I know that, drank squash in the UK many years ago, very different to cordial!
Strip public services to the bare bone; declare that they donāt work; privatise.
Rinse and repeat.
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Iām starting to make anecdotal comparisons in my mind between the state we were in 13 years ago when the labour government was overturned, it was done, to the state we will be in going into an election next year.
Not looking good at the moment.
Owen Jones isnāt everybodyās cup of tea (he can be blinkered and whiny, in my opinion) but this video is quite interesting:
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Fuck me.
So we pay our bills, even when ridiculously hiked up, then get hit with the bill for those who canāt/wont.
How about the energy companies using some of their obscene profits to chase those who donāt pay, instead of tipping millions into shareholdersā bank accounts?
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I thought that was quite nuanced from Owen Jones. Geoff Norcottās comment about those on the left of the political spectrum taking up the ground once occupied by Mary Whitehouse was interesting although Iām not sure I entirely agree with that.
A few years ago, I had a chat with the TV producer Philip Hinchcliffe and he had mixed opinions about Whitehouse. He had been severely criticised by her for two series, Doctor Who and Target, and he felt that the criticism was unfair. On the other hand, he said that she did have a point about many TV series at the time which seemingly threw a sex scene or violence in simply to fill the running time. I also heard Dennis Potter defend her, saying that she was well meaning but picked on the wrong targets.
I didnāt think Geoff Norcott got across exactly what he objected to (and couldnāt really tie down what āwokeā or whatever meant). I think what he was hinting at is that there shouldnāt be completely taboo subjects and that many subjects are far more nuanced than they are given credit for (e.g. his Churchill comments).
Iāve seen Norcottās act and I found him very funny. I also didnāt think anything he was saying was offensive as such. His humour is more about being an outsider (on the comedy circuit) rather than what tends to pass as right-wing āhumourā which is simply saying offensive things without an actual joke attached.
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Might have been nice to have a government that actually taxed energy companies and returned that to people who are struggling to make ends meet as a result of their own policy failures (theft is another word for it)
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Iām no fan of Jones either but that was quite balanced.
What has always amazed me is how the Tories thought that they could appropriate this particularly American phenomenon and use it to gain a political advantage here in the UK , albeit that they were aided in this endeavour by some rent-a-mob idiots.
Iād always imagined that the anti-woke thing in the US began as part of the inevitable Obama backlash but it wasnāt actually until people had to watch George Floydās slow motion death that the racists really had to get to work with their counter narrative.
Thereās an excellent article here on woke history which surprisingly dates its genesis as far back as 1938 , not the sixties like many would imagine , and runs right through to Ron de Santisā recent supercharging of the present-day anti-woke brigade , which began with his āwhere woke goes to dieā speech and Stop The Woke Act.
Maybe this belongs elsewhere but itās a reminder of how just perverted and meaningless the whole discussion has become , especially when it is has been so brazenly imported into British politics , where it most certainly does not belong.
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I have that Lead Belly record as well. I think he got the phrase from the labour union movements in the US where it was essentially telling people to be aware of how they were being exploited. The actual song is about the lynching of some black workers so that was possibly where it was reused in the civil rights movement (although Ledbetter was as much a documenter of traditional works as a composer - somewhat in the mould of WC Handy.)
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Marvel movies since End Gameā¦
I genuine donāt know what woke is.
Contender?
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Two different groups of energy companies. As the article noted, 2021 was a disastrous year for the retail energy sector to whom most of that consumer debt is owed.
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Donāt worry, woke is definitely not you.
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You obviously need the beginners guide. (Donāt worry, nobody knows what it means.)
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Itās almost the new āMornington Cresentā game from Iām sorry but I havenāt a clue radio showā¦
Good analogy. The other thing when people say something is āwokeā is to shout back āNo! Thatās Numberwang!ā
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Seven?
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At this point I canāt tell who is being serious and who is just having a laugh. You can easily google āwoke meaningā and get your answer. But a handy short cut toward itās āoriginalā meaning is that āthingsā are not woke. People are or they arenāt.
A tv show or film isnāt woke but it might be progressive or have a diverse cast. A woke person would likley understand why, while a person who is not woke would be triggered by it and decide that any and all faults with it begin and end with the casting.
It absolutely cannot be used to describe archaelogy or be an insult against a person.
Of course, words can develop and change their meaning over time such as awful and nice. So at this point, it might be that the connotation of the word when used by conservatives is now the true meaning?
Nowā¦as you were.
Nothing wrong with a little quid pro quo.
Or, in this case, sixteen thousand quid pro fuckloads of quo.
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