Honestly, I wish I owned a pharma company, i'd give the drugs away free forever just to screw with that guy.

Assuming Scotland doesn't cite artistic differences and embark on a solo career, the SNP would be the only party where leaving Westminster and going to Holyrood would be career progression for anyone wanting executive office.

Interesting interview of Jim Murphy in the New Statesman regarding this new 'post truth' era of UK politics that we've been discussing.

https://archive.is/kjRZ5

I can't decide if this is a new phenomenon or if Twitter/sinister Facebook/etc is just amplifying existing tribalisms. Either way, I find it depressing that people are increasingly willing to shout down or even block people from giving opposing views rather than engaging or respecting that, deep down, they might care about the same issues and want the same result (better schools, people lifted out of poverty, a safe country etc) but want the approach to be different. We haven't yet polarised to the extent of the US where it seems the other team are almost evil traitors, but I do worry.

Amusingly, reading below the line on 'Wings over Somerset' (I know I shouldn't), some are accusing him of living in an echo-chamber and ignoring realities....

Meat should be treated like tobacco with a public campaign to stop people eating it, Jeremy Corbyn's new vegan shadow farming minister has suggested.
Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, has irked the British farming industry with her veganism and vice presidency of the anti-hunting League Against Cruel Sports.

In an interview with Viva!life, a magazine for vegans, she admitted she was a "militant" when it came to clamping down on meat consumption.
She said: "I really believe that meat should be treated in exactly the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it.

The Global Times said he was "the first Western official in recent years who focused on business potential rather than raising a magnifying glass to the 'human rights issue'".

Oh I know. You don't criticise the host's wife at a dinner party

, after all. I'm enough of a cynic or realist to understand why he's doing it (and I'm a free trader anyway) but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth especially when you read about the government encouraging 'British values' domestically.

Of course, praising him for not raising it is probably drawing attention to it more than not mentioning it in the first place.

Frankly this pragmatism and fundamental realism about what's what is the keystone of my entire politics, which have been borne out time and again.

Heh. So, Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow FARMING Minister appears to have suggested comparing meat-eaters to smokers...?



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/a ... arthy.html

For every 100 calories of grain we feed animals, we get only about 40 new calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 of chicken, 10 of pork, or 3 of beef. Finding more efficient ways to grow meat and shifting to less meat-intensive diets—even just switching from grain-fed beef to meats like chicken, pork, or pasture-raised beef—could free up substantial amounts of food across the world. Because people in developing countries are unlikely to eat less meat in the near future, given their newfound prosperity, we can first focus on countries that already have meat-rich diets. Curtailing the use of food crops for biofuels could also go a long way toward enhancing food availability.

she said all of these things, on record, as the Shadow FARMING MINISTER...?

Do farmers only produce meat?

That's a lot of unused land that could be used to make more bacon

(not least because we're omnivores, have canines and are DESIGNED to eat meat)

No. Often they produce nothing and get paid for it.

I'm shortly flying out for a week on a lovely sunny Greek isle, so laterz guys!!

The head of our penis is designed to scoop the sperm of the previous male from the vagina of our current mate. I'm not convinced I want to do that just because I'm designed to.

Christ on a bike, McDonnel came across terribly on R4 this morning.

Piers Morgan was reasonable, non-annoying, and right on the 'Today' programme just now. I feel slightly dirty.

Seriously? Crikey, I'd have to see that to believe it.
Actually, no, on second thoughts, I'll take your word for it mate.

Was he talking about gun control in the US? Only time I've ever seen him come across as not being a raging fuckwit.