New Alternative News Channel "GB News" chaired by Andrew Neil launching - read OP before posting

I mean, you could claim the right are "winning" if you count the broadly right-of-centre makeup of many of the ruling parties across Europe; but then you can be fiscally right of centre while espousing broadly liberal social agendas - as we have arguably seen with our own Fine Gael government: a cabinet that stood over the introduction of same-sex marriage & abortion services ... but you'd have to be either naive or a Bad Faith actor to claim Varadkar's leanings were fiscally or structurally liberal.

And that's before you even factor in the plain reality that what counts as "liberal" in the US - is broadly centrist to left-leaning in the EU - and nowhere near as outrageous.

Common Sense Conservatism doesn't care for cultural hills to die on - claiming otherwise is daft, and "common sense" by its nature would be pragmatic on these issues anyway - as said, see Fine Gael. What GB News is trying to do is adopt the position of American politics in its tribalisation of every possible social issue - including what should be a unifying item in a bleedin' pandemic. And as the statistics clearly show, this isn't working - even in a country whose own political culture was already more aligned with the US to begin with.

Oh I was being a little facetious, with the intent on highlighting that as broad trends go, we already have fairly right-wing power structures - the point then to also highlight just how disingenuous the claims of "common sense conservatism" are, when we already have that common sense to a degree. It's just when the mask slips it's really about adding a facade of legitimacy to brazen 'phobias and prejudice.

I didn't think I'd hit my 40s and still be the raging liberal, left-wing type that I was in my youth; but trends across recent years, our increased indulgence of corporations has hardened my resolve, not weakened it. As you say, a lot of conservatism now acts as a mask to gut the Social Democratic norms we took for granted, all in the false narrative of "cutting waste", or the myth of privatised efficiency (correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the UK's train service has been a disaster because of privatisation?). The latest poison of course being the obscene idea that our own ability to make a stable wage has become commodified - gamified really - through the obnoxiously titled "gig economy". And with a globalised workforce, the ability to unionise as a response has now evaporated too; 'cos a corporation only then needs to move its department to Malaysia or wherever.

Sorry, that's getting way off topic but, argh. Eat the rich TBH.

"There are some exceptions, of course. Junior doctors ...". And you, apparently. Right? You among this resting horde of layabouts and lazy-bones eh? You who works tirelessly while the rest idle? I'm amazed you managed to pull yourself (by the bootstraps no doubt) away from such infectious work-shy demographics as those you seem confident to dismiss en masse. No statistics needed apparently, only resignation the world isn't to your personal standard.

The hubris is almost impressive; while your comment that "... those in the service industry may work, but it's certainly not hard work" speaks for itself. I'd speculate if you have even worked a service job but sure who could prove otherwise? And my instinct to assume projection on your part would make me as reductive.

That you would deny or dismiss basic decent worker rights, because the prickling of your thumbs suggests others around you don't work as hard? Impressive levels of hubris. To say again, your attitude amounts to Fúck you, I've got mine.

Are you a hard worker? You feel confident enough to dismiss and condemn the working demographics of Ireland for having the temerity to work in an office. You sound like that Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch TBH. And you're also moved on to dismissing people's recreational time too? Yes dear eskimo, it's hubris to presume to know the minds and activities of whole peoples for the purposes of your personal political motivations and biases.

It also feels curious to be this reductive while posting on Boards, during the daytime. I guess you're not busy? I mean, I'm not. I'll pay for this idle chatter by crunching later in the day but that's my poor time management, not an issue of workload or workshy'ness.

Or maybe it is just projection. You should get back to work though, wouldn't want people to think you're lazy.

I don't follow your posts religiously but thank you for confirming then; so because you have a bad work ethic you presume the rest of us do? You can't even perceive the logical fallacy at play here? It's fairly cut and dry. Maybe fix your own problem instead of condemning a nations workforce to paper your own inadequacies. People work hard, and the wealth inequality gap is real.