General UK politics

[Carrot Flower King]

Proof positive that BlowJob becomes terminally baffled when he goes north of the Tyne - https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ambling-speech - further re-inforcing why he visited HGH rather than Cramlington or Wansbeck when he "had to" visit a hospital in Northumberland (point of local geography - Hexham is on the south bank of the Tyne, so BJ could stay south of the water).

Time for a set of assessments under the Mental Capacity Act?

[Carrot Flower King]

******* hell! I just heard a chunk of that speech of BlowJob's: anyone who ever thought he was a good pick for anything more responsible than watching paint dry needs to have a long, hard look at themselves.

I have heard more sense from folk with advanced Alzheimer's who are confabulating 50 to the dozen or others who are utterly off their faces on large quantities of mind-warping chemicals.

That was beyond embarrassing.

Seriously, the man needs some class of cognitive assessment to ascertain if he is fit to make any sort of decision.

[GlennB]

Originally Posted by Carrot Flower King

******* hell! I just heard a chunk of that speech of BlowJob's: anyone who ever thought he was a good pick for anything more responsible than watching paint dry needs to have a long, hard look at themselves.

I have heard more sense from folk with advanced Alzheimer's who are confabulating 50 to the dozen or others who are utterly off their faces on large quantities of mind-warping chemicals.

That was beyond embarrassing.

Seriously, the man needs some class of cognitive assessment to ascertain if he is fit to make any sort of decision.

Yeah. MrsB insisted on playing it and it was even worse than I had imagined.

[junkshop]

Originally Posted by Carrot Flower King

...Seriously, the man needs some class of cognitive assessment to ascertain if he is fit to make any sort of decision.

Or maybe a breathalyser?

[Captain_Swoop]

Laura Kuenssberg tweeted

@bbclaurak
Senior Downing St source says “there is a lot of concern inside the building about the PM....It’s just not working. Cabinet needs to wake up and demand serious changes otherwise it’ll keep getting worse. If they don’t insist, he just won’t do anything about it."

[Captain_Swoop]

there is speculation that his entire performance was to deflect attention away from the NHS Bill that he is pushing through tonight.

[llwyd]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

there is speculation that his entire performance was to deflect attention away from the NHS Bill that he is pushing through tonight.

That sounds like the zillions of times when it was speculated that any random Trump idiocy was a masterful deflection off something... While he was in reality pretty much just a car wreck though hanging on there as so was much of the nation too.

[Captain_Swoop]

MPs have backed a change to government's social care reforms, despite opponents warning that poor households would end up paying more.

The House of Commons backed plans to stop council support payments counting towards the new £86,000 cap on lifetime care costs - by 272 votes to 246.
Labour and other opposition parties rejected the plan, with 19 Tory MPs rebelling against the government.
But the PM insisted the new system would still be "incredibly generous".

Under the plan, anyone with assets of less than £20,000 will not have to pay anything towards the cost of help with things like washing and dressing at home or a stay in a care home from October 2023.
Those with assets worth more than £100,000 pay everything up to a maximum of £86,000.
People with assets of £100,000 or less can qualify for council help to pay but the new change means they will eventually have to pay up to £86,000 out of their own pocket too.

Under the new plans, money spent on living costs such as food, bills and accommodation would not count towards the limit.
The threshold for getting some council support to pay for costs will be more generous, with people with assets up to £100,000 able to qualify, rather than £23,250 currently.
But the government announced last week that only the payments people made out of their own pocket - not those from councils - would count towards the cap.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59365729

[The Don]

Poorer people won't have to pay more but someone with £100k in assets could end up paying almost all of that whereas someone with £10m in assets would hold onto more than 99%.

Levelling up at its finest.

That said, the narrow definition of care means that most people won't be in care anywhere near long enough to get close to the cap.

[KDLarsen]

Originally Posted by Carrot Flower King

******* hell! I just heard a chunk of that speech of BlowJob's: anyone who ever thought he was a good pick for anything more responsible than watching paint dry needs to have a long, hard look at themselves.

I have heard more sense from folk with advanced Alzheimer's who are confabulating 50 to the dozen or others who are utterly off their faces on large quantities of mind-warping chemicals.

That was beyond embarrassing.

Seriously, the man needs some class of cognitive assessment to ascertain if he is fit to make any sort of decision.

