Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ This sums up well what I consider a large threat to UK democracy, naturally therefore the threat comes from the Tories }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{So the Tories are on a bragging tour about how they have fixed the Northern Ireland Protocol, not mentioning of course they negotiated, came up with and signed onto the protocol in the first place.

The solution? Well its a 98% a fix- goods destined for the EU going from UK into Ireland will be in a red lane- usual customs checks in other words, all goods destined to stay in NI will go through the green lane without any checks. And they resolved issues of pets and medicines crossing the borders.
So far so good, but there is still a role for the European Court in some areas- which the DUP said was a red line. So it will be interesting to see if the DUP will resume their seats now in Stormont and give NI a working Parliament again- I have my doubts as I have a sneaky feeling the real objection the DUP have is that Sinn Fein won the election for the first time and theyd be serving under a catholic ruling party.

Two other things come to mind, firstly the disgraceful use of the Monarchy in all this- her late Maj will be rolling in her grave at this constitutional abuse, disgraceful.

And secondly, given Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and the single market, every single constituency voting remain, why can't we have the same deal? A red lane for Scottish goods going to the EU and a green lane for goods going to England and we can rejoin the single market.
They already have this solution for NI so we know its possible. But I wont hold my breath. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ I cant believe what I just heard Sunak say, so much so I had to transcribe it as you can bet your ass our media will not want to dwell on it.
He is in NI selling his deal and was giving a speech to factory workers, and he said this-

“I think the other thing to say is, you talk about Northern Ireland, that is the prize that is on offer. Because if we get this right, if we get this framework implemented, we get the Executive back up and running here, Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position, unique position, in the entire world, European continent in having privileged access not just to the UK home market – which is enormous, fifth biggest in the world – but also the European Union single market. Nobody else has that. No one. Only you guys, only here. And that is the prize. I can tell you, when I go around the world and talk to businesses, they know that, they say 'that's interesting, if you guys get this sorted then we will want to invest in Northern Ireland. Because nowhere else does that exist. That's like the worlds most exciting economic zone.'”

If being in the single market is such a prize, why is the rest of Britain not in it?
Why did Sunak campaign and vote to leave it if this is what he believes?
Especially why is Scotland who never voted to leave it in the first place not allowed to be in same as NI?
And if what Sunak says about investment is true that just means he's made NI far more attractive to invest jobs in that mainland UK. Im happy for NI that they are now the 'worlds most exciting economic zone', its just I'd like us to be in it too!  
If England is so determined to stay out the single market let them sit outside on their own. }}

[halfwise]

{{ This sums up well what I consider a large threat to UK democracy, naturally therefore the threat comes from the Tories }}

This could almost word for word substitute for the Republican voter ID laws over here. But you'd need to add in that gun registration certificate could count as ID, but not a university student ID.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ seems the right think alike no matter where they are!

On my above point about King Charlie being on wobbly constitutional ground I should also add it was bloody stupid too, as its potentially dangerous, even life threatening.

The self-styled 'Real IRA' unfortunately popped back up a few days ago to shoot a police officer in NI. The IRA want what they have always wanted, a united Ireland, and they have seen the trouble over the protocol as beneficial to that cause, as it was distancing NI more from mainland UK whilst making it closer with southern Ireland and the EU.
To have the monarch, a hated IRA figure whoever it is, shaking hands with the head of the EU over a deal which would restore closer ties with mainland UK and move the north away from the south, and to do so at the bequest of a hated Tory government in hated Westminster only makes it worse, and an even more stupid thing to do.
These nutjobs dont tend to take too much to get upset enough to start blowing or shooting stuff up. It was appallingly clumsy in an area that requires utmost sensitivity in dealing with.}}

[Mrs Figg]

That voter ID thing is well dodgy. Most European countries have it and its not a problem because they didn't implement it for dodgy reasons. The Italians did it because of the massive problems with the mafia and the ID is also your residency permit all in one.

But we all know the Tories have done it to disenfranchise certain sections of the population, its disgusting. They don't want Labour voters voting, the poor, the young, and BAME people will be the target.

[Pettytyrant101]

{ Well as predicted the DUP have rejected the latest deal so they will not be returning to Stormont anytime soon and NI will have to do without a government for even longer.
Leets face it they are not going to accept any deal if it means they have to go sit in a Parliament the catholics run, thats the real issue at the heart of this for them. They are, and always have been bigots and unlike other parties in NI they have never moved on from being bigots. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ I watched the full 3 hours of Boris's grilling at the Select Committee over breaches of his own covid rules. If I coud summarise his three hours of defence it would be something like- 'I did break the rules that I set for everyone, but I didnt know I was breaking them because nobody told me I was breaking them and I couldnt see I was breaking them even though I was there because I was told what I was seeing, which broke the rules, was not breaking the rules and I believed my advisors'.
When pressed on who those advisors were he refused to give names, then finally had to admit they were not in fact civil servants but some junior press officers.

