Boris has some new quotes.

In addition to “**** business” and “Let the bodies pile high in their thousands”

We can add “the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner”

and now “Priti Patel will make Britain the Saudi Arabia of penal policy”

Daniel Finkelstein in The Times

“Powerful people commiserating with each other about how powerless they are isn’t much of a basis for a political movement. Or even, as it turns out, a niche TV channel.”

Cabinet reshuffle this afternoon Boris says.

Gavin Williamson has informed staff at the Dept for Education that he’s leaving the department, he was offered Northern Ireland by Boris Johnson.

The most sensitive job in the most sensitive part of UK at its most sensitive time in its last 2 decades.

On the BBC "Boris Johnson is preparing to reshuffle his top team of government ministers"

A more truthful version
"Boris Johnson is preparing to reshuffle his team of incompetents, crooks and ne'er do wells"

How weak is Johnson? It, according to Tory Central's representative at the BBC Laura Kuenssberg, had not been the plan to give Raab Deputy PM, but Johnson caved in to Raab and gave him it...

Liz Truss? Nadine Dorries? Oh, FFS. Proof positive that no discenible talent is required in politics. Talking of which, my own local Tory Girl has got Truss' old job, so she'll pay even less attention to her constituency than she has so far.

Nadine Dorries is the new culture secretary.

Truss is foreign secretary

Raab to Justice and made Deputy PM

Gove gets housing, communities, and local government

vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi is the new education secretary

Satire is dead.

Truss

Looks like Williamson didn't have the stomach for Northern Ireland. Turning it down is the first sensible thing he's done in government.

To be fair, that is his top team of government ministers!

We just had a discussion about this here (Liz Truss? FFS! Liz Truss?) and we reckon that several folk, especially Liz FFS Truss and Dominic Who Needs Geography? Raaaaaaaaab, have a lot of incriminating information, pics, tapes, whatever with details which would embarrass even Johnson.

As for Trevelyan...Words failed me long ago.

The only talent required in this piss poor excuse for a government is the ability to not show up Johnson with any display of competence, decency or attention to the job that might make him look bad by comparison. Admittedly, that's a hurdle that few could limbo under.

^ You didn't meet some managers that I had, not to mention some that Carrot Flower Queen survived...Some of them make Liz FFS Truss look like a towering genius.

Oh I think I might have met some similar ones, but their sole qualification was "Being the Boss's Son"

Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic comes to mind...

Reshuffling a deck of 52 knaves.

Ministers plan legal requirement for broadcasters to make ‘clearly British’ shows like Only Fools and Horses
The UK’s public service broadcasters will have a legal requirement to produce “distinctively British” programmes under plans drawn up by ministers.

Fleabag, Derry Girls and Only Fools and Horses were cited as the kind of “distinctively British” programmes that would meet the obligation. Ofcom will be asked to draw up a workable definition of the concept.

Media minister John Whittingdale told a Royal Television Society conference that shows such as Dr Who, Downton Abbey, Great British Bake Off and Bodyguard had been huge international hits but also reflect Britain and British values.
By contrast many of the shows on streaming platforms appear “generic” because they are designed by algorithm to appeal to a global audience.
Mr Whittingdale said: “So in our upcoming White Paper, I intend to include proposals that will expand the remit of public service broadcasters, so that it includes a requirement for them to produce ‘distinctively British’ content.”

A subjective requirement to showcase “Britishness” in every programme is likely to prove difficult to write into law.
The minister admitted that Britishness was a “difficult concept to measure. We will talk to Ofcom about how to make the obligation of Britishness work.”

Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls “very clearly” passed the test because it is “very clearly set in Northern Ireland at a particularly challenging time.” Britishness meant “reflecting all parts of the UK”.
Broadcasters should make programmes for British audiences primarily rather than for global sales, Mr Whittingdale said.

The initiative was announced in a speech due to be given by Oliver Dowden before he was replaced as Culture Secretary by Nadine Dorries.
The speech, delivered by Mr Whittingdale, cited the Carry On films of the 1970s as an example of “Britishness.”
The “restraint” of the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the “sarcasm” of Fleabag and the “bonkers” concept behind Gogglebox were all values that indicated “programmes that could only have been made in the UK,” the speech said.

https://inews.co.uk/news/john-whitti...leabag-1201634

‘We will talk to Ofcom about how to make the obligation of Britishness work.’ - John Whittingdale, Minister for Media and Data.

I suspect he really means Englishness and a former Englishness that nationalists hanker back to. They want Dad’s Army

Except they'll probably still win the next election because the British public are generally idiots who find politics boring or (and I have actually heard this) 'They are all crooks so let's have the ones who are the most successful crooks'!

'Boris? Oh yeah, he's a funny old duffer. Shags around right? What a legend!'

'Keir Starmer? Never heard of him. Who's he then? What, a lawyer? Toffee nosed twat, don't want him in charge...What, human rights lawyer? They're the ones that get terrorists off for free or let foreigners sponge off us aren't they?'

That's what we're dealing with...:(

I had someone tell me the other day that the government were taking £20 a week off of universal credit to pay for Afghan refugees, I kid you not.

Andrew Neil is being coy about his reasons for leaving GB News:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58591909

Why let people make up their own minds ? Why not be explicit about his reasons for leaving ?

Meanwhile Priti Patel is proposing treating climate change activists like Islamic extremists.

And the new Trade Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, was (is?) a climate change denier. From her old tweets:

“Clear evidence that the ice caps aren’t melting after all, to counter those doom-mongers and global warming fanatics,” read one.

Another, sent in support of a campaign against windfarms, said: “We aren’t getting hotter, global warming isn’t actually happening.”

article

Truly terrifying.

