Bob Arctor

I hear Daesh are recruiting

Fresh air in Tory Britain? If only!

Obama signed an executive order early in 2009 banning waterboarding, although his pledge to close Guantanamo never came to pass and various human rights observers were denied access so we should retain some cynicism about the conditions the prisoners experienced. But it was Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield who started the waterboarding, if you remember

Well, I didn't see this one coming. In an article about the capture of British Daesh jihadists is the following: I was pleased to see that the SDF had captured these <removed> but very surprised to see the US government describing their own 'interrogation technique' of waterboarding as 'exceptionally cruel torture methods'. Talk about what's good for the goose. I wonder if any Guantanamo lawyers clocked it. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/british-isis-fighters-syria-defence-force

I already commented on just that aspect of it. Drop the condescension, eh. And in final reply to your highlighted section ; yes, if Britain's multi-millionnaires are not able to set up their own libellous political parties, immune from the law, what will happen to the democratic spirit? We shudder to think.

You don't have any solutions other than the one that carries the consequences that I laid out. Maybe you haven't been thinking about it as hard as you thought - perhaps you got tired and thought it must have been down to thinking a lot Let's not abandon personal responsibility, eh? Collins libelled people in the public eye, like an idiot. Any sensible party would have disowned her immediately, said 'nowt to do with us, guv'. But UKIP aren't sensible, they are a set of lunatic Gammons who speak before they think, so not only did they not disown her, they agreed to pay her legal costs too!! Arseholes! Idiots! It doesn't undermine democracy if they disappear because of this, it just means they are too stupid to participate in it. They can let someone else have a go.

It's a long way down from that high horse, you know I think you need to get your thinking head on. From the article, it appears that Collins/UKIP are being asked to pay Labour's legal fees and the compensation originally awarded by the court. Collins failed to follow an order from the court, and so further legal costs were incurred - it's not clear by whom, but presumably on both sides. If the Labour MPs let her off, the following consequences occur: The Labour Party makes itself hundreds of thousands of pounds worse off as a result of its own MPs being libelled Collins is free to repeat the libel, provided UKIP agree to cover her legal fees, since it would be the same situation all over again Any other UKIP member is free to libel any Labour MP for the same reason The Labour Party says 'it's ok to ignore a court order to pay damages' The Labour Party says 'its ok to libel someone, provided you don't have the money to pay any damages'

Conversely, think about the message that would be given out if the courts or the Labour Party said it was OK to libel people as long as you had no money to pay costs

UKIP risk extinguishing themselves by agreeing to pay her legal costs. If you're stupid you lose the game.

Christ, how many near misses have you had? Remind me never to get in a car with you

No, it's an Ethics question. Ethics comes in to our lives frequently and some people have to make ethical decisions in their work: often people in medical professions but also people working in AI. The recent debates about military robots is a good example. Ethics is a common module on philosophy courses so the question is very relevant.

He's just having a laugh at the expense of racists who are no doubt rather uncomfortable about this news. Nothing wrong with that.

If he can't come I don't pay him, but I don't levy an additional financial penalty on him because I'm not a grasping ****

I'm not a supporter of any political party so I'm able to be quite objective about what I see. Politicians will often consult on an issue so as to appear to be doing something while doing nothing meaningful. I'll judge them on any concrete actions not words.

May hasn't committed to any change, let alone change any laws. All she's done is promise to consult, and hasn't bound the government to act on the outcome of any consultation.

Genuinely self employed people should be able to turn down work without being fined, that's the problem with firms like DPD. I often pay a self employed mate to do work on my house. If he's ill and can't come to work I don't ruin his life.

Don't you think the Labour front bench are too soft on the Iranian regime, and that it's probably because of "my enemy's enemy is my friend" thinking? I do.

That used to be the case, council tax now accounts for a much larger percentage since the government grant has been cut so severely

If you have, pm me a description. One has taken up residence in our back garden but our cat is not impressed.

It's not Veolia, you call the SCC switchboard and pick the highways option (Streets Ahead). Veolia just do bins.

So you do accept that it's a growing problem nationally, not just in London?

I was thinking globally. Could UK service industries survive if no-one anywhere made anything?

That's what I always thought but doesn't that back up Cyclone's point? Taking raw materials and adding labour to make a saleable product is what creates wealth in a capitalist economy, isn't it? I'm not sure where playing football fits in to that. People spend the wealth generated from making products on things like watching football, but that's the transfer of wealth and not the creation of wealth, as far as I can see. I think this might work as a test of this theory: if the whole world stopped making anything, the global economy would collapse (wealth would stop being created); if all the entertainment industries stopped, the global economy wouldn't collapse, it would just shrink (wealth would still be created)

Most knife crime has always been in London, regardless of who is Mayor or who is in government. The issue is that gun and knife crime is increasing across the country. That's the national government's responsibility to sort out.

Rough sleeping up, gun and knife crime up, hospital waiting times up. Is there anything this government isn't completely crap at?