frankPodmore
@frankPodmore@slrpnk.net
London-based writer. Often climbing.
- Submitted 3 days ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 0 comments
- Rape victims in England and Wales to be protected from ‘serial liar’ trope in legal shake-upwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 0 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 5 comments
- Comment on Nimby Watch: Nimbys hate your children 1 week ago:
Every small town/village has loads of kids hanging out in supermarket carparks. It is, as you say, bleak.
- Comment on Nimby Watch: Nimbys hate your children 1 week ago:
That is really upsetting! Those old housing estates get a bad rap (sometimes justified), but it’s noticeable that they’re the only inner city neighbourhoods where kids still play outside regularly, precisely because they’re designed with pedestrians rather than cars in mind.
- Submitted 1 week ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 6 comments
- Comment on Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui 2 weeks ago:
I think if it’s true that he’s a racist - and it is - it’s worth saying it. In addition there are two instrumental reasons we should say it.
First, Farage’s whole schtick has been to say: ‘You can oppose immigration without being a racist’ and the related argument ‘You shouldn’t be called a racist just because you want less immigration’. Proving that he is, himself, a racist makes both arguments deeply suspect.
It also more broadly crystallises what’s evil about him for those of us who already hate him (most people!) and shows exactly why he needs to be kept out of power at all costs. If I’m in a swing seat at the next election (currently safe Labour but will there be anywhere safe by 2029?) this is the kind of thing that will make me go ‘I don’t have to like it - and I don’t - but I’m voting for Lib Dems/Greens/whoever is best placed to beat this guy’.
- Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedguiwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 6 comments
- ‘It fully changed my life!’ How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movementwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 0 comments
- Comment on Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why? 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, that’s it: you can get some of that stuff from some fruits, but you’re looking at a lot of avocados!
Bacteria synthesise B12 inside various animals. Even our gut flora synthesise it, but they do it too far down our digestive system to be useful!
- Comment on Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why? 3 weeks ago:
You can’t live on fruit alone because you need vitamin B12, which you can only get from animal products or supplements. Fruit is generally low in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, all of which you need to live!
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 13 comments
- Comment on 'It's Time for a Debate About Who Owns Our Media' Says Leader of the UK's Trade Union Movement 4 weeks ago:
The TUC should start a newspaper (online, presumably, but that’s not the point) again, like the Daily Herald used to be, and do podcasts etc., as well as having a joined up social media strategy. There needs to be a worker-backed alternative to the corporate news and just the odd little co-op here and there doesn’t cut it (great though those are).
- 'It's Time for a Debate About Who Owns Our Media' Says Leader of the UK's Trade Union Movementbylinetimes.com ↗Submitted 4 weeks ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 4 comments
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 1 comment
- Comment on Is it possible to be a leftist, but still really enjoy capitalism? 1 month ago:
Aside from your odd definition of capitalism and its outcomes, which other people have addressed, the answer to the headline question is: yes.
Karl Marx, for example, is famously very critical of what he saw as the inherent exploitation in capitalism. He believed that you could not have capitalism without exploitation and that it was therefore an unethical system that should be defeated and superseded by a new economic system without exploitation. He also held that capitalism was inherently contradictory and that it therefore not only should be destroyed, but that it must be destroyed.
However: even Marx acknowledged that capitalism was an enormous improvement on the previously existing social system of feudalism, because it also produced far greater wealth through the development of new technology (this is a key difference between Marxism and the earlier ‘utopian socialism’, which saw technology itself as an evil, and which his theories largely replaced).
Marx also welcomed the fact that capitalism destroyed (as he saw it) some earlier forms of oppression (albeit while introducing new ones). Marx’s letter to Abraham Lincoln congratulating him on his re-election discusses the American Revolution and Civil War in precisely these terms.
So, you can enjoy the greater (obviously not ‘infinite’!) abundance of goods that capitalism has produced, you can acknowledge its positive impact on technological development and its material improvements of the lives of millions of people and be not only a leftist but a fully orthodox Marxist… just so long as you also acknowledge that capitalism is also an exploitative and self-destructive force that should, can and must be defeated.
- Comment on £6 million repaid to workers as Government cracks down on employers underpaying their staff 1 month ago:
This is very good, although I do think they should also jail some of the thieves!
- Comment on Trans adults waiting on average 25 years for NHS gender clinic appointments 1 month ago:
It’s okay, I’m not super-fussed about it happening as a one-off, more intended as a ‘for the future’ reminder. The rule’s mainly there to make sure people don’t spam about their hobby horses, and this obviously isn’t that!
Obviously there’s a grey area with ‘UK’ vs. ‘UK politics’. I’d say this is more ‘UK’, whereas an article about a parliamentary or governmental response to the same would be ‘UK politics’, if that makes sense.
Please do keep posting stuff!
- Comment on Trans adults waiting on average 25 years for NHS gender clinic appointments 1 month ago:
This is a very important topic, but please in future observe the rule as stated in the sidebar:
Please don’t post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk. Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
- Comment on Two dead after suspected terror attack on Manchester synagogue, police say, with suspect shot by officers – latest 2 months ago:
This is a developing story and one thing we don’t know yet is anything at all about the attacker. Any posts speculating about this or spreading rumours will be removed as will anything excusing, downplaying or minimising the attack.
- Comment on Kemi Badenoch pledges to scrap UK climate law 2 months ago:
While I wish Labour were further from the Conservatives and Reform on immigration and trans rights, this is one serious difference between the parties that really matters.
- Two dead after suspected terror attack on Manchester synagogue, police say, with suspect shot by officers – latestwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 2 comments
- Comment on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Drops Official First Look Teaser Trailer 4 months ago:
They wouldn’t put this tease in the trailer if they weren’t actually bringing Him back, right?
Right?
- Comment on [deleted] 6 months ago:
Heh. Yeah, I can’t really hold up a country backsliding on trans rights as an example of an effective constitutional monarchy.
- Comment on [deleted] 6 months ago:
I think taking a broad view, there are quite a lot of constitutional monarchies that are really great places to live (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, the Bahamas, Japan, to name a few). There are also quite a lot of republics that can claim the same. So, from a sort of human development POV, I don’t think it really matters very much.
Sure, monarchies are a bit daft but I think ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is quite a good rule. Especially since spending time on fixing things that ain’t broke is time you could be spending on fixing things that are broke. I live in the UK and we have a lot of major problems that need our attention. It’s better to focus on those than have a big argument about the King when, as we can see from international comparisons, the King isn’t really the issue.
- Submitted 7 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 8 comments
- Comment on New forest to be created in west of England, with 20m trees planted by 2050 8 months ago:
The Newer Forest.
Always makes me laugh that the ‘New’ Forest is getting on for a thousand years old.
- Comment on Why do news articles and such call the governments of countries/groups of countries after the capital? 8 months ago:
Yes, very useful for subtle distinctions like this!
- Comment on Why do news articles and such call the governments of countries/groups of countries after the capital? 8 months ago:
Yes, it’s metonymy, as people have said. You also get it in similar contexts where people will name a building such as ‘the White House’ or ‘[10] Downing Street’ to refer to the governments of the US or the UK.
- Submitted 8 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 6 comments