Not to mention opening up the countryside to aggressive property development. The CPRE are raging about it.

Roll on Welsh independence! (as long as they let the furriners stay)

Nothing to stop 'The North' becoming an independent country either. Just need to foster that movement for a while. It's a pity that a lot of the people in that region seem to be drinking the posh boy KoolAid though.

And the Government lied to the Queen to illegally prorogue Parliament to pass a law that they couldn't get passed.

Hadn't seen that, but it's worth mentioning more than once.

Tell me about it: it's scary listening to folk grovel before some RP twat.

I feel it is highly unlikely we'll even get another bite at the devolution cherry after Blair and Prescott screwed us over on the previous devo vote. Still haven't forgiven the pair for that.

Its difficult for me to comprehend but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any unifying identity for 'The North' to rally around. The man in Northumberland sees himself as every bit as much English as British as the woman in Surrey.

I don't get my head around it. I don't consider myself as of the same stock as Jacob Rees-Mogg. But apparently the Cumbrians, Scousers and Mancs do.

That being the case you may all well be tied into that British narrative of knowing your place and doffing your flat cap to your betters in a bowler.

It's not something I can get my head around. Never felt in the least bit British ... the 'Britishness' that I see celebrated seems entirely foreign to me. Not even in a neutral way but in a 'stands for everything I hate' way.

Britain is an awful country. One of the worst I have ever been in. Short of leaving or violent revolution I don't think that will change in my lifetime.

And lest we forget the plan to outlaw conversion therapy is to be put out for 'consultation':

Conversion therapy ban: Campaigners dismayed over delay

So basically you are going to wind up with a piece of legislation with religious exemptions that will render it all but meaningless.

"If I am ever asked to produce an ID Card... I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it" - Boris Johnson, 2014.

"He's a liar, but it's okay because he's a self serving liar" is an unusual defense to be sure.

I notice the new animal welfare bill exempts wild animals from the bit about recognising 'animal sentience'. Can't interfere with the toffs shooting the wildlife.
Food from animals reared abroad will not have to have been produced to high animal-welfare standards.

Last year, ministers controversially voted against a House of Lords amendment which would have blocked imports that didn't meet welfare and food safety standards in the UK. I

And yet religionistas insist that it is the religion-free who are nasty and rude to them...

Why are we even having this discussion? Just ban "conversion" therapy and have done with it.

Is that before or after he dies in a ditch?

Or lying (tee, hee) down in front of bulldozers at Heathrow?

In that Kuenssberg piece I linked to she wrote: "But outright lying, in my experience, is relatively rare. It is too easily found out."

And yet we can find instance after instance of Johnson outright lying, pretty much every sodding day. But she can't, or more likely won't because of her pro-Tory bias, see that. FFS, when that well-known commie pinko liberal Peter Oborne says Johnson is lying how the **** does Kuenssberg get off with claiming otherwise?

I think of myself as British, I'm from 'down South' & I consider myself as British (no more or less) than a Cumbrian, Scouser (I'm married to one) or Manc and that really doesn't have a damned thing to do with Jacob Rees-Mogg. I have a damn sight more in common with the majority of Cumbrians, Scousers or Mancs (or a Scots or Welsh) than I do with that silver spoon sucking over priviledged twat & he doesn't define what is British for everyone.

Presumably it will provide him sustainance while he's busily shovelling all the Northern Ireland customs forms he said to send straight to him into the recycling bin.

I think BJ has found that Trumpian line where his lies are so blatant that 'smart' people think 'it's just his schtick nobody actually thinks he actually thinks that' while a lot of people listening to him actually do think he thinks that. And agree with him. Or just enjoy that he is 'telling it like it is'

So he gets to 'say what we are all thinking' while simultaneously getting a free pass on having any responsibility for saying it.

It's quite clever in some ways and quite nasty in others.

Of course it has SOMETHING to do with JRM. I mean it might not be the be all and end all but he (and his ilk) are on your team.

You can say that, and I might even agree with you mostly but sadly people like that privileged twat kind of do define what i British for everyone since he and his ilk are the ones calling the shots and it's people largely like yourself in many ways that conspire to give these people that power.

Oh dear, will we see bailiffs knocking on Number 10’s door?

Boris Johnson issued with court judgement over unpaid debt: https://www.theguardian.com/politics...35-unpaid-debt

I'm just surprised he hasn't had someone, preferably a large-scale Tory donor, pay that off for him in some class of totally above board, not at all hooky, not leaving him beholden and definitely not because of anything he could do for said donor, manner.

That is how it works, isn't it?

As opposed to just managing your personal finances properly and paying your sodding debts when due.

The Grauniad isn't known for championing this government:

I disagree. I'm a proud Northerner from Coonty Durrum, in my experience, Northumbrians are proudly Northumbrian and don't get me started on Yorkshiremen...

We may not have a shared common identity, but we're definitely not Soft Southern bastages.

And what do they say about repeating the same action and expecting a different result? Well Tories are to set targets for crime reduction https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...0-new-officers. Again.

I always say the nearer to London you get the closer “northerners” get in having a general northernness! A Yorkshire and Lancastrian pair may carry on the centuries old animosity at home, but get them pass Watford gap and they unite in being “northerners” against the southerners!

I am a true southerner since I was born 44.4 degrees south of the equator. People born in Sussex and Kent are practically Arctic to me.

Hating the <INSERT GROUP HERE> is rarely a good basis for self-dentity unfortunately.

But it is rarely not the basis for identity politics.

And Downing Street says "Nothing to see here!" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57087274

So, even if "there is no merit" to this why has it taken until certain sections of the meejah (The Eye and Teh Graun) report it for someone to start doing something about challenging it? For a debt to have reached this stage there has to be a whole heap of communication and opportunities to do something about it (pay up; prove it's another My Johnson; whatever), but that has been beyond the wit of our Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, as he was so keen to remind James "No Tax" Dyson.

