A prince, an ambassador, senior diplomats, top politicians. All brought down by the Jeffrey Epstein files. And all in Europe, rather than the United States.
The huge trove of Epstein documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice has sent shock waves through Europe’s political, economic and social elites — dominating headlines, ending careers and spurring political and criminal investigations.
Former U.K. Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was fired and could go to prison. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a leadership crisis over the Mandelson appointment. Senior figures have fallen in Norway, Sweden and Slovakia. And, even before the latest batch of files, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles III, lost his honors, princely title and taxpayer-funded mansion.
I thought these changes were still in the proposal stage? They are bad though and I disagree with them.
I don’t disagree with anything else you’ve listed. I’m just struggling to see how any of that is worse than what 14 years of a Tory government provided? On top of a ruined economy, failing public services, huge NHS waiting times etc. they also introduced the 9k tuition fees.
Are you a UK citizen? If so are you a particularly young one?
Because I can tell you now that if you were of voting age living through those Tory governments and you were living in the country, as me, you would be far more bitter about the 14 years of turning our country to shit than a year and a half of an incompetent slightly authoritarian Labour government.
The majority of people would say the same. The Tories were voted out by a sweeping majority in 2024 because of this. UK citizens loathed the party and a good deal many still do, hence the rise of Reform.
I understand why you are angry at Starmer’s government and your criticisms are fair, but I do not at all believe that your opinion that his government, over one and a half years, has been worse than the previous 14 years of Tory governance is founded on anything tangible whatsoever.
No I am an american and it pisses me off I seem to be angrier about changes in the homeland than you guys are.
Jury trials, right to protest, are bedrock, non negotiable values, that your politicians are the first in the west to cancel them should be a concern, not the least as the first to adopt these rights.
I see. A lot of people do see it as concerning. We’ll see if it actually goes ahead. Many people have made their opposition to it clear.
How do you feel about the current state of your own country and the values that seem to be at threat there, if I may ask?
Locking down the internet is a huge deal too, they are setting up every ip, every account, connected to a name and face and connected with all other information running it through half baked ai threat detection by companies like palantir to make secret social scores to determine everything. Not just there, everywhere, all this age verification, chatcontrol, it’s trojan horses, (or trojan sheep as the case may be,) to employ these new ai tools, to surrender the population to tech for a cut of the information, which will surrender your information to the US as well make no mistake. Obviously yours in the UK is “ours” already my special partner!
Very concerned here obviously as one would guess. We are fucked, I don’t want to see Europe also fall to fascists that have every intention of fixing elections for the worst people in the world to remain in permanent control. We will be helping your fascists, secretly and openly, any confidential communications with other candidates, scandals, etc, you should presume the US is sharing with the fascists to help them win, it doesn’t matter how much starmer strokes off the president. All of these changes starmer makes are guarenteeing “reform” gets the vote for reform, just as the Republicans did here, as “our” politicians, labour and the democrats, are running as status quo and deeply unpopular and not trying to be popular.
The west is going to fall like dominoes barring some real leadership that is not forthcoming because we somehow still trust the controlled opposition of the oligarchs that have captured all of our parties. The far right backed by Putin and now the US are the only ones running as reform, as populist albeit more fake populist as they are mostly scapegoating.
We need real leaders now, even if in just one country, in the UK, in Europe, it can spread.
Sorry, what? In the UK? I don’t believe that for a second, unless you have some irrefutable evidence for that. I could write an essay about why that’s not true.
If that is happening it is by the design of the technology made by someone like Peter Thiel. The UK government would never knowingly allow such a thing to happen. There’s no benefit and they risk being ejected from government if found out. It sounds ridiculous to be honest, sorry.
Likewise! I am very concerned just how easily the US has fallen to the right wing spell. Steve Bannon has been shown in the Epstein files as linked to helping all sorts of right wing parties in Europe, including Reform. Luckily we at least have more stringent campaign funding rules that America’s “spend what you want”.
That is the price America pays for ultimate freedom of speech. It is lauded as the peak of democracy there, yet that very protection is used to guarantee unlimited financing of political campaigns by PACS and the elite. It’s actually a weapon turned against the people. But yeah. Freeeedom.
Not if citizens are wise to the manipulation tactics used i.e. social media. Many here are becoming aware. Rules are becoming more stringent. I have hope. Reform tend to do well in the less educated sectors of society. If we can educate them then they will see them for what they are. They thrive in poorer areas too. If the economy gets back to prospering then again, they will fade.
Mark Carney. His Davos speech was excellent. My hope os he starts taking the lead more with middle powers holding firm in the face of economic bullying from superpowers.
America and China cannot survive alone. They need the middle powers still, just less than the middle ones individually need them. As a collective though they have power.
My hope is the ties between EU countries grow stronger, hopefully we rejoin soon and we become a collective force.
That or Trump passes away amd MAGA fade into civil war. That would be nice.
I sense a dangerous level of willful disbelief. Things in the UK and EU are going to get worse. The fascists don’t follow rules, and most of your politicians have the same weaknesses as our controlled opposition.
Do not be complacent, because they are already in your midst with blades to your throats. They are preparing to cut.
Disbelief of what? That the UK government is keeping secret social scores on it’s citizens? Yeah. Until I see evidence of that.
They are starting to police the internet more though. I personally think that’s due to the huge amounts of misinformation used to manipulate the public via social media. I.e. The Southport Riots which were inflamed by spreading of lies about immigrants.
This is probably an unpopular opinion here but I think there should be more control. Peoples view of reality is being completely distorted by the internet and what they see and read. It will only get worse with AI and deepfakes. I personally think it does need more policing. There is a good documentary called "Hypernormalisation’ by Adam Curtis that explores the reality distortion we experience. It is worth watching.
My political views are that one of governments main duties is to protect citizens from harm. That includes protecting them from business malpractices from social media companies and foreign influencers looking to destabilise the population. I believe our government should take action to prevent harm from those.
I am not being wilfully ignorant of what they are doing. I support it. That may make me unpopular here but so be it. I stand by that belief. I will change it if I am presented with tangible evidence of things like social ratings for citizens or nefarious uses of peoples information. I haven’t seen any this far though. Feel free to send some if you have any.
Are you for age (ID) verification? Are you fine with no channels of privacy? Do you support things like chat control in the EU?
If you do, then you are blind to how these people think and operate.
Without answering all your points yet, you don’t believe they are locking down the internet, doesn’t speak well to your undertanding
You should know it’s already been locked down in the UK for a long time, not just by Palantir either, over ten years, going on 20 really. But what they are doing now is different, and this information will be accessible to more groups of people, and is being done to utilize new technology that didn’t exist back then.
I seriously think we are being dosed with some toxin making us trusting and docile because previous generations never would’ve stood for this.
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No, I believe they are policing the internet more than previously. The part I definitely don’t believe is your idea that they are using this information to make secret social scores on citizens. That’s a dystopian fantasy in my view.
Aside from introducing age verification checks do you have any evidence that it’s being “locked down”? You’re right in that my understanding is limited as I’m only aware of what our government has passed into law, not what people think is happening.
If you have some article or evidence that helps explain it I would be grateful.