AFAIK, as one of Trevelyan's constiuents, she still is a denier: she opposed a couple of small wind farms just over there -------->, supported, IIRC, the proposed Highthorn open cast development just over there <----------, 'cos jobs, was supportive of a huuuuuuge caravan park just thataway, which will vastly increase vehicle usage on roads not designed for it and increase atmospheric pollution round here, not to mention carbon emissions, 'cos jobs (even though they will all be seasonal, low/no skill, minimum wage jobs). And then she ignores us, 'cos we are at the fringe of the constituency and elect Labour county councillors...

Because he's looking for another job in right-wing propagandising.

Weird double post thing

Contractual obligations and/or he has shares

I'm as excited about the coming War With France as the next red-blooded Englishman but will it become unpatriotic to wear Dior?

You'll have to revert to Old Spice and splash it on like Henry Cooper.

Now that I live in Wales, which side am I likely to be fighting on ?

That question can be answered by asking yourself the following question:

It is England versus France in the Six Nations Rugby Championship. Who do you most want to win ceteris paribus?

It's a trick question, a true Welshman wants Wales to win every match, even the ones they're not playing in.

I hate to disappoint, but according to Majid Nawaz we're gearing up for war with China. Fortunately I think Shelagh is back Monday...

Your answer reveals you to be a...


























Patriotic Englishman, albeit a tactful one.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is tol become the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

What next a Ministry Of Silly Walks?

I think it's The Ministry of Truth next.

Turns out I didn't RC: she was opposed to Highthorn, even though Carrot Flower Queen also had a memory of her being in favour 'cos jobs, but the rest seems to be correct. And I'm still trying to pin down some other stuff, but I can't find when she first became a governor at Berwick Academy, neé High School. She was certainly a governor of our local acute NHS trust when services were cut 'cos austerity, which makes her refusal to answer questions from Carrot Flower Queen, then an employee of said trust, about local NHS cuts even more hypocritical. Mind, some interweb rummaging suggests that she never turned up to any trust meetings...

Boris already has a gig as PM though.

Yes but there's still a few people believing the evidence of their own eyes & ears.

Boris Johnson is claiming that it'll be tough to secure climate change pledges:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58620566

Of course it doesn't help that Boris Johnson has abandoned climate change commitments as part of the UK/Australia trade deal. :mad:

I have to say that this is possibly the most worrying headline I think I've seen in a long time:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58620167

So, next Tuesday tea time?

And now: British ‘baby shortage’ could lead to economic decline, says thinktank

I’m sure our Prime Minister is doing his utmost to avert this crisis.

I’m picking up my candles tomorrow and buying a few camping stoves!

I realise that there's a pandemic, but the UK seems to be much harder hit than neighbouring EU countries.

It seems that the spike in gas prices, combined with the UK government's price cap on energy company is likely to drive a lot of those energy companies out of business which in turn will drive up prices even further for customers as they're forced to move to less competitive price plans. UK wholesale electricity prices are around three times what they are in France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. The government is denying rumours of a three day week which leads me to think that they're considering implementing a two day week - that's also going to hit the economy hard.

A lack of Carbon Dioxide is likely to hit the food industry hard resulting in shortages in the shops. Industry pundits are talking about how the shortages can be managed instead of whether the shortages will occur. Factor in the Brexit-induced strains to the supply chain and the food rotting in the fields due to a lack of farm workers and it looks like it's going to be a hungry winter for many.

All of this is likely to increase inflation considerably. More expensive food and energy is going to hit those on lower incomes worse, especially those who are going to lose £20 a week in Universal Credit.

That is a feature not a problem.

Boris Johnson assures us that we'll all be fine this winter....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58641114

AIUI the rise in wages is mostly fed by a statistical anomaly due to a lot of low-paid workers losing their jobs and skewing the figures rather than people receiving generous pay rises but in any case, I doubt whether it'll be enough to compensate for more expensive energy, food and the reduction in Universal Credit.

The Joseph Rowntree foundation isn't so sure:

I'd say that people might change their minds after a cheerless Christmas with food shortages and rolling power cuts but I'm sure they'll still find a way to blame the 2010 Labour Government and/or Remoaners. :rolleyes:

And it seems the government has persuaded/bribed the owners of the shut fertilizer plants to reopen:

Government strikes deal to restart CO2 production

Yet more money spent papering over the cracks.

""I don't believe people will be short of food - and wages are actually rising."

Phew - thank goodness all the foodbanks are closed since no one will be short of food. Must let my local ones know, and the supermarkets running national schemes to provide meals for the poor.

What would we do without his incisive action?

IIRC from the last elections there was some person from a Northern constituency saying that, in their opinion, the Conservative government was doing a splendid job because under Labour they just had one food bank, but now they have several. :rolleyes:

If there is a genuine shortage of food (as opposed to simply congestion in some parts of the supply chain) then I fear that food banks will be among the first to feel the effects. :(

It was the Hartlepool by election this year. LBC did vox pops on why people voted Tory for the first time. Quotes I noted at the time (probably compressed) were “we have 9 food banks under the Tories, none under Labour”; “Corbyn (?!) promised to get rid of food banks, but I rely on them” and; “in the last few years our MP lost the hospital, police station and court, so I voted Tory”.

You tear your hair out at that level of understanding.

So Grant Schapps aka Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox thinks it is only "a handful of petrol stations affected" and that drivers should "carry on as normal" re Tesco and BP having to close some of their petrol stations, due to HGV driver shortages.

:popcorn6

Some stunning doublethink regarding the delivery crisis from Schapps:

“I’ve seen people point to Brexit as the culprit here; in fact, they are wrong,” he said. “Because of Brexit, I’ve been able to change the law and alter the way our driving tests are taken in a way I could not have done if we were still part of the EU. Brexit has actually provided part of the solution.”