brewery

I was joking but also got depressed when I thought of that as some tories would actually love that. I agree that is the slight glimmer of a positive about her. At least you can have a debate with someone who has a view on something if their goal is still improve the UK, even if misguided.

Yeah that is a fair point counter to what I said about Truss and yeah, I also forgot to add austerity to the Cameron list! He still ends up on top in my view.

I guess you could argue the Ukraine war for heating costs and brexit is the ultimate problem for higher interest rates but Truss definitely caused the spike and expanded the issues to make them much worse, much more quickly. I retract the mostly receded point.

Their choice to spread the cost of the financial crisis amongst the whole country and including the vulnerable was the worst decision ever (assuming you care about the British public I guess...), Brexit then helped to keep us down and have nothing left when covid happened. Even the UN envoys on poverty are saying that about austerity being done in a tragic way.

It is funny that both the left wing and right wing in the UK complain so much about the police "targeting" them more so than the other.

I do think they were very heavy handed during the blm protests and tend to have a soft spot for right wing protests because they themselves are historically right wing, similar to the US I guess. However, they have absolutely no time for these far right football hooligans and they know they are looking for trouble so no matter where they go to "protest" (I.e. drink lots and spew hatred) they tend to have to follow them and contain them from the normal public just going about their lives.

Absolutely agreed. I think the ability of the person, their morals and their impact are important but long term consequences have to play a major role.

Trusses' impacts were immediate and large but have mostly receded. She wasn't around long enough to do any real damage and she's still out there garnering support from the same crazy fuckheads in the first place so no real changes there. They'll just put up someone else instead.

Johnson was by far the worst individual but the damage was relatively small because of how incompetent he was and in fact, he highlighted a lot of issues that will hopefully change for the better now. If another evil politician turns up and makes use of those but is actually competent, they'll go number one with Bojo number 2. Anybody would've struggled with covid and although he made it worse, I think other institutions lessened the impact somewhat.

Blair has the Iraq war, impact on Middle East and the start of the British fall in international relations, which probably puts him pretty high but I think some of the other stuff (e.g. making the BoE independent) probably does just enough to and him.

Brown was in power for too little of a time really but was instrumental in Blair's got so takes some of that heat.

A lot of the country would argue Thatcher should be up there. Her policies continue to have much support in the Tories and some parts of other parties. Definitely a contender.

Brexit has had the worst impacts on every part of our lives and will continue to do so for quite some time. It's also messed up NI, Ireland and the EU itself has suffered from it too. Cameron caused it and then jumped ship because he couldn't help or wasn't willing to, and either way is pretty bad. He has my vote for sure. No other single politic move has caused such a large negative impact.

Then it's fine that he left but he shouldn't be allowed back in surely?

I am the child of immigrants from India who came a long time ago. I was born and raised here, and absolutely abhor and cannot understand how they can do this, so have been thinking about this a lot.

I think one of the factors is that often, it was the richest or highest castes from India and other countries that were able to afford to move here when it was legal and you could just jump on a boat. To buy the ticket was probably enough to factor most people out. They were therefore typically more Conservative in their views beforehand being on top of society that means you probably have a higher degree of that mentality of superiority due to genes/upbringing/social class similar to the upper classes here, so felt very at home with this British class system. I've heard some immigrant people make comments about the poorer in their societies being less smart, less willing to work, gaming the welfare systems etc, which sounds familiar right?

My parents, as an example of some immigrants, were suddenly at the bottom of this society and knew that it wasn't because of their genes or intelligence. My dad went to university in India before moving but it was not recognised here so he worked in factory jobs most of his life. He is Song and had a turban but he had to cut it off to find work as they wouldn't hire him otherwise. My mum moved before her teenage years and is one of the most intelligent women I know but didn't do well in school because of the language barrier, racism (she was forced to go to school miles away from her sisters because there was a policy to divide ethnic groups between schools to not create non white majorities) and low expectations (University was never considered by her working class school or her parents as they could not understand the benefits over earning as soon as possible). It challenged their thinking on their views and made them more left wing. My parents were 100% working class in the British class system and worked their life to give my and my siblings an education to try to "move up" the system.

Some immigrants came over and did well straight away without much issue, so did not have any challenge to their existing views and fit quite nicely into the upper classes in British society. The British Upper class were welcoming as they matched values, had much experience together given lots of british upper classes lived in or experienced India during the Raj. These Indians could speak the "queens English" etc etc. I have a school friend whose grandfather started a clothes business and was very successful, and very early on after moving. He was brought up very wealthy, was taught it was because they were very smart and worked hard, with no mention of the minimum wage employees they used from the immigrant population to make that money, and is therefore extremely Conservative in his views.

