Stop voting for fucking Tories

[Hal Jordan]

Meanwhile, spiteful Ladder Puller In Chief Braverman is looking into making it a legal duty for the Home Secretary to send asylum seekers offshore.

It doesn't matter how vicious you are, my dear, when Norsefire get elected your reward for all the vileness will be a hearty thanks and luxury transport in the back of a van, black hood as a complimentary service.

[tabascoboy]

The government granted licences for a British law firm to work on the case, and approved key steps along the way;

Love to know which civil servant signed those off.

As well as why this government is facilitating intimidation of independent investigative journalism... ( not that it's hard to fathom )

[C69]

A long thread about Zahawi's history of statements about his tax declarations, repeatedly over a long period made claims that were at best "disingenuous". Just makes you wonder what else might be uncovered about all of them in the top tier of the Tories.

Fantastic forensics from Neidle. Saw him on TV last night, bit of a character as well!

Yeah great interview, Matt Lucas springs to mind.

[SaintK]

A long thread about Zahawi's history of statements about his tax declarations, repeatedly over a long period made claims that were at best "disingenuous". Just makes you wonder what else might be uncovered about all of them in the top tier of the Tories.

Fantastic forensics from Neidle. Saw him on TV last night, bit of a character as well!

Yeah great interview, Matt Lucas springs to mind.

with big glasses!

[Blackmac]

RISHI SUNAK was visiting a Scottish primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr Sunak if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a ...'TRAGEDY'. A little boy stood up and offered: “If ma best freen,... wha lives on a fairm, is playin' in the field an' a tractor runs ower him and kills him, that wid be a tragedy”. “No”, said Rishi - “that would be an accident”.
A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus kerryin' fufty children drove ower a cliff, killing a'b'dy inside, that wid be a tragedy”. “I'm afraid not” explained Rishi - “that's what we would call a great loss”.
The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Rishi searched the room. “Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?” Finally at the back of the room, wee Johnny raised his hand... In a quiet voice he said: “If a plane kerryin' you and the Tory Cabinet wis struck by a 'freendly fire' missile & blawn tae smithereens, that wid be a tragedy”. “Fantastic!” exclaimed Rishi. “That's right. Can you tell me why that would be a tragedy”? “Weel” says wee Johnny “it his tae be a tragedy, because it certainly widnae be a great loss..... and it probably widnae be a fucking accident either”!

[SaintK]

RISHI SUNAK was visiting a Scottish primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr Sunak if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a ...'TRAGEDY'. A little boy stood up and offered: “If ma best freen,... wha lives on a fairm, is playin' in the field an' a tractor runs ower him and kills him, that wid be a tragedy”. “No”, said Rishi - “that would be an accident”.
A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus kerryin' fufty children drove ower a cliff, killing a'b'dy inside, that wid be a tragedy”. “I'm afraid not” explained Rishi - “that's what we would call a great loss”.
The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Rishi searched the room. “Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?” Finally at the back of the room, wee Johnny raised his hand... In a quiet voice he said: “If a plane kerryin' you and the Tory Cabinet wis struck by a 'freendly fire' missile & blawn tae smithereens, that wid be a tragedy”. “Fantastic!” exclaimed Rishi. “That's right. Can you tell me why that would be a tragedy”? “Weel” says wee Johnny “it his tae be a tragedy, because it certainly widnae be a great loss..... and it probably widnae be a fucking accident either”!

[sturginho]

This sort of collusion with oligarchs out of self-interest has been an issue going back to the 1990s for sure, but this one is even worse in the circumstances...more evidence of a Government not fit for purpose

Revealed: UK government helped sanctioned Putin ally sue British journalist

The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder of Wagner, a private army that the US government last week announced it would designate a “transnational criminal organisation”, allowing it to impose even tougher sanctions on the group. For years it has been accused of human rights abuses and war crimes in Ukraine and across the world in support of Putin’s regime.

Sanctions introduced in the UK and Europe in 2020 were supposed to prevent anyone from doing business with Prigozhin. He had also been sanctioned in the US in 2018.

But a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licences in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts.

The notorious libel suit against Eliot Higgins personally followed revelations by his website Bellingcat about Wagner’s shadowy operations, and was part of Prigozhin’s strategy to undermine the sanctions against him.

The case collapsed in March 2022, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But key details of how the sanctioned oligarch was able to pursue the legal attack have remained a secret until now.

An investigation by openDemocracy has found that:

The government granted licences for a British law firm to work on the case, and approved key steps along the way;
Sanctions prevented Prigozhin from coming to London, but the UK government gave permission for his British lawyers to fly business class to St Petersburg so they could meet face-to-face and finalise their legal attack on Higgins;

Prigozhin paid his London lawyers directly via wire transfer from Russia, causing the UK bank to initially withhold funds due to sanctions;
The London case was a key plank of his strategy to thwart the global sanctions.
The vast cache of hacked emails and documents from one of Russia’s biggest law firms was made available to openDemocracy and The Intercept, which first revealed other details from the hack.

It lays bare the incredible ease with which one of the world’s most notorious warmongers was able to use the UK legal system to try and further his aims, even while sanctioned.

