Certainly an act of war from Israel. Good grief, tensions are high over there.

I don't mean that I agree with him, just that I understand what he means. But yes, that is important clarification.

You have good reason to be. I'm just pointing out that you've said the same thing a multitude of times here, and so while I understand the sentiment, it doesn't mean anything to anyone else for you to say it once more. But if you just need to vent and this is your method of doing so, I get that.

I think Jamie's internal record broke.

There you go, Fritz https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9039/CBP-9039.pdf Drug crime stats for England and Wales from the House of Commons Library. Published at the end of 2021 I referenced this source earlier... it states 69,000 arrests for drug crimes in general in 2020/21...

The precise numbers up to 2023 are available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-10-21/10037/ This appears to be the number of people actually incarcerated - which was no more than 448 at the highest in 2011. That may be somewhat useful information, but is...

This source claims that overall, only 27% of those caught are charged: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cannabis-arrests-charges-fall-police-giving-up-drug-policy-uk-a7206036.html But that still leaves the number at somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 a year in recent years, so I'm confus...

Thank you for that information, I wasn't aware that those were separate things.
I'll refine my search.

I don't know how accurate this is, but it tells a different story... You wanted a graph with year by year data, so here y'are: https://www.statista.com/statistics/283103/drugs-in-england-and-wales/ That gives that in the 2022/23 year-long span of recording, there were over 140,000 seizures of cannab...

If it was a "police state", wouldn't nearly all of these people be going to jail irrespective of their actual guilt? In an authoritarian regime you don't normally see large numbers of people, being allegedly oppressed by the state, being found innocent and going free. Police states don't happen ove...

Seriously, are you doing this on purpose? We'll talk about charges and cautions in 2015 and compare them to convictions in 2023? Is it not possible to just compare like with like for once? Are we going to compare them to the numbers interviewed under caution in 2011 next, or number of crimes report...

I've got to say that I agree with Bert here. I can't help but wonder if the Brits in this thread, despite their occasional critique of their own country's government and squabbles about such matters, are suddenly struck with a certain patriotic spirit when a foreigner like the Canadian Bertissimmo d...

Bert raises here what I think is the most important problem with speech restrictions, or restrictions on rights in general. Let's take it another way... I'm a Christian. I believe that everyone should follow the teachings of Christ and the Word of God, the Bible. However, as much as I would love for...

The second should be loudly drowned out in dissent, but still allowed. What if I go up to a group of schoolchildren, let's say aged 9 or 10 years old, and I loudly say " gay men are fucking abominations and should have their dicks cut off with a rusty knife and force fed to them in front of their f...

That last one I don't think should even be classified as a hate speech crime. That seems like it ought to fall under the definition of criminal conspiracy, but I'm not a legal expert so I have to default that question to those who are more educated on the subject. Whether the third example is a hat...

There is a sliding scale here I suppose. "I'm worried about the number of Arab men arriving in small boats" - Free speech or hate crime? Clearly free speech that will not lead to arrest. "We should round up the gays and the Jews and execute the lot of them by firing squad!" - Free speech or hate cr...

What you call "semantic word play crap" is, at least here, the precise use of terms to accurately reflect their meaning. Democracy is a rule by the majority. It has, in the last, oh, about 100 or so years, had its original definition played with by those who want it to seem more favorable and has b...

I don't understand the obsession of the American right to try and change the definition of democracy so that America isn't one. Leave semantic word play crap to the left where it belongs. America is a democracy, is very obviously a democracy, and has been one for a very long time What you call "sem...

I'm ranting now but what a fucking grift. The President of the US just did a reverse pump-and-dump on the entirety of US equities. How many times can he do that before the US becomes un-investible? Turkey under Erdogan is becoming a very appropriate comparison. I have said this already but HE SHOUL...

If you take it subjectively.