this resentment a channelling of

My undergraduate drama script wasn't commissioned by the big studios.
Bertie and Rupert thought it was hilarious.
Much better than that rubbish like Kes, If or This Sporting life,

Fortunately Daddy got me a job as a columnist with a daily, and I never looked back.

See also Ben Shapiro's "Wrong kind of Jews running Hollywood".

It’s also down to right-wing comedy, particularly modern comedy, almost always being ‘punch down’.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:34 am The right wing are always really obsessed with crushing stuff. I think they’d all be happier working in a scrapyard.

There's a fair proportion of the faithful: including MPs and media editors who are visibly enraged that anybody except them should contribute to public discourse.

It's the root of the "had enough of experts".
You see it when people voting is characterised as "mob rule", "divisive" or more recently "a crisis".

(The tories picking a new leader was "sensible reform", the SNP doing something with a wider electorate is being described as "a party in crisis")...


Anyway, I'm done with thinking about those bastards for the day, off to do some heavy gardening work.

Essentially they believe that their points of view are untenable if challenged by anyone intelligent enough to take them apart - which is a great many people as intellectual depth is not exactly their forte. So instead of engaging you 'crush'.

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:59 pm Essentially they believe that their points of view are untenable if challenged by anyone intelligent enough to take them apart - which is a great many people as intellectual depth is not exactly their forte. So instead of engaging you 'crush'.

Indeed - the Holocaust didn't happen because Jews, gypsies and Socialists lost the intellectual debate.

Might makes right, basically. Overcomes the nagging suspicion that intellectually, morally and socially one might not have much of an argument.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:12 am Back in the eighties, Stephen Fry wrote about how senior people in broadcasting (and attendant political departments) would moan about "all the clever/funny/creative people [being] on the left". Both he and Charlie Brooker have said they think this is largely true, and put it down to prerequisites for the above being curiosity, open-mindedness, willingness to compromise, teamwork and empathy.

Michael McIntyre is a Conservative so is right wing comedy just selling back routines you heard in 90s comedy clubs to BBC1?

Youngian wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 4:03 pm

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:12 am Back in the eighties, Stephen Fry wrote about how senior people in broadcasting (and attendant political departments) would moan about "all the clever/funny/creative people [being] on the left". Both he and Charlie Brooker have said they think this is largely true, and put it down to prerequisites for the above being curiosity, open-mindedness, willingness to compromise, teamwork and empathy.

Michael McIntyre is a Conservative so is right wing comedy just selling back routines you heard in 90s comedy clubs to BBC1?

I didn't know that, but he is one of those irritatingly smug and unfunny comedians that I instantly have to either change channel or switch off the TV.

RandomElement wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 7:32 pm I didn't know that, but he is one of those irritatingly smug and unfunny comedians that I instantly have to either change channel or switch off the TV.

I thought that leaving the fucking country would be enough. But, no.

Yug wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:10 pm 68 in a 40 zone

Home Office minister Robert Jenrick has “sincerely apologised” to a court after racking up his second speeding conviction in the space of a year.

Jenrick, 41, faces a possible driving ban after pleading guilty to flouting a 40mph limit during a late-night drive along the M1, shortly after his appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions at Wakefield Cathedral...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/h ... 62498.html

It's getting like these wankers can't see a law without feeling the urge to break it.

Six month ban and a fine.

Contrite? Owning his mistake? What do you think?

Responding to the sentence, Mr Jenrick said: 'I accept the court's decision.

'I was driving below the national speed limit on an empty motorway, with no road works in sight.

'I now understand that a variable speed limit had been applied, which I didn't see.

'I wouldn't knowingly exceed the speed limit.'

Chinny reckon