Sounds like someone at Johnson's office thought it would be akin to the old after dinner speaking circuit, where he'd show up, pretend to bumble around for a bit, and have a room full of tipsy watchers howling with laughter.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by KDLarsen

Sounds like someone at Johnson's office thought it would be akin to the old after dinner speaking circuit, where he'd show up, pretend to bumble around for a bit, and have a room full of tipsy watchers howling with laughter.

There is a clear impression that the "BoJo" character that Boris Johnson regularly plays is very popular. There's plenty of evidence to support that view when you look at his TV appearances, career as London Mayor and approval ratings for his performance as PM to date.

When Mrs Don first say Boris Johnson on TV she thought he was a comedian rather than (as he was then) a journalist for a major national newspaper. Sadly only a minority of the British public seem to share that view.

Boris Johnson is copping a little bit of negative publicity at the moment but as soon as it becomes clear that screwing up the Covid response, getting your mates multi-billion pound contracts, responding to sleaze by trying to change the rules, completely failing to follow though on "levelling up", polluting the rivers, failing to protect our borders post-Brexit, overseeing a period of runaway inflation, shortages in the shops and the pumps and so on haven't killed the Tories in the polls then the right wing press will resume their positive coverage, this will all be forgotten and everyone will go back to loving "BoJo"

[Darat]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

MPs have backed a change to government's social care reforms, despite opponents warning that poor households would end up paying more.

The House of Commons backed plans to stop council support payments counting towards the new £86,000 cap on lifetime care costs - by 272 votes to 246.
Labour and other opposition parties rejected the plan, with 19 Tory MPs rebelling against the government.
But the PM insisted the new system would still be "incredibly generous".

Under the plan, anyone with assets of less than £20,000 will not have to pay anything towards the cost of help with things like washing and dressing at home or a stay in a care home from October 2023.
Those with assets worth more than £100,000 pay everything up to a maximum of £86,000.
People with assets of £100,000 or less can qualify for council help to pay but the new change means they will eventually have to pay up to £86,000 out of their own pocket too.

Under the new plans, money spent on living costs such as food, bills and accommodation would not count towards the limit.
The threshold for getting some council support to pay for costs will be more generous, with people with assets up to £100,000 able to qualify, rather than £23,250 currently.
But the government announced last week that only the payments people made out of their own pocket - not those from councils - would count towards the cap.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59365729

Originally Posted by The Don

Poorer people won't have to pay more but someone with £100k in assets could end up paying almost all of that whereas someone with £10m in assets would hold onto more than 99%.

Levelling up at its finest.

That said, the narrow definition of care means that most people won't be in care anywhere near long enough to get close to the cap.

Got to protect that inheritance!

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

MPs have backed a change to government's social care reforms, despite opponents warning that poor households would end up paying more.

Given the large Tory majority I’m not convinced that the word “despite” belongs there.

[Carrot Flower King]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...rip-says-no-10

Well, that's good to know...

And it's nice to know that anonymous "spokesman" won't comment on the comments from anonymous sources in the next office in No10...

[Captain_Swoop]

John Redwood tweeted

@johnredwood
Peppa pig is a colourful example of successful entrepreneurship and private sector investment. Cut taxes Prime Minister to have more such good stories to tell.

[Captain_Swoop]

As people point out in the comments Paultons Park (Peppa Pig world) took almost £1.5m in government grants in their last financial year John.
Peppa Pig was sold to a Canadian corporation in 2015 and then subsequently to Hasbro in 2019. All profits now off-shored, naturally.

British innovation, for sale by the pound, sponsored by the Tory Party.
Tell me again how cutting taxes produces popular cartoons?

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

John Redwood tweeted

@johnredwood
Peppa pig is a colourful example of successful entrepreneurship and private sector investment. Cut taxes Prime Minister to have more such good stories to tell.

Er, wasn't Peppa Pig sold to US company Hasbro?

Ah ninja-ed.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

As people point out in the comments Paultons Park (Peppa Pig world) took almost £1.5m in government grants in their last financial year John.
Peppa Pig was sold to a Canadian corporation in 2015 and then subsequently to Hasbro in 2019. All profits now off-shored, naturally.

British innovation, for sale by the pound, sponsored by the Tory Party.
Tell me again how cutting taxes produces popular cartoons?

From John Crace’s account of Boris’s speech:

Quote:

Typically, he even managed to squeeze in one lie about the show being rejected by the BBC. It wasn’t.

[Captain_Swoop]

Boris Johnson is not unwell and has not lost his grip, says No 10.

