[Boiler]

Today's "isn't Starmer the worst?" is that he's pronounced himself "open minded on banning social media for under 16s.

I've looked at the European context of this issue.

https://www.euractiv.com/news/to-ban-or ... or-minors/

The map rather looks like the UK is some sort of libertarian outlier. Except it isn't. Lots of those shaded countries are just banning phones in schools, which is the same as the UK. There's also a fair bit of collecting evidence. The idea that everyone else is banning it and we're not "because tech lobbyists" isn't that obvious.

Anyway, I thought that the Government's problem was that it was "authoritarian". One man's authoritarian is another man's "taking tough and necessary action", evidently. And I thought the porn ban was widely ridiculed as a joke because kids just get a VPN? As indeed they can. So what's the difference here?

Well, if the insufferable pricks BTL vote for the left-wing Farage at the next GE and help get the real deal into Government, they'll really have summat to roar about, won't they...?

(As will the rest of us)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Has Zack actually done anything on the London Assembly? It's not the most powerful body, but there's a platform there for practical proposals. Yet I've not heard a word about his performance there. Seems odd.

[davidjay]

They're going down the Cult route of not getting exactly every toy they wanted so they'll smash the ones they do get.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Can anyone see any reports in The Guardian of waiting lists failing?

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/02/wait ... on-record/

I can't see any, even though this came out last week.

It's not a particularly fast improvement, and lots of it comes from Trusts following up more cases than before and finding they don't need treatment But a fall is a fall, shouldn't we want to hear about it? I think we'd hear about it if it was going up.

Sky News have a good report on it from Daniel Dunford. Shame they prefer to push the usual rubbish as their main political news.

https://news.sky.com/story/nearly-one-f ... y-13506698

[soulboy]

An article by Phil Mongredien.

The hill I will die on: ‘Being a DJ’ isn’t a proper job

In which Phil tells us that "boil it down and all they’re doing for such vast sums of money is quite competently playing music that somebody else actually created. They are proficient labourers rather than artists."

Phil Mongredien is a production editor on Guardian Opinion and Long Reads

I'm sure that Phil quite competently rearranges words that someone else has created, but what a way to steal a paycheck.

[Andy McDandy]

There's a certain type of opinion column that goes "To hell with [opinion nobody voiced], I will [do something incredibly uncontroversial] and no right/left wing rent-a-mob is going to stop me!".

Julie Burchill, for example, has been making a living out of it for almost 50 years.

[Boiler]

Good God, is Squeaky still scribbling?

[Andy McDandy]

Yes. The I, for all its good points, seems to specialise in platforming people with absolutely nothing of relevance or interest to say.

[Boiler]

Yes. The I, for all its good points, seems to specialise in platforming people with absolutely nothing of relevance or interest to say.

<cough> Adrian Chiles </cough>

[Boiler]

Spotted BTL: I wonder how long this post will last?

Screenshot 2026-02-17 at 10-22-38 Reform UK no longer ‘one-man band’ Farage says as he prepares to announce ‘shadow cabinet’ appointments – UK politics live.png (75.89 KiB) Viewed 261 times

[Tubby Isaacs]

Here's the lead story on UK News.

Cheshire council leaders urged to resign after proposing new town without local support
Opposition councillor says 20,000-home development in Adlington put forward with ‘no consultation, no scrutiny’

Sounds like the leader of the council agreed the proposal with his supporters, and didn't consult the opposition. Ok, that's not very good. So run it through a better process and we might get homes, is that the thrust of the article?

Uh, no, It's not those houses, not here. And "urban sprawl"- you know what's urban sprawl? Where lots of people live, and where lots of other people would like to live.

Critics have said it is the wrong type of housing in the wrong area, and it would create unnecessary “urban sprawl”. The leader of Stockport council likened it to someone in Westminster “throwing a dart at a map”.

Unlike other new town proposals, the plan was designed by private developers Belport, rather than a local authority.

“This is our home, and it’s now in somebody else’s hands – I think the whole village is fairly traumatised. None of us know where we stand. It’s really worrying for a lot of people,” said Aysha Hawcutt, who has lived in Adlington for 16 years with her husband and two sons.

“It also makes you think, was there betrayal at some level? Who do you trust? What can you believe?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... al-support

[mattomac]

Fuck me, how to make building some homes sound like the building of the Berlin Wall.

[Boiler]

A bypass for a large village got built on the back of a deal with a developer to build 1500 houses near where I used to live.

[Oboogie]

An article by Phil Mongredien.

The hill I will die on: ‘Being a DJ’ isn’t a proper job

In which Phil tells us that "boil it down and all they’re doing for such vast sums of money is quite competently playing music that somebody else actually created. They are proficient labourers rather than artists."

Phil Mongredien is a production editor on Guardian Opinion and Long Reads

I'm sure that Phil quite competently rearranges words that someone else has created, but what a way to steal a paycheck.

This is just another example of "I don't like it so therefore it's worthless", an attitude most people manage to grow out by their 20s, isn't it?
Alternatively, Phil's a failed DJ and has never got over it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think this column is generally light hearted. But it's a bit tiresome, isn't it? Reminds me of John Thompson's Fast Show character, the father of Paul Whitehouse's Brilliant.

Phones? Phones are rubbish. Got something to say, say it to their face. Clowns, clowns are rubbish.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha ha. Tacked in at the end of an editorial on local government.

What Sir Keir needs is a more social democratic, and frankly competent, answer to flatlining living standards and failing public services than he has offered up so far.

They should put up taxes and invest the money in public services. Oh, that's exactly what they have done.