Here is the News.

Just read that right before seeing your post. Horrendous.

I'm supposed to be coming to the UK for a few days next month, but the shit going on has me deeply uninterested in spending money to visit such a shit hole. The right to peaceful protest shouldn't extend to naked racism, and pogroms should be quelled with extreme force.

Honestly, I think it's been over egged a bit in the media. I was talking to my Italian manager about it. Her family have been messaging her about it all, and she agrees on the coverage. She also comments how much of the world should look at their own integration issues - the UK is actually pretty good on the main.

I wouldn't pay to come here at the moment either. I was hoping the worst was over but I saw a video live streamed yesterday evening of a large gang of males walking down a residential street, throwing stones/bricks at windows, one lad using an iron bar to smash every front window he walked past and when one didn't smash he jumped on the car and put his foot through the windscreen instead. I assume they didn't like the people living on that street. So although it's not as bad as it was last weekend (so far) judging by the live streams we're seeing it's still happening in smaller pockets. We are indeed a shi*t hole sadly.

A good (and young) friend of mine is meant to be going to Liverpool on Monday with some friends for a few days and she's really nervous. This weekend might be a teller though, will the sun being out and the football being back see them all busy doing their own thing? Or getting drunk and back out on the streets yelling and breaking things because they're bored.

Hopefully the speed in which they're now being caught, sentenced and locked up will help put a few off.

Is Mangetout OK?

Explains a lot...

Hope the bugger is okay.

Chicago: Speeding through life.

It's pretty awful.
Not a great time generally in NZ at the mo. Rotten government, awful economy, and it's the middle of winter just to make it feel worse. Especially since it's not as cold as we all think it should be.
We're also likely to have race-based protest marches in a few months, because some of the progress in recent years is being wound back, and many Maori (along with, imho, right-thinking Kiwi) are pretty disgusted.

The "rural" marches around the world should have disabused anyone believing in the authenticity of the movement, but it didn't.

Very true. Though I think you might find that propaganda, advertising and marketing work on non-thickos too.

Ha! True enough. It was your choice of word, so I'll let you define it. By non-thickos, I meant absolutely everybody else. Well, at least in respect of advertising and marketing. Propaganda is trickier. One person's propaganda is another person's profound political and philosophical wisdom. A few bright people will spot it, even when they agree with it. Few will escape its influence entirely.