That confirms it.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Boris Johnson is not unwell and has not lost his grip, says No 10.

That confirms it.

Doesn't the phrase come from the Keith Waterhouse play, 'Jeffery Bernard is unwell', an alcoholic journalist, who died of his affliction.

Quote:

Bernard wrote the "Low Life" column in The Spectator.[1] The play's title refers to the magazine's habit of printing a one-line apology on a blank page when he was too drunk or hung-over to produce the required copy and a substitute article could not be found before the deadline for publication.

wiki

Fancy Downing Street issuing a double negative statement. Sure, two negatives make a positive and the Boritser is, well,....unwell...

[GlennB]

Originally Posted by Vixen

Fancy Downing Street issuing a double negative statement. Sure, two negatives make a positive and the Boritser is, well,....unwell...

No, it's two separate negatives.

[Captain_Swoop]

All the talking points in the media for the last few days are to distract you from the NHS bill.
It puts in to law that that the NHS no longer having a statutory duty to treat you.
It means you can be forced to pay for treatment elsewhere. Or die.

[Captain_Swoop]

"Other countries look at the UK with envy"
Says Dominic Raab on Sky News

Now we know the man is insane

[jimbob]

Originally Posted by Carrot Flower King

******* hell! I just heard a chunk of that speech of BlowJob's: anyone who ever thought he was a good pick for anything more responsible than watching paint dry needs to have a long, hard look at themselves.

I have heard more sense from folk with advanced Alzheimer's who are confabulating 50 to the dozen or others who are utterly off their faces on large quantities of mind-warping chemicals.

That was beyond embarrassing.

Seriously, the man needs some class of cognitive assessment to ascertain if he is fit to make any sort of decision.

Originally Posted by KDLarsen

Sounds like someone at Johnson's office thought it would be akin to the old after dinner speaking circuit, where he'd show up, pretend to bumble around for a bit, and have a room full of tipsy watchers howling with laughter.

It's worse than that.

Have Mr Michael Spicer (the Room Next Door's Man) take on it

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I AGREE

[Captain_Swoop]

reminds me of this chap.

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

[Carrot Flower King]

I'll put this in politics, as that's what lies behind this:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...tients-at-risk

Things of note with this, for me at least, include the person behind it - Jim Mackey, wot is CEO of our local acute trust, Carrot Flower Queen's former ultimate boss, who's been in that role for well over a decade and in senior NHS management roles for longer.

During that time our local trust, on Mackey's watch, tried to kill CFQ with some incompetent surgery, which wasn't followed up by anyone until I took her into A&E and even then the "responsible" consultant denied any responsibility and a load of notes went missing...Just to point out that follow up is often necessary.

Mackey also seems to think that everything is done by consultants, rather than the reality which is that it is their junior sidekicks most of the time.

This is also the man, a qualified accountant by trade, whose trust supplies (and makes money from) payroll services to at least 30 NHS trusts across England, who said one time that he wanted to outsource the payroll department for being responsible for loads of money going out...

He is also responsible for a really silly "appearance code" banning visible tattoos, when he himself, when the policy came in, had visible tattoos on his neck.

The man typifies much of the stupidity and cupidity of NHS management since Thatcher's days.

[Captain_Swoop]

Alastair Campbell tweeted
@campbellclaret
·
1h
Got to get from Wigan to Bradford tomorrow. Train journey 2 and a half hours. That is longer than London to Wigan, and 1hr 25 longer than it takes to drive. Levelling Up? Northern Powerhouse? Green Revolution? ... ******** promises is all this lot do ... I shall enjoy the views!

[Carrot Flower King]

And we have another example of the UK under BlowJob's premiership being Not At All Corrupt - https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-via-tax-haven.

It is the purest of coincidences that the Reubens brothers have been large scale Tory donors and that a Reuben nephew was Tory chairman. It is also purely coincidental that the BVI are involved in some Not Tax Dodging. All we are missing is Geoffrey "the louder and deeper I speak the more credible I become" Cox...

The cherry on this one is that the Reubens are involved in the dodgy Not Really The Saudis take over of NUFC.

But our country and its rulers are Not Corrupt.

[Pixel42]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Alastair Campbell tweeted
@campbellclaret
·
1h
Got to get from Wigan to Bradford tomorrow. Train journey 2 and a half hours. That is longer than London to Wigan, and 1hr 25 longer than it takes to drive. Levelling Up? Northern Powerhouse? Green Revolution? ... ******** promises is all this lot do ... I shall enjoy the views!

