[The Weeping Angel]

She means people who work in working class professions.

I think it represents a cross section of society.

[Andy McDandy]

Been reluctant to join in so far, but Sebastian Millbank (whoever he is) really needs, as well as a kicking, to understand that not everyone in the home counties is posh.

[Watchman]

What are 'roadmen'?

Is TikTok now a major polling organisation?

I’d always took it to mean, very low level gang members

[Andy McDandy]

From a proper Dictionary:

British slang. a young and gregarious member of a street gang, often involved in selling drugs.

From the Urban Dictionary (out of many funny definitions, all along a common theme):

A roadman is a deluded big headed chav, who spends their saturday mornings sitting outside Poundland next to the hobos smoking joints. They wear charity shop Adidas joggers and bin bags as coats found in a council lorry down the road. They scrapped their 2 years of education ( only made it reception) and can’t speak a word of English apart from “ I’ll shank u bruv” with a bent butter knife they stole from their mums knicker drawer.

Fat joe: did u see that roadman down the road matey

Big bill: yeah mate he said he’d shank me so I gave him 50 p and a wedgie and he was on his way

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -uk-labour

Starmer must do more than reverse the Tories’ cruelties. He should lead a global rethink on refugees
Enver Solomon

I mean, by all means make your case for what Labour should do domestically, and wha iinternational cooperation could look like. But why do some people on the left think that the word is sat there waiting for a lead from the UK? Seems a bit like an old CND vicar.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Indeed.

I don't know much about Kiran Stacey but this nonsense feeds into the "sinister puppetmaster pulling strings" bollocks that often doesn't end well.

[Snowdrop]

How are American Bully XLs American, by the way? I'm an American and a dog lover and I've never seen or heard of them here. They seem to be purely British.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

They're a new breed, apparently. Not a Breed.

[Youngian]

How are American Bully XLs American, by the way? I'm an American and a dog lover and I've never seen or heard of them here. They seem to be purely British.

Bit of info here on the American bully among this rogue’s gallery of dodgy dogs
https://fb.watch/n84S0i-xDT/

[Snowdrop]

That video looks gigantically silly to me.

American pit bulls are darling dogs. They really are. They're complete love bugs. It's not the breed's fault that some jerkoffs maltreat them and make them fight, often by using steroids and other illegal drugs.

Banning a particular breed only serves to make dogs even more ill treated.

[kreuzberger]

When it comes to these beasts, I believe that the Koreans have just about got the right idea. As has a farmer whom I met last week in Bohemia, but he might just have had a few and been taking the piss out of the city boys.

[Abernathy]

That video looks gigantically silly to me.

American pit bulls are darling dogs. They really are. They're complete love bugs. It's not the breed's fault that some jerkoffs maltreat them and make them fight, often by using steroids and other illegal

The evidence would seem to suggest that pit bulls are not always “complete love bugs”. In fact, sometimes they’d seem to want to rip your throat out at the drop of a zombie knife. And there’s the rub. The dogs are only dangerous and lethally vicious when kept by nasty, malevolent humans whom it would appear, are often happy to strut around with a dog capable of inflicting serious injury or worse on other dogs and/or humans, which such malevolent humans may even encourage.

Ergo, the answer must be somehow to prevent such individuals from owning such dogs. How do we do that? It’s fraught with difficulty. The reason why dog licences were abandoned is that they simply cost too much to administer. There seems to be no problem with malevolent inadequates owning say, savage cockapoos or murderous chihuahuas. So, it would seem that it really does come down to the breed of dog. Which does indeed seem grotesquely unfair on the complete love bug pit bulls, but there it is. They are, regrettably, collateral damage.

[Snowdrop]

Why blame the dogs for having terrible owners?

It's probably easier to regulate the owners rather than ban a breed. Especially since it's a "breed." How do you even define a Bully XL? Based on its size and look? And then what--you kill it when it and its owner have done nothing wrong?

FWIW, Chihuahuas are extremely bitey and nervous dogs. They're just less likely to kill someone than a bigger animal.

[Abernathy]

Why blame the dogs for having terrible owners?

Well, you don’t. The “blame” is entirely on the owners. But as I just said, the dogs, by dint simply of being those sorts of dogs, owned by those sorts of inadequates, are, however regrettably, collateral damage.

FWIW, Chihuahuas are extremely bitey and nervous dogs. They're just less likely to kill someone than a bigger animal.

Well, precisely. Which is presumably exactly why inadequate fuckwits prefer a bigger, more lethal beast. It really does boil down to the type of dog.

[Snowdrop]

Sorry, I do not think it's OK to kill animals just because some inadequates tortured their dogs into being vicious. I don't think it's OK to call them collateral damage or to imply they're better off eaten. But as I said, I'm a dog lover.

[The Weeping Angel]

The thing is these dogs are breed to be aggresive.

https://www.lawrencenewport.co.uk/p/why ... LktQ1ml3xk

American Bully XL’s are the heavyweight result of breeds born out of brutal human practices that sculpted generations of dogs to respond with terrifying violence. This is a terrible, awful shame. It is not the dogs fault, anymore than it is the fault of a sighthound to chase squirrels, or for pointers to point. They bear no responsibility. But it does not change the reality. The foundational breed for American Bully XL’s were bred for violence and we should not be surprised to find that this new, muscular, massive version still exhibits these behaviours, and to the horrifying cost of children’s lives.

[davidjay]

Sorry, I do not think it's OK to kill animals just because some inadequates tortured their dogs into being vicious. I don't think it's OK to call them collateral damage or to imply they're better off eaten. But as I said, I'm a dog lover.

So what do you suggest? You can't say train the owners because they don't want to be trained. They want to strut round the streets with the biggest, strongest, nastiest looking dog they can find because that's the way you get respect innit? And if the dog gets loose and someone dies that's just their bad innit?

[Youngian]

The thing is these dogs are breed to be aggresive.

https://www.lawrencenewport.co.uk/p/why ... LktQ1ml3xk

American Bully XL’s are the heavyweight result of breeds born out of brutal human practices that sculpted generations of dogs to respond with terrifying violence. This is a terrible, awful shame. It is not the dogs fault, anymore than it is the fault of a sighthound to chase squirrels, or for pointers to point. They bear no responsibility. But it does not change the reality. The foundational breed for American Bully XL’s were bred for violence and we should not be surprised to find that this new, muscular, massive version still exhibits these behaviours, and to the horrifying cost of children’s lives.

And it’s some very admirable benevolent traits that can make them ultra aggressive like loyalty to their owner.
If we played dog fight Top Trumps I’d put my money on a Dalmatian, they have muscle, intelligence, aggression, speed and agility. They’d be a match for any freaky bull dog in a scrap.

[Abernathy]

Sorry, I do not think it's OK to kill animals just because some inadequates tortured their dogs into being vicious. I don't think it's OK to call them collateral damage or to imply they're better off eaten. But as I said, I'm a dog lover.

Eh? What? Eaten?

[Abernathy]

John Crace's column in today's Grauniad is a must read. Simply brilliantly hilarious.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -on-giving

Still, there’s one thing no one can take away from her. She has at least advanced the cause of women in politics. Sort of. Not so long ago, women had to be twice as good as men to succeed to the top jobs in government. Truss has shattered that particular glass ceiling. She is living proof that a woman can now be every bit as useless as a man and still become prime minister. What a legacy. Admittedly May had nudged us in that direction, but Truss is an icon of incoherence. Radon – “she’s a gas, but she’s inert” – Liz is a beacon for the brainless everywhere. Oxford should be rethinking its PPE course as we speak.