When it gets really bad Alex can raise people's spirits by

• bringing out a new space programme - done that. Did it work?
• wheel out Dilyn
• wheel out Wilfrid
• get Carrie to save a few badgers and alpacas ('Geronimo had to go, soz'.)

Howzabout that then? <sfx gurgle gurgle gurgle>

They're the alt-med government offering miracle cures that won't work to deal with symptoms as they occur while disparaging actual treatments that might be effective because anything that could work on the underlying problems will necessarily have side effects. When the problem is self limiting they claim credit, when it isn't the escalating problem is because the British public don't believe enough.

I am alone in being alarmed when Johnson says:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58779629

Sounds more like a willingness to trample over civil liberties than any plan to reform the police or address weaknesses in the criminal justice system, unless you regard the rights of the accused as a weakness.

Perhaps, to facilitate a trade deal it is a sign that the UK will cooperate with the US and will send Andrew Windsor to America to stand trial?

I don't pay any attention to what Johnson says. He's a proven liar with a track record of broken promises, so, even more than any other politician, there's really no point in listening when he speaks.

Maybe he means make them work at Wetherspoons?

Where is 'We will stop at nothing' in the grand scheme of things?

‘We’ll stop at nothing’ has a double meaning.

As in "We've done nothing, so we'll stop now!" ?

It's always wonderful to hear tory ministers proclaim
That is the party of big business speaking right there :rolleyes:

^ It's almost like said minister has no idea how regulation of milk production or anything else to do with agriculture actually works, nor how the retail sector works, nor anything really...

Anything to stay in power at this point, I think.

edit:
I glossed over the alt-med bit, is that alternative medicine? I thought you were describing the present government.

Yes it's alternative medicine, not literally but it's (imo) a good analogy for this government, they're selling something that doesn't work by lying about effectiveness of make believe plans while using the honesty of people with genuine solutions (which in the real world have consequences) against them.

Ah, good analogy, yeah I agree.

:D :thumbsup:

Yeah, a farmer with a hundred cows producing 7000 litres of milk a day wants to bottle that himself to sell in the local shop. Sorry, 12318.28 pints.

To be fair, he’s not a Minister (yet) but he is a member of the “Common Sense Group” of Tories, otherwise known as BLDM.

UK tax avoidance not a "source of shame" says Chancellor Rishi Sunak, after huge leak of financial documents reveal secret offshore wealth of world leaders, politicians and billionaires

https://bbc.in/3oxp8Rt

The UK is, literally, the sovereign controller of the world's most blatant tax-shelters.

So Dominic Raab has told the Tory conference the Human Rights Act needs to be got rid of because, citing an example, some foreign thug who beat up his wife was allowed to stay in the UK because...wait for it...'he wanted his right to family life'. <fx thunderous aplause>

The only people benefitting from the human rights act are bloody foreigners who beat up their wives. Bloody bastards.

Then there is sentencing: people who get imprisoned for violence or sexual offences get out of prison half-way through their sentence. 'This is wrong!' <fx thunderous aplause>

So now Dominic Raab will ensure all such offenders will not get out half way through.

And this increases conviction rates, how?

It doesn't. Now look up recidivism and deterrence.

Prison officers may find their jobs getting a lot more difficult.

For right-wingers it's only ever about punishment never about rehabilitation and preventing recidivism.

This morning I saw Boris on TV complaining about the amount of time it takes cases to come to court. I’m sure it’s nothing to do with the last decade’s-worth of cuts to the criminal justice system.

He seemed to be blaming it on the defence.

And to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Raab was telling porkies (from a lengthy piece by PA Media:
On top of that, the case already has already lead to changes in the law enacted in 2014. And on top of that, as noted by several, if you have to cite a 12 year old case to argue that something is flawed, maybe it isn't.

Shades of Theresa May telling a similar story about someone being permitted to stay because he owned a cat, when in reality it was due to him being in a long term relationship with the cat's owner...

The argument against the Human Rights Act is always presented in such a way to ensure that people are left with the impression that only 'illegals', 'hate preachers' and foreigners benefit from it.

People then believe that getting rid of the HRA won't affect them.

I recall one workplace case were a bankrupt who was being evicted to liquidate his assets and pay off his creditors employed a lawyer to argue that this impinged on his human rights as he had a five-year-old child who was autistic and needed to continue living in the home. He won his case ('Hans' ).

Other bankrupts used this as precedent case law and many were successful in being able to stay in their home without the liquidators getting their hands on it, but it was normally only until the kids were 16.

