Stop voting for fucking Tories

[Slick]

Asked what he would have done if he had received text messages like this when he was prime minister, Blair said that when he was in Downing Street he never had a mobile phone. He was now “extremely grateful” for that, he said

He also said, and it's a little more relevant than his mobile phone ownership:

We were in the middle of a pandemic. After all, we were asking James Dyson to step forward and start making ventilators. I find it hard to get worked up about this. There's got to be a certain degree of understanding: if you are in the middle of a huge crisis like this, people are going to be using every means they can to make sure they respond to the immediate crisis

Except the Tories weren't; "using every means"; because, despite the offer, they very deliberately ignored the massive EU scheme to manufacture ventilators.

So they should have followed the EU vaccination program?

[fishfoodie]

He also said, and it's a little more relevant than his mobile phone ownership:

Except the Tories weren't; "using every means"; because, despite the offer, they very deliberately ignored the massive EU scheme to manufacture ventilators.

So they should have followed the EU vaccination program?

Are you going to follow the bimbot playbook & just fling shit; or genuinely engage in the discussion ?

[Slick]

Except the Tories weren't; "using every means"; because, despite the offer, they very deliberately ignored the massive EU scheme to manufacture ventilators.

So they should have followed the EU vaccination program?

Are you going to follow the bimbot playbook & just fling shit; or genuinely engage in the discussion ?

That escalated quickly

I thought it was a stupid statement, they were going what they thought was the best route using a world class British engineering company that had the capacity to deliver quickly, so what about the EU scheme

[Paddington Bear]

If anyone read Bingham’s interview with the FT, the EU Vaccine scheme offered us essentially observer status with no control over how many and when we’d get vaccines. No reason to suggest the ventilator scheme wasn’t the same

[Random1]

If anyone read Bingham’s interview with the FT, the EU Vaccine scheme offered us essentially observer status with no control over how many and when we’d get vaccines. No reason to suggest the ventilator scheme wasn’t the same

Maybe, but the most important point is; dynamism was required. It’s simple risk management; if you put all your eggs in one EU shaped basket, with little control, then your ability to adapt is reduced.

Going on our own, with our manufacturing and tech base meant we had the best of both worlds - multiple options, full control and shortened logistics.

It’s a no brainier really in my view.

[Lobby]

If anyone read Bingham’s interview with the FT, the EU Vaccine scheme offered us essentially observer status with no control over how many and when we’d get vaccines. No reason to suggest the ventilator scheme wasn’t the same

Did the EU ventilator scheme ever deliver any ventilators? As I recall the UK was trying to obtain additional ventilators in March and April 2020, but in early April, the EU were still stating their scheme 'would take time' to deliver any ventilators.

According to the NAO investigation, by mid-April, the UK had decided that the urgent demand for additional ventilators had not materialised, so its not clear to me that the outcomes would have been any different whether we were in or out of the EU scheme.

[Torquemada 1420]

I thought it was a stupid statement, they were going what they thought was the best route using a world class British engineering company

I see some flaws here.

[Insane_Homer]

Some thread,

[SaintK]

Good way to start potential trade negotiations with Australia. But then again it is that awful Truss woman!!

According to a report by Lucy Fisher in the Telegraphy Truss thinks Dan Tehan needs to be made to speed up progress towards a deal when he is in London this week. Fisher reports:
The source close to Ms Truss quipped: “She plans to sit him down in the Locarno Room [in the Foreign Office] in an uncomfortable chair, so he has to deal with her directly for nine hours.”
The ally said that Mr Tehan and Ms Truss have struck up a good rapport, but added: “He is inexperienced compared to Liz. He needs to show that he can play at this level.
“Australia need to show us the colour of their money. They’re great friends of ours and talk a good game about free trade and wanting a deal, but they need to match those words with action.”

Slight problem in that her Australian counterpart has slightly more experience on trade matters

As the Independent’s Andrew Woodcock reports, a briefing from Liz Truss’s Department for International Trade about how Truss intends to use hardline tactics against her “inexperienced” Australian opposite number (see 2.52pm) has gone down very badly in Australia. The UK’s high commissioner in Australia has had to on TV to try to defuse the row triggered by the remarks.
And it turns out that although Dan Tehan only became Australia’s trade minister in December, he has been working on trade policy in one capacity or another for more than 20 years. Truss became trade secretary less than two years ago, with no previous experience of international trade negotiations.