Favourite moments include Boris insisting all mitigating techniques were used in Downing Street, only to have it pointed out that there were no mitigating things evident in the photos, like social distancing, screens etc, so Boris pointed out yes but they did have them, just not in the room with all the people in it and besides they did have hand sanitiser and didnt pass each other pens. To which the committee chair responded 'maybe you didnt pass pens but we have pictures and video of people passing drinks to each other'.

Or Boris claiming that he knew nothing about the party of 40-60 people going on in the vestibule of No 10 despite his diary entry saying he went to his flat as it was going on, his flat being off a corridor that opens directly onto the vestibule less than 2 metres away where he alleges he never saw a thing, so presumably he went to his flat with a blindfold and headphones on. Or his claim all the 'parties' were work related despite invites saying 'bring your own drink' and cheese and copious bottles of wine laid on. He also claimed it only included work related people, whilst his wife and her interior decorator were present.
It was the usual shamless Boris display of bluster and denial and trying to blame everyone else but himself. }}

[Mrs Figg]

wow 3 hours of Boris. I managed 5 minutes. That was enough to know he is a world class bullshitter.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ One thing thats been pissing me off unrelated to the actual breaking of rules bit, is the evident long accepted notion of drinking at work. Worse we the taxpayer are paying for them to get pissed at work. Its long overdue for all the Commons bars to be shut and No10 to be alcohol free, why do they have bars in their place of work? Let alone bars we pay for. Anyone else who drinks at work gets sacked.

I've long been of the opinion what our great and good decide is acceptable ways to treat the rest of us should be applied to them. For example according to the laws they set its perfectly acceptable for companies like Amazon to effectively tag their workers while at work and monitor every second of what they do, including how long they take for a toilet break and to punish accordingly if they deem you take too long. Fine, if thats fair then tag our MP's so we the taxpayer who employ them can log in at end of each day and see exactly how much time they've spent at their desk, when they were drinking, how long and how much their meals cost us and how long they spend snorting cocaine in the toilets.
I bet theyd decide to change the laws pretty damn fast if they were subject to the same treatment they impose on the working class. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

[Mrs Figg]

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Shameless as this is Figg the real problem here is that they are acting within the rules doing this. It would only break the rules if they failed to declare the earnings. But there is no bar from our politicians having multiple jobs or taking any amount of money from private companies. Thats what needs to change, being an MP should be the sole job whilst you are one. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ So as not to clog up Lances' untitled novel thread I wanted to respond to this here, as its more appropriate.

'They kill and overuse force, but at least they don't torture or disappear people.' - Halfy

I see no real difference between Israels action and Russians. Both are in breach of international law, both use military might, intimidation and violence to force people from their homes and land, both claim they have a historic right to do so and both kill civilians indiscriminently.
The current Israeli govt is no friend of the West, theyll take our money and we stupidly keep giving it,  the current coalition is one of religious extremists and far right extremists headed up by a corrupt would be dictator.
In particular I have never understood why American Christian groups support this regime, many of whose members despise, spit on in the streets and attack Christians as much as they do Muslims in Israel.

As to not torturing or making people doisappear, really Halfy? You need to read more official reports into the conduct of the Israeli Security Forces and Mossad; conffesions extracted under torture, inhumane treatment of prisoners, and more assasinations than can be counted. There are lots of recorded incidents of Palestians simply 'vanishing' following Israeli arrest.
So far this year alone Israel has murdered 230 Palestinian civilans including 40 children.

Ben Gvir, former head of a jewish terrorist group that targeted Palestinians and a far right exremist is now Head of National Security in the Israeli government, here he is gleefully ripping up a New Testament.



The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land has warned in an interview that Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has made life worse for Christians in the birthplace of Christianity.

'The Vatican-appointed Latin Patriarch, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said that the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community has come under increasing attack, with the most rightwing government in Israel’s history emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalised religious property at a quickening pace.'- The Guardian }}

[halfwise]

Well I'm not surprised they are getting worse under Netanyahu.  Israel used to be known for mass imprisonment but nothing worse once arrested.

As far as Christian fundamentalist go, you have to realize they see Israel as the prophesied path for the End of Days.  All the signs center around Jerusalem and the Jews, and the Christians are happy to shove along anything that helps bring about Armeggedon.  They'd be happy to watch Israel blown to bits so long as it conforms to the proper signs and all hell literally breaks loose. But Israel must survive long enough for it to happen.

[Mrs Figg]

Diane Abbott is a gigantic racist cretin. I hope they sack her.