On other occasions when I mentioned the HRA to lawyers, I was told that "You can't use that argument as judges tend to think you are a bit nutty if you mention 'Human Rights'". Certainly although technically we have human rights, it is not taken seriously by the courts. It's a token concept. So there is this cynical attitude that the HRA is just there for criminal types to 'play the system' and unsavoury foreigners who want to evade deportation.

Ordinary citizens just don't realise that without the HRA they and their kids could just be brutally thrown out into the streets and the courts (and the government) couldn't care less if they have their schooling disrupted and have to be dragged around from one hotel room to another.

Peerhaps Raab needs to be reminded which party has been in power for the last 11 years and ask them why they didn't do anything about it? When he's finished looking up the correct definition of "misogyny"? I'm sure BlowJob, with his classical "education" might have been able to help.

Boris: "Otters are returning to rivers from which they have been absent for decades, beavers that have not been seen on some rivers since Tudor times are now back.

"Build back beaver," he says.

Dominic Raab on BBC Breakfast ‘Misogyny is absolutely wrong, whether it’s a man against a woman, or a woman against a man’

"Shocking state of English rivers revealed as all of them fail pollution tests" link

But now we are free of the EU framework we are able to ensure that all our rivers* fall under a new UK water safety standard. How fantastic will that be?



* Yes even the most polluted.

Key bit in article: Discharges probably haven't got worse, but the standard has changed.

Can't comment on agricultural run off though.

I can say we still are subject to improvements that the EU are imposing currently when it comes to discharges, which will bring a slight improvement, but will hardly be measureable.

I should also add that the ecological scoring looks at things like the river banks. So the river near us won't improve on that score unless you get rid of the wharfs and flood defences that are in the middle of the city.

When a Tory PM's conference speech is derided as "bombastic but vacuous and economically illiterate" by the head of research at the Adam Smith Institute - https://www.theguardian.com/business...-boris-johnson - you kinda get the idea that those who are nominally in charge might be a bunch of useless know-nothings.

....and yet the Great British English public still seem to prefer this group of chancers without a conscience who were prepared to let tens of thousands die unnecessarily from Covid while wasting tens of billions on useless schemes and allowing their mates to profit over Her Majesty's loyal opposition. :(

Quite so.

Last night's PM had a vox pop from a couple of places including Blyth (just about 7 miles that <----- a-way), which was scary for the amount of latitude folk were giving BlowJob and his ship of fools. The amount of ignoring that the **** show of Brexit was brought about by them, that the unpreparedness for Covid and the rubbish responses were all down to his laziness (never heard of Cygnus, eh, BlowJob?) and all the rest reached the level of wilfull ignorance (or Proudly Wrong, as Joe M puts it in other contexts).

Mind, this belief in BlowJob isn't helped by the utter craven failure of media.

I've just heard on PM a section of his speech in which he was blethering about otters and beavers and making out that their recovery and re-introduction was to do with his party, which is an utter lie. They then cut to Davies and a couple of pundits talking about his speech and no-one mentioned the obvious lies, let alone the misleadings, fact bendings and the rest: it was all treated as fact and truth.

If no ****** is going to publicly call out this level of BS, what are many of them there for?

Dominic Raab is being widely criticised for being thick, but, to be fair to him, he is also a ****.

Hmmmmmm, it seems that "Levelling Up" may be facing some headwinds.

Universal Credit recipients will be £20 a week worse off when the uplift is removed.

Energy prices are due to rise significantly:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58824121

Council Tax is due to go up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58822666

Well off people like Mrs Don and I aren't affected by Universal Credit and can easily afford those price rises. Even if we couldn't easily afford them, we could cancel our gym membership, eat out less often or switch to cheaper brands. People who are barely getting by (or currently aren't) don't have those options. :(

Apparently Boris Johnson isn't worried about the supply chain issues and price rises - they're simply symptoms of a booming economy - but I think that a lot of Conservative-voting pensioners are very worried right now.

Just in case anyone missed it - https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ng-local-pride - here's what you need to know about "levelling up".

If you don't understand after Neil O'Brien has explained it all to you, well, I just don't know what to tell you...

Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley on LBC speaking about the struggles of living on an MP’s salary, calling it "desperately difficult" for some.
“I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.”

I remember the days when I could go for a night in the pub, have fish and chips afterwards, get the bus home and still have change from £81,932

Ah, but back then there was little or no scrutiny over expenses so you didn't have to fund your duck-house refurbishment out of your own pocket. ;)

Wait, that's not a Daily Mash article but real?

In which case he'll be entirely behind the nursing unions (even including the sodding useless RCN) balloting for strike action over pay, given all the pay freezes and redundancies, cuts to necessary work expenses for community staff and the like over the last 11 years (which I cannot recall him opposing). Come on Peter!