As much as Doom makes some interesting comments regarding this, I very much think we should avoid making the sex industry equivalent to other industries, because it simply isn't. Germany came close to falling into this trap a few years back, when prostitution was legalised and an effort was made to ...

Illegal doesn't work. What you can do is regulate the life out of it. Insist on obvious wearing of condoms for "health and safety", make the buying of it extremely awkward to "protect minors", insist that all US based porn studios employ an advisor on gender equality and dignity in the workplace to ...

I am amazed that terms such as "draft dodger" are still in use in the US, especially as a criticism over avoiding bloody stupid wars like Vietnam. If Trump and Bush did indeed find a cunning way to avoid that conflict it was likely the best decision they ever made and is more a sign of their suitabi...

So the other thought of this OP was do you think there is any agenda by the US or NATO to see Russias total collapse in this war? I doubt it. There may be a few elderly generals still around with dreams of crushing the old enemy, but the reality is that the total collapse of Russia isn't something ...

If the flag of Luxembourg flew over Moscow, would anyone notice it'd changed?

Fair enough. Cheers for the clarification

Most likely outcome, Ukraine sits by while Russia disentigrates, until a strong man rises to replace Putin. That is a rather optimistic outlook. If Russia does disintegrate it seems more likely that we'd end up with several rival unpredictable nuclear powers with chips on their shoulders and little...

They don't. There is no pathway to such an eventuality. Western support would cease at the first hint of it, and a Russian victory would likely follow. Besides which if Ukraine were to somehow move forces against any Russian cities Kiev would find itself wiped off the map.

Major, you're still with us! Top tip for strawberries... Raised platforms around 4ft high, and if you don't want to be fancy you can plant them straight into grow bags. Keeps most of slugs away (not sure what Australian slugs are like, but based on the rest of the country I imagine they can jump and...

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I think Jamie is fundamentally wrong on whatever the subject of this thread turns out to be. I'd also like to say the same thing again but using slightly different words in an effort to give the argument some weight.

It's probably worth defining what you mean by homeless (by common definitions used by UK charities in order to make the problem look larger than it really is, I was homeless for quite some time. And it was a pretty great time, for that matter, during which I needed no additional help and was very ha...

Surely there is a TV series about you already? It just airs on Nickelodeon, rather than Netflix ;-) (I'm joking Brain, hope you are doing well!). You say that, but brainbomb is infinitely more entertaining when things are going tits up. And everything going generally well doesn't lend itself to tel...

VillageIdiot wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:38 am

I'm back! What did I miss?

Balki's been having far too much fun

Don't ever change, Jamie

Now let us continue with this gloriously irrelevant waste of time!

With all due respect, Ireland has always been something of an anomaly as far as politics goes. No other nation, to my knowledge, has managed to create a system with two dominant parties where both parties are centre - right. I don't think that it makes for a particularly good yardstick to measure Eu...

To answer only the title question. Green Parties have refelcted a broader concern about the environment and forced every other political party (worth their salt) to have an environmental policy. Which wasn't always the case. I'm not sure about the idea of an Overton window but just by talking about...

Diplomacy player?

Yeah, which if true seems to be an extremely short sighted policy. The visuals of protesters doing battle with open cast coal miners whilst the Greens bat for the wrong side has the potential to do them massive harm. And all for the sake of promises of jam in the future? If the Greens are punished f...

As for your first question, I believe I'm right in saying that European Green parties are far more closely linked than typical political parties. Or at least that's always been my perception. Regardless, the behaviour of one will impact on all.

In this case it sounds to me like the German greens are very much the third-placed partner in the so-called "traffic light" coalition, and are being forced into a very difficult position here. It does indeed sound like that, and yet that's not really true. In previous coalitions (back around the tu...