The money man behind New Labour, Brown spent a good part of the early 2000s trying to oust Tony Blair, eventually succeeded, chickened out on securing his own mandate immediately, and â by some accounts - especially his own â saved the world economy during the financial crash.
Brown lacked the charisma of his predecessor, was unfairly targeted for being visually impaired, and is now seen as an elder statesman in British politics.
At the time, he was decried as a âOne-Eyed Jockâ by some quarters, which tells you most of what you need to know about our media.
Brown had been in the bubble too long when he became Prime Minister, infamously illustrated with his encounter with Gillian Duffy. Brown was heard calling her âa bigoted womanâ on a hot mic after she voiced immigration concerns.
It went down like cold sick, handing Cameron the keys to Number Ten.
Mate, youâre flattering yourself if you thought my post was about you. It wasnât as it happens, as indeed us Brits are ace at taking the piss. But, youâve interpreted it so. FWIW, i donât think any one of on here wanted to derail Paps excellent thread with a side rant / fight. Maybe worth starting another thread.
Fair point, was not the intention - but the British values was a trigger⌠and thee was no fight expected, since the beef was aimed squarely at Nige⌠Was aware your was not necessarily aimed at me, but am sure you could see easily mistaken given the subsequent responses. A simple fuck off would have been a better initial response rather than the bleeding heart about muting threads⌠bless
George W. Bush â better known as Dubya â is a self-proclaimed C student and former President of the United States. He was President during the infamous 9/11 attacks and the subsequent global war on terror initiative that followed.
His election was one of the most protracted in modern history, hinging on the result of one state: Florida. One gets the sense he got the job out of sheer national exasperation.
Itâs incredibly hard to stay mad at Dubya, despite the trouble he caused, because you never really got the sense he was anything more than a figurehead for the more hawkish elements of the U.S. government. True, he said words out loud that sent a shiver down your spine.
Few will forget:
âIf youâre not with us, youâre against us.â
The sort of ultimatum that somehow makes Trump look like a reasonable man.
But was that really Dubyaâs idea? Doubtful. His job seemed to be moving from room to room and saying what he was told, something he just about managed.
Nice work if you can get it.
âRarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?â
President George W Bush
In many senses, George Bush Sr had big shoes to fill. Ronald Reagan had been incredibly popular, a transformative voice in Republicanism and what it meant. In others, all heâd need to do was be compos mentis in public and heâd be an improvement. Reaganâs faculties were not at full capacity by the end. The inheritance, while not in the bag, looked relatively secure. By the end of 1989, the Cold War was effectively over. George Bush Sr got to build what came nextâan awesome responsibility, which the American public judged him unfit to perform after a single term.
Bush Sr was the President that tiptoed American forces out there. According to some sources, Saddam Hussein thought he had the green light to invade Kuwait. Hindsight shows he did not, even if he was told he did.
Bill Hicks once said of Bush Sr:
âEveryone thought he was going to be a wimp President.
WIMP PRESIDENT!
Turns out heâs a fucking demon.â
Bush Sr laid the groundwork for the next four administrations, either by pissing the people off so much that Clinton got in or through the fruit of his own loins in chimp-son Dubya.
Few impact the political landscape so much yet sound so inconsequential in person.
Bubble Bobble is perhaps the earliest example of an electronic surveillance society wrapped in acceptable packaging.
Playing as one of two cute dinosaurs, the arcade game watches you from the start â tracking how much youâve moved, how often youâve opened your mouth, how many times youâve hit rock bottom, and just how many bad decisions youâve made along the way.
Big Bubble Bobble Brother.
The soundtrack comprises mainly of one earworm of a tune. Once heard â never forgotten.
Anyone who has ever played the game will be hearing this tune in their heads right now. Itâs that catchy.
The Soviets, mightily impressed with the demonstration, developed their own variant called Trotsky Twatsky â somewhat missing the point, and ultimately banned for factional reasons.
Well said. Muslim men traditionally regard their wives as their property, and the fact theyâve emigrated to a country which doesnât share that view is irrelevant. They should be free to treat their bints however they see fit, itâs none of our business if they order them to cover their faces and walk six feet behind them. Our notions of gender equality shouldnât apply to anyone who disagrees with them, and anyone who says otherwise is a genocidal fascist.
My issue here is that simply rejecting the idea of a ban doesnât go far enough. Itâs reasonable for Muslim men to expect women to cover their faces, after all, they were brought up in that environment, so the burqa (or similar, lets not be unreasonable,) should be compulsory for all UK women, not just those of the Islamic faith. As things stand, Muslim men in the UK are being cruelly exposed to the female face on a daily basis. They canât be expected to control their reactions to this blatant temptation, and nobody can blame them if they get a bit touchy-feely when confronted with the naked faces of these whores of Babylon.
As a footnote, itâs worth remembering that covering the face in public was banned in 2011 by those notorious enemies of civil rights, the French. Itâs no wonder Muslim expatriates are so keen to swiftly get through that veritable Sodom and Gomorrah and into the safety of the UK, where they are free to preserve their dignity by covering their womenâs faces and treating them in any way they see fit. Vive le Burqa!!
They are somewhat behind the curve on the equal treatment of women, but letâs not forget that most things you can level at Islam can also be levelled at other religions, either poiting to the past or indeed, present adherents who take it way too seriously.
Ask yourself why brides get given away at weddings by their dads.
It comes from exactly the same place. Women were seen as the property of men, and that ritual specifically is about one man giving his property away to another.
The United Kingdom â like many other countries â has a profound housing crisis. Limited supply and rising demand push both rents and house prices ever upward, leaving first-time buyers and lifelong renters caught in the middle.
Buy-to-let as a practice adds no tangible value to society beyond whatever proceeds end up in the landlordâs pocket. Perhaps some landlords donate it all to orphanages and worthy causes. Most just use it to buy more property.
This is a subject where effing and jeffing would make little difference, so Iâll just say two things:
You are literally making your money off the insecurity of others.
There should be a one-property law â the one you live in.
Such a law would save billions in housing benefit and countless sick-bags from being used whenever buy-to-let landlords act like theyâre doing it out of altruism.