Nowadays, there is not really a legal and safe path to the UK so the "upper class" foreigners are going elsewhere. In reality, we are now getting people so desperate to escape whatever horrors they had and have nothing to give up so they are willing to risk their lives and/or the people smugglers are taking advantage of these vulnerable people by offering passage for loans they will struggle to pay off. In the minds of Sunak and Suella, they are lesser people so we should keep them out.

It seems to me like the experience of black, other Asian or African immigrants is very different to this as they were always seen as "lesser". There are many more Tories of Indian origin than other groups. I think the above goes some way to explain it

It is and it isn't. It's regressive that we all pay the same. It isn't because it is still a choice whether you choose to watch TV or not.

I'd happily have it funded by tax in theory. However, only if it was guaranteed somehow but knowing Tories would gut it straight away means I would never support this. Other parties might choose to reduce funding to serve political needs.

We also need to think how much we get for the price really. It pays for decent news coverage (especially internationally), Welsh language shows, weather, radio stations (with a lot of support to all types of music/ musicians, especially non mainstream and small artists), children's education (tv channels and bitesize), food recipes (they have a lot of healthy newsletters). The news is contentious with some people but its only a small part of it all. They have also pushed creative, technological and social boundaries.

The BBC is the UK's NASA!!! We should be proud of it, push to keep it going and as with everything, push to improve it to serve us as people.

I used bitesize just the other week to remind me of multiplying fractions as applying to do a degree as a mature student. It was such good content for free and there was much more on so many topics.

They have a lot of TV shows that private producers like netflix would never make. They cater for making money for shareholders only. How many good tv shows do they cancel because not profitable anymore? How many shows for ethnic minorities or small parts of the country do they make?

We should also support the ITV and Channel 4. They are differently operated to how a private company would be even without fees but do so much less than the BBC because they don't get fees so is not a real alternative option. They challenge the BBC and produce a wider mix of content. I never watch ITV tbh but appreciate people must do.

Let's take away any political influence (e.g. choosing the chair and board), make sure its accountable to the UK public by ensuring its independence from the current government so it can actually challenge them, and make sure its following aims like increase access to culture of all types, support British creators, support/represent all parts of the community, help teach us and our kids, give us information how/ when we need it and make us proud!

Wow, this was supposed to be one or two lines but I got carried away!

TL:DR: the BBC does so much more than we often think about (TV, radio, news, weather, children's shows, Bitesize, recipes etc). Let's make it properly independent from govt and help it carry on supporting the British people in the many ways it already does so.

Yeah just throw them away, you deserve fresh 😀. I have to admit though, we are lazy and use those microwave steam veg bags a lot if having oven food (made in the air fryer of course). Bad amount of plastic but when you're shattered from work and life, we just wouldn't cook the veg parts so would be a beige plate

I really doubt it. Brexit is still too toxic right now for any reversal and everyone wants to just move on. The Tories doing it would be completely suicidal.

I think its Sunak and the party leadership completely out of ideas and any remotely competent people willing to work with them. He had decent public support before, especially with big business which labour have completely brought to their side so this is probably to try to woo them back. I'm not sure it'll work. Business right now just want stability and know the Tories cannot give that until they decide who will lead once they lose the general election and how far right they will end up (I.e. if its too much, I think big businesses will struggle to support them because of their HO staff and need for cheap immigrant labour to do the actual work)

Already filthy rich by birth. Got his PM pension and now going to get even more public money for fucking up the country's image internationally even more. But the benefits cheats and disabled people are the problems obviously...

If he came out and said he will follow the will of the people and appoint a pro brexit person to lead a new dept and also lead negotiations, I think he could've got away with it. At least he could've seen through a transition to a new govt rather than just abandon it everything.

Maybe he shouldn't have pissed off the brexit crowd with those govt paid leaflets and the support he gave. He should've planned something for what would happen if the vote didn't go his way. We could've at least figured out what type of brexit the country wanted as a binary yes - no was not enough.

I see what you mean though, maybe it was just never possible and it was his only option. I just think he caused the most damage to this country ever and somehow is getting away with it with seemingly no consequences. No matter what, he is so linked to this situation in a negative way he should not be in politics anymore, either as a cabinet member or lord

Exact same. Air fryer used almost every day. My oven only gets used for new pizza and occasionally when family is around so need the extra space. Microwave is used about once a month but only because its there. If it stopped working might not replace it