[tabascoboy]

Good way to start potential trade negotiations with Australia. But then again it is that awful Truss woman!!

According to a report by Lucy Fisher in the Telegraphy Truss thinks Dan Tehan needs to be made to speed up progress towards a deal when he is in London this week. Fisher reports:
The source close to Ms Truss quipped: “She plans to sit him down in the Locarno Room [in the Foreign Office] in an uncomfortable chair, so he has to deal with her directly for nine hours.”
The ally said that Mr Tehan and Ms Truss have struck up a good rapport, but added: “He is inexperienced compared to Liz. He needs to show that he can play at this level.
“Australia need to show us the colour of their money. They’re great friends of ours and talk a good game about free trade and wanting a deal, but they need to match those words with action.”

Ah, the good old "Slider" - highly waxed wooden seat and two inches sawn off the front legs. I'd put no childish tactic past this government...

[ASMO]

Can we just not agree collectively that they are indeed scum of the highest order?

[Biffer]

Good way to start potential trade negotiations with Australia. But then again it is that awful Truss woman!!

According to a report by Lucy Fisher in the Telegraphy Truss thinks Dan Tehan needs to be made to speed up progress towards a deal when he is in London this week. Fisher reports:
The source close to Ms Truss quipped: “She plans to sit him down in the Locarno Room [in the Foreign Office] in an uncomfortable chair, so he has to deal with her directly for nine hours.”
The ally said that Mr Tehan and Ms Truss have struck up a good rapport, but added: “He is inexperienced compared to Liz. He needs to show that he can play at this level.
“Australia need to show us the colour of their money. They’re great friends of ours and talk a good game about free trade and wanting a deal, but they need to match those words with action.”

Ah, the good old "Slider" - highly waxed wooden seat and two inches sawn off the front legs. I'd put no childish tactic past this government...

It's the utterly moronic, private school boy larks kind of approach which beggars belief. This idea that it'd actually achieve something rather than the guy saying he'd like another chair, or just walking the fuck out. They're children.

[tabascoboy]

Good way to start potential trade negotiations with Australia. But then again it is that awful Truss woman!!

Ah, the good old "Slider" - highly waxed wooden seat and two inches sawn off the front legs. I'd put no childish tactic past this government...

It's the utterly moronic, private school boy larks kind of approach which beggars belief. This idea that it'd actually achieve something rather than the guy saying he'd like another chair, or just walking the fuck out. They're children.

I guess the comments were meant light-heartedly, but it shows a contempt for diplomatic respect and protocol and Australia would have every right to play hardball. Smacks of "everyone owes us a good deal" Brexshittery.

[SaintK]

Can we just not agree collectively that they are indeed scum of the highest order?

Yes!
I have been voting since 1970, the year the voting age was lowered to 18. and never been a Labour voter.
This lot are easily the worst government both individually and collectively I have seen over those years. Hardly surprising when they are led by a repulsive, morally bankrupt, entitled patholigical liar and cunt of a man!

[yermum]

world class British engineering company

There is a very good reason the Dyson design was never used despite the huge amount of political pressure to go with it.

[Sandstorm]

Asked what he would have done if he had received text messages like this when he was prime minister, Blair said that when he was in Downing Street he never had a mobile phone. He was now “extremely grateful” for that, he said

He also said, and it's a little more relevant than his mobile phone ownership:

We were in the middle of a pandemic. After all, we were asking James Dyson to step forward and start making ventilators. I find it hard to get worked up about this. There's got to be a certain degree of understanding: if you are in the middle of a huge crisis like this, people are going to be using every means they can to make sure they respond to the immediate crisis

Except the Tories weren't; "using every means"; because, despite the offer, they very deliberately ignored the massive EU scheme to manufacture ventilators.

I suspect that those EU-manufactured ventilators would not have actually shipped to the UK.

[Rinkals]

Can we just not agree collectively that they are indeed scum of the highest order?

You need to define "highest order".

The problem is that, as soon as you do so, they'll surpass it.

[tabascoboy]

It's even too much for one of their own.

Johnny Mercer: Sacked minister attacks 'distrustful' government

A former veterans minister has hit out at the government as "the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in". Tory MP Johnny Mercer told Times Radio "almost nobody tells the truth," and election pledges had not been delivered.