Coincidentally 2 and a half hours is how long my niece and I sat with my 81 year old sister on her cold drive on Tuesday afternoon waiting for an ambulance to arrive, after she fell and broke her hip.

[Darat]

Originally Posted by Pixel42

Coincidentally 2 and a half hours is how long my niece and I sat with my 81 year old sister on her cold drive on Tuesday afternoon waiting for an ambulance to arrive, after she fell and broke her hip.

Typical underfunding by the last Labour government, if they had put more money in the Tory funding cuts wouldn't have caused such shortages.


(Hope she is OK.)

[The Don]

Boris Johnson once again demonstrates that he is the consummate international statesman.

Quote:

France's interior minister has cancelled talks with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel after Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on France to take back migrants who crossed the Channel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59428311

Of course Boris Johnson doesn't care one jot about the safety of migrants in the channel, or even the robustness of the UK's borders, he only cares about positive headlines in the right wing press and what better way to bounce back after an uncomfortable couple of weeks than by having a pop and the Frogs ?

Quote:

In an escalation of the political crisis after the deaths of 27 people in the Channel, Gérald Darmanin said France was disappointed by the letter.

"Making it public made it even worse."

Quote:

Within hours of Mr Johnson's letter being posted on social media, the French government's anger was clear. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the letter was "poor in substance, and totally out of place", failing to respect all the work that France had done on the Channel coast.

Yes Mr Johnson, let's alienate the people who have the power to make things very uncomfortable for the UK should they choose to do so in order to buy yourself some publicity.

[Darat]

What would this government do without France and the EU.... for headlines.

[Vixen]

Pathetic the way Johnson blamed the French for the migrant tragedy (27 drowned crossing the Channel). It is no surprise Home Secretary Patel has been dis-invited*, having travelled all the way to the summit. How insulting to expect the French to jump to the click of Johnson's fingers as though the British Empire still rules the world. His words of sympathy rang hollow when any moment one expected to see a smirk playing around his lips, as is his wont.

Quote:

Macron slams Johnson for trying to negotiate with him via Twitter, saying that's 'not serious'
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has reprimanded Boris Johnson for trying to negotiate with him about about stopping people crossing the Channel in public, via Twitter. He said he was “surprised” by Johnson’s decision to communicate with him in this way, because it was “not serious”. He explained: “We don’t communicate by tweets.”

GUARDIAN

Loving the thought of Patel going into orbit as a result of the snub. Whoosh - I think I can see a small speck rapidly orbiting the earth...

[Captain_Swoop]

I think we just all have to accept that there isn’t a single situation that Boris Johnson can’t make worse.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

I think we just all have to accept that there isn’t a single situation that Boris Johnson can’t make worse.

'Sonar detectors' on the beaches, really? What a twit.

Crocodile tears.

[P.J. Denyer]

By uninviting Priti Patel, France has demonstrated that there is a version of "Taking Control of the Borders" we could all get behind.

[Captain_Swoop]

If a mermaid was found in British waters would it be classified as a fish, in our 'waters' and therefore British, or would it be classed as human and an illegal immigrant?

[Captain_Swoop]

Scott Benton MP tweets
@ScottBentonMP
Nov 26
I’ve made this point in Parliament 3 times during the last week. The only way we can fully take back control of our immigration & asylum policy is by scrapping the ridiculous Human Rights Act.

[Captain_Swoop]

Civil servants have been banned from inviting speakers who criticise Boris Johnson’s policies to address internal events in Whitehall
Officials have been told to carry out due diligence checks and examine the social media posts of anyone invited to speak at internal events

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...ned-whitehall/

So how does that fit with their 'cancel cultur'e action in Universities and their commitment to free speech?

[The Don]

The Turing Scheme is the UK Government's post-Brexit replacement for the Erasmus scheme. It provides funds to enable pupils and students to travel.

One school in Cambridgeshire has secured over £1m in funding (about 1% of the total budget for all schools and universities).

Quote:

Impington Village College and its sixth form, Impington International College, have been awarded over £1 million by the Turing Scheme to fully fund student trips to one of 12 countries around the world across the remainder of this academic year.

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/ov...tional-travel/

For reference, this is more than was allocated to all schools in Wales and all schools in Scotland. Levelling up at its finest