[Mrs Figg]

So Martin Rowson the satirical cartoonist from the Guardian has had to apologise after a massive uproar for satirising Richard Sharp the now ex-honcho of the BBC, he was put in place by his mate Johnson as a Tory stooge, but now he has been sacked. Martin Rowson depicted his facial features in an exaggerated way as he does with everyone, including big nose, as he has got a big nose and rubbery lips in real life. Now everyone is horrified and calling it antisemitic. So why does he get special treatment because he is Jewish? Rowson exagerates everyones features, thats why it is a satirical cartoon. Dont get it.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-guardian-pulls-cartoon-of-outgoing-bbc-boss-richard-sharp-after-antisemitism-backlash-12869197

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Well things have taken an intriguing and interesting turn in the covid enquiry- for those who dont know the Tories set up a a committee ages ago to look into how covid was handled, with a view to seeing what worked, what went wrong, how we can be better prepared for a future pandemic, one of those enquiries.

Now a rather troubing feature of modern politics, here at least, has been the increased use of messaging services such as whatsapp for ministers to communicate, this of course circumvents the legal rquirement for all documents to be kept.

The committee set up to run the covid enquiry has however demanded of the government all Boris's Whatsapp messages, and the government is refusing to do so to the point of being willing to go to court to stop them seeing them.

The Tory argument is that those messages are not directly related to anything about covid and contain private mesages between people and would be an infringement of privacy.
The committees view is that its up to them to decide what is relevant to their equiry or not and they have to see them to know if they are.

So far so normal as these sort of arguments go.
But this is where the intrigue comes in, Boris has doing a runaround of the government and has told the committee he will happpily give them all his whatsapp messages. So now the Tories are having to go to court to stop Boris giving them the messages they want kept out of it.

So the question arises, why is Boris doing this? Why is he defiying his own government?
Its possible, given Sunak ousted Boris then stole his job, that the messages will somehow not be favourable to Sunak and so Boris wants them public.
Its also possible Boris simply knows his messages show nothing untoward (maybe he was using something else to commincate the dodgy stuff) so doesnt care if they are made available. Or as its Boris its possible they do contain untoward stuff but Boris's ego is so massive he doesnt see those things as having done anything wrong.

Either way going to be interesting to see how this plays out. }}

[halfwise]

Obama was the first president to use social media, but it was under the control of staff, and he wasn't allowed to run any truly personal messaging.  He was allowed to keep his Blackberry after a fight, but only under strict rules.  According the New York Times:

For more than two months, Mr. Obama has been waging a vigorous battle with his handlers to keep his BlackBerry, which like millions of other Americans he has relied upon for years to stay connected with friends and advisers. (And, of course, to get Chicago White Sox scores.)

He won the fight, aides disclosed Thursday, but the privilege of becoming the nation’s first e-mailing president comes with a specific set of rules.

“The president has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends,” said Robert Gibbs, his spokesman, “in a way that use will be limited and that the security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate.”

First, only a select circle of people will have his address, creating a true hierarchy for who makes the cut and who does not.
Second, anyone placed on the A-list to receive his e-mail address must first receive a briefing from the White House counsel’s office.

Third, messages from the president will be designed so they cannot be forwarded.

The battle over whether the president could keep his BlackBerry has been fueled to a large degree by Mr. Obama himself, who mentioned it again and again. He would not take no for an answer. In an interview this month, he worried aloud, “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

Mr. Obama received his BlackBerry on Tuesday, but officials declined to specify what kind. In a conversation with reporters on Thursday evening, he said, “I don’t think it’s actually up and running yet.”

Trump was less of an issue because he was only really capable of using Twitter, which is not a personal communication medium.

[Mrs Figg]

Thank god there are sensible and brave kids fighting back from the gender cult. quite shocking.

[Mrs Figg]

Queer theory and nuclear weapons.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Well heres a quality example of why Tories are scum and how they think }}

'Murals of Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters designed to welcome child asylum seekers to a reception centre in Dover have been painted over, by order of the immigration minister.
The i newspaper, which was first to report the story, quoted sources as saying staff at the centre were "horrified" by Mr Jenrick's order and resisted carrying out the work. Mr Jenrick also ordered colourful welcome signs to be removed as he wanted to make clear the centre was a "law enforcement environment" and "not a welcome centre".

These are child asylum seekers, coming form often horendous and traumitising circumstances, and the Tories think giving them a welcoming environment or friendly murals to enjoy is wrong. Tells you all you need to know about how the right think, like evil cunts. }}

[Mrs Figg]

wow talk about Scrooge, thats awful. Who does that to kids.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Tories do. Its one of the most pointless, cruel, hearltess, callously evil acts I ve seen in a while. Its not that its the worst thing anyones done, but the sort of thinking it betrays is horrendous. He should have ben fired on the spot by any government with even a resemblnce of deceny to them. But these are Tories, there is none. Just hate, bile, idealogy and callous cruelty. }}

[halfwise]

It's probably the same mind-set we have in the right over here: asylum seekers are lumped in with illegal immigrants, and thus considered criminal scum of the earth. It's as if people would walk by foot for thousands of miles with young children, all the time rubbing their hands hands and cackling with glee "I'm going to steal me some of that American dream!"