Mod Post: Off Topic Tuesday

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In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

Welp, we had that election in the UK didn't we and, after nine years of Tory rule, government mandated austerity measures, the Brexit fiasco, record levels of child poverty, a shameful rise in the number of people needing to use food banks and creeping privatisation of the NHS, the Tories STILL won by a ****ing landslide, with Boris Johnson with a large and so far obedient majority, now empowered for the next five years to do as he will with Brexit and anything else that takes his fancy.

There's a, probably overly timely, turn of phrase about turkey's voting for Christmas I could use here, but I shall refrain.

This was the Oppositions election to lose, and they certainly did, a combination of radical Left Wing policies, a refusal to commit to a stance on Brexit, and an exceptional level of vilification of the Labour Leader in the media (certainly compared to his opponent, who IS the one who has been found guilty of lying on multiple occasions when in positions of power), as well as a lacklustre performance from the Lib-Dems (Who were at least unequivocal on their Brexit stance) led to collapse at the polls.

It might be speaking to soon to state that this may signal the breakup of the United Kingdom, but it's certainly looking more likely than it has in a long, long time.

Sigh...

And in the US, impeachment moves forward for POTUS 45.

Russia has been banned from all worldwide sporting events for continued doping scandals.

India is facing controversy over new citizenship laws which allows the naturalisation of certain persecuted religious groups, provided they aren't Muslim.

China refused to screen an Arsenal vs Manchester City football match following Arsenal player Mesut Ozil spoke out against the Chinese Government's treatment of their Uighur population and the silence of other Muslim groups abpit the matter.

In a desperate effort to lift my mood, I went searching for something to cheer me up that didn't involve impulse purchases, I did find this amazing photo of a couple of mice seemingly involved in fisticuffs on a London Underground platform which is in the Natural History Museum's competition for best nature photo of the year. A browse through that is very soothing I found.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is released this week so we'll see how that goes.

I've been watching the CW Crisis episodes and I have to say it's been fun, with a special nod to the subtle use of recognisable past musical themes throughout, though whilst I could absolutely see why they used BTAS music cues for Kevin Conroy's appearance, given what we know about Earth 99, it seemed a bit... off. (and Superman the Movie theme being used for the grimmer Kingdom Come Earth of Earth-97 probably wouldn't work if Brandon Routh wasn't doing his best Christopher Reeve ever). I'm not up to Jon Cryer's Luthor episodes in Supergirl yet as I'm watching it as it comes out on UK terrestrial, but I hope he's as much fun in those as he is in this.

And we have a trailer for the movie sequel to Digimon Tri; Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (out Feb 2020 in Japan)

Oh, and would there be interest in an event over the festive season event this year? And if so, any suggestions?

Comments

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

So what happens to Wales if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave?

[owlbrigade1]

Same as now, it is fucked. Although there are enough English settlers in it, enough to sway the Brexit referendum in Wales away from Remain, that it will probably not be given that much of a going over: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/22/english-people-wales-brexit-research.

Actually it is Scotland that is really fucked, at least Northern Ireland can get back in the EU by the backdoor by uniting with the Republic. If Scotland does declare independence from England, then Spain has already gone on record to say it will veto any attempt to join the EU so as to not empower the Catalans again back in Spain. Scotland is stuck being treated as a colony of England, or driven to penury as a small independent European nation that cannot be part of the EU.

I wonder if the SNP will be willing to negotiate some sort of Union with Ireland, or literally anywhere other than our bad neighbours to the south, to get us back into the EU in a way Spain cannot block. God, I hope so.

[gnarll]

Actually, Scotland is, unlike the UK, accommodatable in size and more aligned in economic politics. Scotland could join the EFTA with much less hassle and without Spain having too much of a say about it.

I maintain, of course that the entire mess could be solved by England leaving the UK.