My entire point is that their appeal to hearts and minds is predicated on those prejudices how is it self-contradictory to then admit that these prejudices exist? To say that the only people appealing to people's emotions and thought processes instead of calculated self-interest are social liberals is ridiculous and…

He can't but that's not particularly relevant. I think we'd both agree that his skin colour is largely irrelevant here because the federal government is at the very least community neutral though I'd be more likely to say (and I assume you'd agree) that it's institutionally white.

And yet they win these votes. Don't be so patronising as to assume that everyone who votes Republican is a knuckle dragging fool. If you're working class and in the heartland, you may as well vote for the people who'll ship your jobs overseas but share your prejudice instead of the people who'll ship your jobs…

I agree with the theory, but I think you're being remarkably un-nuanced about that. What about places where the dominant political machine is based in the black community? Power and its exercise is stratified in hundreds of different ways from personal interactions to the president and there are situations where power…

This is an advert from a couple of years ago on that:

I'd add a slight addition, though but don't hang me for it. In my UK university experience at least being drunk, for both men and women, meant you entered a sort of liminal zone where sexual behaviour which would otherwise be judged was considered all in good fun. That's problematic in certain ways but I think it's…

Really? Did all the Home Office ads from previous years not run north of the border?

One person's attempt to kick the issue into the long grass is another person's stepping stone. Clinton obviously intended this to be a stepping stone (it was, after all, a tactical retreat from open service) and the right acquiesced because they were too weak to stop all movement and appreciated a delay at the very…

They do care about hearts and minds and I think that is why they've been so successful. It's important to recognise that during the 80s and 90s on a host of sexual issues the US population actually became *more* conservative and this was in large part due to the success of the right in persuading people that their…

I'm with you on the first bits but how exactly did Thatcher/Major fuck with abortion? The limit was cut from 28 weeks to 24 weeks in 1990, but that was a result of medical advice and not knee-jerk social conservativsm.

To be fair, there are probably few places *less* "risque" than a campus university in the UK.

They did reduce the limit in 1990 from 28 weeks to 24 weeks, but from what I can gather that was because of medical advice as to when a child can survive outside of the womb.

The law is bent to the extent that in a number of places one doctor just signs a big wad of forms for the abortion which the second doctor who actually conducts the examination/talk/whatever signs.

But one these issues you don't need approval from the PM, if you see what I mean. He's allowed just express his opinions, just like every cabinet minister has since the 60s. There's never been a cabinet with an enforced stance and even government policy is open for an opt-out. He'd be getting a bollocking if he said…

Yep, abortion is in practice available on demand but for those who're a bit squeamish about the entire thing the bureaucratic hoops that need to be jumped through calm a few nerves. A rather nice compromise, I feel.

Thing is, abortion - like a couple of other issues - is traditionally unwhipped and detached from issues of confidence, so he's actually free to express his opinion on this despite the usual rules.

Well, by on the streets I mean homeless. By a lot more, I mean in comparison to London/the rest of Europe and by mental issues I mean beyond run-of-the-mill issues and into being evidently troubled. I don't have stats to hand, but in New York it seems that a lot of people begging are mentally ill but in London…

No, it's totally legal to record and photograph the police.

I wouldn't say this approach is good, but it is noticeable that the United States has a lot more people with mental issues on the streets. Is there just a lack of capacity or are mental health services in the US really not integrated into other services like policing/housing/social insurance?

I'd say talking to him about it, getting him to delete it and then letting him still come to the university is probably appropriate.