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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 3h

I have Sky Germany for quite cheap through an offer and watching linear TV feels quaint and nostalgic. And the on demand only has ads at the beginning of the show. So of course it’s been sold to RTL who make trash tv and have an awful streaming service.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 6h

Arguably the Ampel were doing the same but allowed the FDP to continue shouting about how evil the Greens were. Same sort of impact - AfD get stronger.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 6h

If it's the only way to stop Reform/Tories (which I guess is the deliberate strategy they are choosing).

Since I can only vote in a super safe Labour seat of Sheffield Central I will vote Lib Dem or Green knowing the Tories and Reform are nowhere to be found.

Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 9h

BSW splitting from and then attracting the worst of the left really helped Die Linke in Germany

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 10h

I bought tickets for Day 4 of a test match in England because I was speaking to a student and missed the first 5 minutes of general sale and now have doubts if a) it'll be rained off, b) it doesn't rain enough and its wrapped up in 3 days...

Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 13h

And when the height of internet media was songs about badgers and mushrooms

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 14h

Also when I was 17-20 a lot of my ‘friends’ were edgy libertarians or communists but no social media for easy connections or a party to vote for

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 14h

Maybe we need the ‘the young are fickle and too lazy to vote’ stories to be true?

Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 15h

I’m deleting this because it relates to another thread and doesn’t make sense out of context. It’s precisely about the UK raising visa requirements from B1 to B2 because ‘B1 isn’t good enough’

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 15h

Of course, I mean if you already have B1 and at some point your responsibilities will require you to have B2.

I agree from scratch/beginner level it’s not going to work

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 15h

Spain - elpais.com/espana/2025-...

¿Quiénes son los nuevos votantes de Vox? Datos por edad, sexo y clase social

Las encuestas les colocan con alrededor del 17% de apoyos, cinco puntos más que su resultado de 2023. Su avance es transversal, pero destaca su paso adelante entre hombres y mujeres jóvenes

elpais.com

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

Leave a bad memory

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

B2 in German would be equivalent to A level German, which is what I assumed they meant. And it’s still crazy

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

The French rules are for applying for citizenship though? Whereas this is for just being a worker in an identified field.

In any case, B1 is sufficient for every day life (and progression to B2 and beyond comes from living in that language).

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

A colleague of mine is from Zambia. They don't have a national language (aside from English) so he learned multiple ones from the country to go to Uni, get a job etc, plus English and now German.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

In any case, even though I can speak Spanish/German, I'm still going to speak my native language in public to other people who understand it when in Spanish/German speaking countries

Racists/xenophobes/extremely monolingual people seem very offended by this idea.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

I went to Spain with ropey A1 Spanish and passed a B1 exam within 3 months. The best way to learn a language is to be somewhere where you need it.

It's absurd.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

I only got a B at AS level so I guess I have to give back my passport.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

Kawaguchi?

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

Monolinguals with no understanding of living in a second language (learning French at school and brushing up a few words to show off is not the same) will of course think it's just common sense....

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

By some miracle I could wake up tomorrow speaking C2 German but I'm still going to speak English to people whose native language is English or who speak better English than German.

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

My thoughts with these sorts of language requirements are:

1. Are such high level language skills necessary for a job? To have a decent livelihood?
2. Do we expect all native speakers to pass it at A level?

Otherwise this again seems like "I don't like hearing people speaking foreign languages".

Luca Tiratelli @lucatiratelli.bsky.social · 1d

I have relatives who easily worked and were part of society in English but who were no where closer to an 'A level standard'. Every sentence they said was grammatically incorrect, but also... totally understandable and functional as a means of communication!

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Migrants will be required to pass A Level standard of English

Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today.

www.gov.uk

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

You're making me want to go back to Japan!

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Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

Then provide additional services as they are required

Jon Morris @jmorris14.bsky.social · 1d

Scrap council tax, fund every council equally per head of population

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