• 0 Posts
  • 89 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 1st, 2024
  • Zombie@feddit.uktoTechnology@lemmy.world•Italy will be the latest country to require age verification for porn sitesEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    Aye, that’s true. My point was just that to claim the UK is Labour party led (in contrast with Italy’s neo-fascists) doesn’t really work as a contrast because they’re not really contrasting. The UK’s current Labour party is authoritarian, pro-capital, pro-austerity, anti-welfare state, anti-immigrant, anti-freedom of expression, anti-protest, anti-democracy, pro-Trump, and (indirectly) pro-Farage.

    They’re not the Labour party any more (although that’s been obvious since 1997 when they rebranded as New Labour) but to those who don’t follow UK politics they still have the marketing of socialists, of pro-welfare state, of being pro-democracy and pro-worker. That is not the case, and they probably have more in common with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, neo-fascist party, than they do with 20th century Labour from which they are so closely associated.

  • Zombie@feddit.uktoTechnology@lemmy.world•Italy will be the latest country to require age verification for porn sitesEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, and went on to enact policies of what became known as the post-war consensus, including the establishment of the welfare state and the nationalisation of 20 per cent of the entire economy.[2] The government’s spell in office was marked by post-war austerity measures; the crushing of pro-independence and communist movements in Malaya; the grant of independence to India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Burma; the engagement in the Cold War against Soviet Communism; and the creation of the country’s National Health Service (NHS).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attlee_ministry

    A number of liberalising social reforms were passed through parliament during Wilson’s first period in government. These included the near abolition of capital punishment, decriminalisation of sex between men in private, liberalisation of abortion law and the abolition of theatre censorship. The Divorce Reform Act 1969 was passed by Parliament (and came into effect in 1971). Such reforms were mostly via private member’s bills on ‘free votes’ in line with established convention, but the large Labour majority after 1966 was undoubtedly more open to such changes than previous parliaments had been.

    The franchise was also extended with the reduction of the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen in 1969.[1]

    While condemning racial discrimination (and adopting legislation to make it an offence)

    Education held special significance for a Labourite of Wilson’s generation, in view of its role in both opening up opportunities for those from working-class backgrounds and enabling Britain to seize the potential benefits of scientific advances. Under the first Wilson government, for the first time in British history, more money was allocated to education than to defence.[2]

    One notable effect was the first entry of women into university education in significant numbers. More broadly, higher education overall was significantly expanded

    Wilson also deserves credit for grasping the concept of an Open University, to give adults who had missed out on higher education a second chance through part-time study and distance learning.

    Campaigns were also launched by the government to encourage people to take up means-tested benefits to which they were entitled to.[9] For instance, a publicity campaign launched by the government increased the fraction of children eligible to get free school meals.[10]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_government,_1964–1970

    Although the 1974–1979 Labour Government faced a number of economic difficulties, it was nevertheless able to carry out a broad range of reforms during its time in office. During Harold Wilson’s final premiership, from 1974 to 1976, a number of changes were carried out such as the introduction of new social security benefits and improvements in the rights of tenants. In March 1974, an additional £2 billion was announced for benefits, food subsidies, and housing subsidies, including a record 25% increase in the state pension. Council house rents were also frozen. Council house building continued on a substantial scale, although there was now a greater emphasis on modernising older properties rather than replacing them with new ones. That year, national insurance benefits were increased by 13%, which brought pensions as a proportion of average earnings “up to a value equivalent to the previous high, which was reached in 1965 as a result of Labour legislation.” In order to maintain the real value of these benefits in the long term, the government introduced legislation which linked future increases in pensions to higher incomes or wages.[10] In 1974–1975, social spending was increased in real terms by 9%. In 1974, pensions were increased in real terms by 14%, while in early 1975 increases were made in family allowances. There were also significant increases in rate and rent subsidies, together with £500 million worth of food subsidies.[11]

    To help those with disabilities, the government introduced an Invalid Care Allowance, a Mobility Allowance, a Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension for those unable to contribute through national insurance, and other measures. To combat child poverty, legislation to create a universal Child Benefit was passed in 1975 (a reform later implemented by the Callaghan government).[13] To raise the living standards of those dependent on national insurance benefits, the government index-linked short-term benefits to the rate of inflation, while pensions and long-term benefits were tied to increases in prices or earnings, whichever was higher.[14]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_government,_1974–1979

  • Zombie@feddit.uktoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•lifespan
    1·
    2 months ago
    1. Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long. But one man is possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by a toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is besotted with wine, another is paralyzed by sloth; one man is exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decision of others, another, driven on by the greed of the trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of gain; some are tormented by a passion for war and are always either bent upon inflicting danger upon others or concerned about their own; some there are who are worn out by voluntary servitude in a thankless attendance upon the great; many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men’s fortune or in complaining of their own; many, following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged by their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have no fixed principle by which to direct their course, but Fate takes them unawares while they loll and yawn—so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: “The part of life we really live is small.”[1] For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time. Vices beset us and surround us on every side, and they do not permit us to rise anew and lift up our eyes for the discernment of truth, but they keep us down when once they have overwhelmed us and we are chained to lust. Their victims are never allowed to return to their true selves; if ever they chance to find some release, like the waters of the deep sea which continue to heave even after the storm is past, they are tossed about, and no rest from their lusts abides. Think you that I am speaking of the wretches whose evils are admitted? Look at those whose prosperity men flock to behold; they are smothered by their blessings. To how many are riches a burden! From how many do eloquence and the daily straining to display their powers draw forth blood! How many are pale from constant pleasures! To how many does the throng of clients that crowd about them leave no freedom! In short, run through the list of all these men from the lowest to the highest—this man desires an advocate,[2] this one answers the call, that one is on trial, that one defends him, that one gives sentence; no one asserts his claim to himself, everyone is wasted for the sake of another. Ask about the men whose names are known by heart, and you will see that these are the marks that distinguish them: A cultivates B and B cultivates C; no one is his own master. And then certain men show the most senseless indignation—they complain of the insolence of their superiors, because they were too busy to see them when they wished an audience! But can anyone have the hardihood to complain of the pride of another when he himself has no time to attend to himself? After all, no matter who you are, the great man does sometimes look toward you even if his face is insolent, he does sometimes condescend to listen to your words, he permits you to appear at his side; but you never deign to look upon yourself, to give ear to yourself. There is no reason, therefore, to count anyone in debt for such services, seeing that, when you performed them, you had no wish for another’s company, but could not endure your own.
    • Seneca the Younger

    https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_shortness_of_life/Chapter_II

    I highly encourage everyone to read these letters by Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, at least once in their life. Preferably earlier than later.

  • Zombie@feddit.uktoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•lifespan
    153·
    2 months ago

    Also known as a coward.

    Time, aging, and death come for us all. We must make peace with that knowledge. This man is incapable of living life, through fear of losing his life.

    I’m gonna go play in some dirt now, and eat raspberries straight from the bush. I know which of us will be enjoying our time on this planet more.