Random Arsenal Shit (When it's not worth starting a thread)

[Letters]

The point is there is a power imbalance or perceived one in counsellor-client relationships

Well sure, but that's not the context I'm talking about. I'm just talking about a conversation between two people.

what I’m saying is maybe consider why you want to know.

I just think understanding how people arrive at decisions or beliefs is inherently interesting. It tells you something about the person.

the level of contempt and vitriol directed at people for voting the wrong way in the referendum was largely one way traffic.

Well, of course it was. The losing side were butt-hurt. And the result meant a big change in the country, the other result wouldn't have meant any change.
But I agree the level of it was an over-reaction, that's the modern internet-fuelled world for you.

The Brexit vote was incredibly divisive, the tribalism I was talking about is a set of Labour voters and a set of Conservative voters. I don't think that's anywhere near as entrenched in this country as in the US with the Republicans and Democrats.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I think there are some issues where right and wrong is pretty clear.
I don't think Brexit is one of them, it is complicated.
But there are definitely better and worse ways of arriving at a decision.

Carefully researching the issue, the history of the EU, our relationship with it, the benefits and drawbacks of membership, arriving at a conclusion: good.
Believing a bus or a coin-flip: bad.

Right and Wrong is still placing a heavy moral imperative on the issue

Is it more desirable to be informed on an issue than uninformed yeah. But I’m not sure I follow the right or wrong binary

Ultimately it comes down to how much time you have to study an issue. To get an informed and objective view of the EU warts and all…that to paraphrase Oscar Wilde would take too many evenings. I know operationally how the EU works, I know it’s history, I know our history within the organisation when it went from being the European Coal and Steel community to the EEC/EC (also known as the common market) to its reorganisation as the EU in the early 1990s.

Like any monolithic bureaucracy, it’s slow to adapt and ultimately its stated end goal is a single European state. I don’t regard this as a sinister thing in of itself but I think it’s a rather untenable goal. Even if for no better reason than that economic inequality and global harmonisation are inextricably linked in perception and in some ways in fact.

I think greater centralisation of authority often causes more problems than it solves. Certain shared regulations, pooling of resources etc is fine but in many senses the movement of people is to greater autonomy and independence rather than being subsumed into one vast entity

If you believe what is written on a bus, how much of that is your fault for being credulous and how much of that is it the fault of a system that doesn’t have tighter regulations on what can and cannot be claimed by campaigns.


The problem is with the 350 million (the net contribution was more about 200-250 million) is that it was misleading rather than an outright lie (with the exception of the figure). It’s not what it says but what it doesn’t say, that the contributions we paid in often came back in the form of subsidies.

The 350 million number would also represent about 10% of our current weekly NHS spending, which would be a helpful weekly addition. I think ultimately you have to argue that blaming people for believing something that was misleading and manipulative, isn’t quite the same as believing you’ve won the Spanish lottery or you’re the sole beneficiary of the will of an exiled Afghan prince.

[HCZ_Reborn]

As for the tribal divide between Republicans and Democrats in the US, it doesn’t really exist…not in the partisan way you’re thinking.

It’s largely what used to be a divide between Conservatives and Liberals and what has now become Right Wing populists and Progressives (conservatives aren’t really conservative anymore and liberals sure as hell aren’t liberal)

A lot of lefty progressives don’t really like The Democrat party just as a lot of the left in this country don’t like Labour

I think because of Trump there’s probably more direct affinity between right wingers and the GOP, but the GOP is largely a cult of personality, thus why it seems to me at least implausible that Trumpism survives Trump because it’s not a coherent political philosophy…it’s largely defined and unified by who they hate or to be specific otherise.

It’s also why Trump is flirting with a third term (I think it’s partly trolling but his ego and narcissism is far too vast not to entertain the idea), and in terms of Republican politics Trump is the only show in town.

[Letters]

Just in case you need to start preparing for the festivities, Thursday will be St Totteringham's Day if Spurs fail to beat Chelsea.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Just in case you need to start preparing for the festivities, Thursday will be St Totteringham's Day if Spurs fail to beat Chelsea.

So what you’re saying is St Totteringham’s day will be on April 3rd ?

[Letters]

So what you’re saying is St Totteringham’s day will be on April 3rd ?

Yes. Yes it will

[dazthegooner]

Something for the spuds to celebrate https://shewore.com/2025/04/02/celeb...a-london-club/

[Mac76]

Something for the spuds to celebrate https://shewore.com/2025/04/02/celeb...a-london-club/

I didn't know that about their only being in London since 1965 - and they've got the cheek to tell us to go back to Woolwich, they should eff off back to Middlesex

[KSE Comedy Club]

Gabriel out for the rest of the season with hammy injury.

[Letters]