It follows his departure over legal protections for British troops who fought during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. No 10 has pledged action on the issue.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight in an interview that will air later on Wednesday, Mr Mercer said Boris Johnson had failed to deliver on promises to protect ex-soldiers who served in Northern Ireland from prosecution.

"Politics is a question of integrity, this whole trust thing," he added. "This is the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in, in government. Almost nobody tells the truth is what I've worked out over the last 36 hours.

"I don't think anyone really can get on their high horse about trust and ethics and all the rest of it in politics, because as far as I'm concerned, most of it is a bit of a cesspit".

[fishfoodie]

It's even too much for one of their own.

Johnny Mercer: Sacked minister attacks 'distrustful' government

A former veterans minister has hit out at the government as "the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in". Tory MP Johnny Mercer told Times Radio "almost nobody tells the truth," and election pledges had not been delivered.

It follows his departure over legal protections for British troops who fought during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. No 10 has pledged action on the issue.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight in an interview that will air later on Wednesday, Mr Mercer said Boris Johnson had failed to deliver on promises to protect ex-soldiers who served in Northern Ireland from prosecution.

"Politics is a question of integrity, this whole trust thing," he added. "This is the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in, in government. Almost nobody tells the truth is what I've worked out over the last 36 hours.

"I don't think anyone really can get on their high horse about trust and ethics and all the rest of it in politics, because as far as I'm concerned, most of it is a bit of a cesspit".

He's always seemed a decent individual; but being Irish, I don't agree with soldier's who may have committed crimes, just getting a walk.

There should have been an NI version of South Africa's, Truth & Reconciliation process, & in return for Soldiers, & Officers getting a pardon, they should have had to give a full & honest testimony of what happened; just like everyone else.

The poison has never been fully drawn, & there are a lot of things that people take for granted as facts; but until someone confirms these things under oath, & in public; there's no closure for people.

A few years ago, when the Bloody Sunday inquiry was re-opened, I remember hearing an interview with Eamonn McCann; who would hardly be a Tory boy; & he didn't want to see, "Old Men", going to prison; he just wanted them to describe what happened on the day; & then go home. I think he'd be speaking for the vast majority of Nationalists. The people in NI know better than any; that in the land for an eye for an eye, everyone ends up blind.

[mat the expat]

Brazen doesn't do it justice

Luckily, the Football scandal is in the press

Don't forget that threat to extinction of the human race, COVID.

Judging by the footage of social distancing in the UK, Fitba is more important to them

[Insane_Homer]

High-risk contracts

Contracts awarded to companies with political connections:
Twenty-four PPE contracts worth £1.6 billion were awarded to those with known political connections to Conservative Party.

Three contracts worth £536 million went to politically connected companies for testing related services.

Contracts awarded without competition:
Between February and November 2020, 98.9 percent of COVID-19 related contracts by value (£17.8 billion) were awarded without any form of competition, many without adequate justification.

Contracts awarded to companies with no track record of supplying goods or services:
Fourteen companies incorporated in 2020 received contracts worth more than £620 million, of which 13 contracts totalling £255 million went to 10 firms that were less than 60 days old.

https://www.transparency.org.uk/track-a ... k-VIP-lane

[Torquemada 1420]

Can we just not agree collectively that they are indeed scum of the highest order?

You need to define "highest order".

The problem is that, as soon as you do so, they'll surpass it.

There was a line in a book I read many years ago which went something like:
"every time I think I've witnessed the bottom of human depravity, I encounter someone who takes it even lower".

The very worst thing , as we've commented, is despite the brazen levels, scale and volume of their corruptions, most of the public is disinterested.

Every nation gets the government it deserves [/Joseph de Maistre]

[Torquemada 1420]

High-risk contracts

Contracts awarded to companies with political connections:
Twenty-four PPE contracts worth £1.6 billion were awarded to those with known political connections to Conservative Party.

Three contracts worth £536 million went to politically connected companies for testing related services.

Contracts awarded without competition:
Between February and November 2020, 98.9 percent of COVID-19 related contracts by value (£17.8 billion) were awarded without any form of competition, many without adequate justification.

Contracts awarded to companies with no track record of supplying goods or services:
Fourteen companies incorporated in 2020 received contracts worth more than £620 million, of which 13 contracts totalling £255 million went to 10 firms that were less than 60 days old.

https://www.transparency.org.uk/track-a ... k-VIP-lane

Bring back Guy Fawkes.