Really, how does this ******* manage to dress himself? Or is he another one, like that other well-known genius, Chucky Windsor who has peoople who do it for him?

Why does JRM get to define what being British is more than I do or you do? You give him too much power and no, he's not on my ******* team.

Because amongst the aging membership of the Conservative party and amongst the voters of those newly acquired 'red wall' northern seats there are plenty who still think homosexuality is a sickness to be treated and Boris wants to pander to them.

Although it will go hard against his naturally tolerant attitude towards "Tank-topped bumboys"

As usual David Allen Green explains the legal stuff clearly
https://davidallengreen.com/2021/05/...-an-explainer/

I think you are kind of making my point here though. Maybe I didn't express it well but my point is that there doesn't seem to exist a true identity at a level between England and Northumbrian.

And my sense is that you can't create a credible independence movement at the level of Northumbrian.

Furthermore I don't think there are many (although no doubt some) who would say I am Northumbrian not English.

That shared common identity across regions was what I was trying to suggest was missing.

Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with any of the above either, just an observation that it might be an interesting proposition to look at a potential nation of 15-20m people encompassing Newcastle Manchester Liverpool Birmingham Sheffield Nottingham and all points between.

Really?

Rarely?

How Rarely?

Was the gay rights movement based on hating straight people?
Feminism based on hating men?
The anti-apartheid movement in South Africa based on hating white people?

It seems quite the opposite is true in fact.

Well he certainly gets to define being British more than I do. I don't identify myself as British.

As for why he gets to define things... he's elected to represent people, he was considered a serious contender to be PM. Yes he's only 1 person but I was using him as representative of the British Establishment.

The whole shebang... the monarchy, the elitism, the Oxbridge hegemony, the crony economy, the public schoolboy culture, the class system, the colonial attitudes.... that stuff does actually define what it means to be British. Certainly more so than folk like yourself. And there are many many folk who while not being part of that establishment are certainly complicit in it continuing.

Just look at the doffing of caps to the death of Prince Philip. As one example.

It's pretty difficult to argue that 'the British' don't buy into any of this and just have it foisted on them unwillingly. Sure there will be some like that. But it's kinda hard to argue that JRM doesn't represent 'brand Britain' and all it stands for better than you or me.

No, true. Conceded.

Can't find a first-hand source for this yet:

https://twitter.com/nicktolhurst/sta...75339064426502

^ That would go some way to explaining that Kuenssberg piece on Johnson not actually lying (according to her definitin of lying) I linked to previously.

For some 'good news' it looks like the anti-deportation protests in Pollokshields have gone pretty well and now 'Priti Patel' is trending on Twitter often accompanied by phrases such as 'get it right round ye'

Just read about it. Nice story :)

**** the Home Office. Has there ever been a worse one?

As I've said before, you can understand everything you need to know about Priti Patel by the fact that she once admitted that the immigration policies she was trying to introduce would have disallowed her own parents from immigrating to the UK.

Can we apply them retroactively in that one case then?

The business empire of Liberty Steel owner Sanjeev Gupta is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for suspected fraudulent trading and money laundering, including its financing arrangements with failed company Greensill Capital UK.

It comes the day after Cameron who worked for Greensill and lobbied the government on its behalf, appeared before MPs to answer questions about his role.

Government spokesperson says that the Department for Business feels vindicated that it did not agree to give a requested government bailout of £170m.

Bugger me, but Cameron's appearance before the Treasury select committee was a car crash and a half.

"Cross my palms with a lot of silver and I shall do so much looking the other way it's untrue. And, by the way, how many blow jobs did you want, Lex?"

All this stuff about needing another job after jacking in (actual resignation, not sacking) being an MP and PM is beyond bovine manure: you are already a millionaire, mate! With money secreted in tax havens. Married to another millionaire. Who got a high 6 figure advance for a book no-one read. Who has an ex-MP and ex-PM pension, which is better than the one I got for flogging myself into the ground for the NHS.

What you are doing is purest greed and avarice.

There are plenty of jobs out there; y'know, the ones you were so keen for others to take, like being an Uber driver, working as a care assistant, being a bin man and the rest. I mean, since someone generously restored the bursaries you took away, you could even do nurse training. What stops you doing any of those? Aside from they will all involve actual real hard work for bugger all pay, of course...

Utter, contemptible twat!

He must be sighing with relief about the case collapsing on day one of the trial, oh sorry that’s a comment from 2028!

Interesting incident in Glasgow, as Home Office officials detain two asylum seekers, their van is surrounded and after a stand-off that included the First Minister and MSPs arguing with the Home Office, the asylum seekers were released and allowed back home.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...-raid-24099998

I cannot find why the two men were detained. At least part of the protest was about the detention happening on Eid and in general about the Westminster Govt and Home Office's immigration/asylum policies.

It wasn't them being 'detained' it was them being deported.

Saw some video of that on Twitter from people who were there.

Brilliant.

Information on what they were being detained for has been scant. It is suggested they were overstaying a visa, but there was no indication if they were being taken into detention, or if this was the start of their removal to an airport for deportation.

They were being detained because the UK Home Office has made it policy to create a hostile environment for immigrants and refugees. Or did you mean what specific excuse the HO has come up with this time?

I took the Police Scotland statement that 'we don't assist with the deportations of asylum seekers' to mean that is what was being attempted in this case though maybe I read too much into that one.

Callers onJeremy Vine say it's a disgrace and the police are bowing to 'mob rule' they should have broken up the crowd and protected the HO officials in the execution of their duty.

Most of those calling and emailing seem to be in England.