[Torquemada 1420]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 35664.html

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that it was “very good” thing that business leaders have had direct access to ministers and those making decisions in Whitehall.

[Insane_Homer]

[Insane_Homer]

[Insane_Homer]

[Torquemada 1420]

[dpedin]

Bunch of reckon crooks, and not even that good or clever ones at that. Arrogance exceeds their intellect!

[Tichtheid]

Bunch of reckon crooks, and not even that good or clever ones at that. Arrogance exceeds their intellect!

The Cons have a nine point leas over Labour and it's been increasing for months, they are going to continue tipping the contents of the till into their mates' back pockets as long as this keeps up.

The British electorate are apparently morons.

It's difficult to come to any other conclusion.

[salanya]

Bunch of reckon crooks, and not even that good or clever ones at that. Arrogance exceeds their intellect!

The Cons have a nine point leas over Labour and it's been increasing for months, they are going to continue tipping the contents of the till into their mates' back pockets as long as this keeps up.

The British electorate are apparently morons.

It's difficult to come to any other conclusion.

There's definitely a few other suggestions/debatables/conclusions (most will be related in some way or other):
- the quality of political reporting and debate in national media
- the overall quality of politicians and political parties
- public engagement with politics
- public awareness and political empowerment
- history and traditions of how people in the UK interact with politics and politicians
- the power/influence of the wealthiest groups and people in society (and their relationships with politicians)
- traditional intertwinement between politics and economics
- general polarisation in society (which likely won't have a positive influence of politics and politicians in future)
- general limitations of democracy

I'm sure there's plenty to add.

[Torquemada 1420]

Brexit has aided the Tories because now no scrutiny from a higher authority possible.

[Openside]

[Hal Jordan]

I think that the Tories have realised that, like Trump, and many populists before them, if you drown people in a torrent of lies and grift and be absolutely brazen and unashamed about it whilst hurling the contents of the morgue of the Battersea Dogs and Cats home onto the table every day, it is very hard to hold them to account with a largely supine media, an opposition that is as eager, if not more, to stab itself in the front, back and sides than to oppose, plus the general apathy towards politics in the public, then they can rort the gravy train long enough to salt it away where we ain't getting it back, plus ram through some absolutely shitheel policies whilst we're all looking the other way.

Add to that the strange reaction of many people seeming to have a sneaking admiration for the sexual incontinence, lies and utter laziness of "Boris" and it's a match made in heaven.

[Glaston]

The reason for the Conservatives lead in the polls





Because the leftieTards are useless at everything except hot air, vis a vis this thread.


All the hot air about Dyson and Labours shadow cabinet minister admitting they would likely have done the same thing.

[Glaston]

I think that the Tories have realised that, like Trump, and many populists before them, if you drown people in a torrent of lies and grift and be absolutely brazen and unashamed about it whilst hurling the contents of the morgue of the Battersea Dogs and Cats home onto the table every day, it is very hard to hold them to account with a largely supine media, an opposition that is as eager, if not more, to stab itself in the front, back and sides than to oppose, plus the general apathy towards politics in the public, then they can rort the gravy train long enough to salt it away where we ain't getting it back, plus ram through some absolutely shitheel policies whilst we're all looking the other way.

Add to that the strange reaction of many people seeming to have a sneaking admiration for the sexual incontinence, lies and utter laziness of "Boris" and it's a match made in heaven.

Boris is Blair with wierd hair

[SaintK]

The reason for the Conservatives lead in the polls





Because the leftieTards are useless at everything except hot air, vis a vis this thread.


All the hot air about Dyson and Labours shadow cabinet minister admitting they would likely have done the same thing.

WTF is a "Tard"

[Happyhooker]

Abbreviation of retard

[Sandstorm]

How exactly do you protest against the Govt when gatherings are banned? Do journalists get the same access to sources as before? Does anyone actually care what is leaked on Twitter these days?

It’s the perfect time for the Tories to fill their beaks while the rest of us worry about getting ill. Hopefully post-Covid19 we can get stuck into questioning the sleaze properly again. Maybe....

[Insane_Homer]

the only 'tards here are one that can read through pages and pages of transgressions on this thread and this, "Yup, I'll vote for them"