More at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigoz ... bel-slapp/

That's out and out treason

[sturginho]

RISHI SUNAK was visiting a Scottish primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr Sunak if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a ...'TRAGEDY'. A little boy stood up and offered: “If ma best freen,... wha lives on a fairm, is playin' in the field an' a tractor runs ower him and kills him, that wid be a tragedy”. “No”, said Rishi - “that would be an accident”.
A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus kerryin' fufty children drove ower a cliff, killing a'b'dy inside, that wid be a tragedy”. “I'm afraid not” explained Rishi - “that's what we would call a great loss”.
The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Rishi searched the room. “Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?” Finally at the back of the room, wee Johnny raised his hand... In a quiet voice he said: “If a plane kerryin' you and the Tory Cabinet wis struck by a 'freendly fire' missile & blawn tae smithereens, that wid be a tragedy”. “Fantastic!” exclaimed Rishi. “That's right. Can you tell me why that would be a tragedy”? “Weel” says wee Johnny “it his tae be a tragedy, because it certainly widnae be a great loss..... and it probably widnae be a fucking accident either”!

[_Os_]

This sort of collusion with oligarchs out of self-interest has been an issue going back to the 1990s for sure, but this one is even worse in the circumstances...more evidence of a Government not fit for purpose

Revealed: UK government helped sanctioned Putin ally sue British journalist

The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder of Wagner, a private army that the US government last week announced it would designate a “transnational criminal organisation”, allowing it to impose even tougher sanctions on the group. For years it has been accused of human rights abuses and war crimes in Ukraine and across the world in support of Putin’s regime.

Sanctions introduced in the UK and Europe in 2020 were supposed to prevent anyone from doing business with Prigozhin. He had also been sanctioned in the US in 2018.

But a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licences in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts.

The notorious libel suit against Eliot Higgins personally followed revelations by his website Bellingcat about Wagner’s shadowy operations, and was part of Prigozhin’s strategy to undermine the sanctions against him.

The case collapsed in March 2022, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But key details of how the sanctioned oligarch was able to pursue the legal attack have remained a secret until now.

An investigation by openDemocracy has found that:

The government granted licences for a British law firm to work on the case, and approved key steps along the way;
Sanctions prevented Prigozhin from coming to London, but the UK government gave permission for his British lawyers to fly business class to St Petersburg so they could meet face-to-face and finalise their legal attack on Higgins;

Prigozhin paid his London lawyers directly via wire transfer from Russia, causing the UK bank to initially withhold funds due to sanctions;
The London case was a key plank of his strategy to thwart the global sanctions.
The vast cache of hacked emails and documents from one of Russia’s biggest law firms was made available to openDemocracy and The Intercept, which first revealed other details from the hack.

It lays bare the incredible ease with which one of the world’s most notorious warmongers was able to use the UK legal system to try and further his aims, even while sanctioned.

More at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigoz ... bel-slapp/

Tory connections to Russian oligarchs are super dodgy. What makes it particularly bad is it's not just one guy with some dirty money trying to buy favours in a foreign country, it's instead been quite systemic with multiple different actors on a sustained ongoing basis. I posted about this before the full scale invasion of Ukraine too. The Tories themselves seem very naive about it all, they didn't (maybe still don't?) seem to care where the money is coming from. No one gets rich and stays rich in Russia without being part of the Putin system.

There is no reason to help someone like Prigozhin, unless someone somewhere had the power to call in a favour.

[_Os_]

Some more on the Tory's foreign friends. Rwanda is still up to its usual tricks. M23 (a DRC rebel group supported by Rwanda to such an extent that it's a Rwandan proxy) executed 100s of civilians last month including children, DRC government forces are responding but Rwanda now seems keen on shooting down the DRC's tiny air force (Goma is a city on the border, it's easy to stray into Rwandan airspace briefly when defending the city). M23 was dormant/destroyed (in no small part because South Africa intervened and killed a lot of them) but was revived last year. Strange how guys hiding out in a jungle can reform and continue their genocidal mission, suddenly being armed again and wiping out villages, almost like it's not just some guys hiding out in the jungle. There's reports, including from UN monitors, that M23 is behaving like a conventional force and Rwandan officers are on the ground inside the DRC commanding them.

Rwanda is a country the Tories want the UK public to think is a totally normal democratic type of place, so people can be deported there.

[petej]

Another private equity companies children's "care" home providing abuse.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63792458
The whole idea of making profits off this sort of thing stinks. The only thing these companies care about is profit, therefore, they need to be heavily fined. 16% profit £12million. On the Tory thread because this is very Tory Britain.

[tabascoboy]

[Lobby]

You missed his "if in doubt, mention Corbyn" option, which as it turns out was pretty much his first response.

[tabascoboy]

Ooof...

[SaintK]

Ooof...

Spoiler

Show

Ooof indeed
That was a humiliation for Sunak
And the look on Braverman's face when she got a mention.........priceless

[tabascoboy]

[Raggs]

Came to post that. Truly disgusting.

[SaintK]

Par for the course from Gullis. Cunt of a man
Hopefully when he loses his seat (which he is likely to) and tries to get back into teaching this will be raised at his interview

[dpedin]

Ooof...

Spoiler

Show

Ooof indeed
That was a humiliation for Sunak
And the look on Braverman's face when she got a mention.........priceless

Sunak is like a little boy lost in a maze waiting for his mum to come find him. This will continue and continue for him and the thieving cunts in his party and as soon as they think this scandal is dying down then as sure as eggs are eggs another slimeball or dodgy deal will emerge. He really his out of his depth and can't move because he is held to hostage by the nutters and the twats on the right of his party and the non-dom dodgy dark funders of the party. He is already a dead man walking and if I was him I would resign and skip off with my rich wife and kids to California asap.

[C69]

Physios in the NHS going on strike tomorrow then the Junior Doctors soon.
Dear God, perhaps the first time you may see twin set and pearls on the picket line.


Seriously wtaf?

[C69]

The Beeb now running the Story about Prigozhin.
This is going to be dynamite.

[fishfoodie]

The Beeb now running the Story about Prigozhin.
This is going to be dynamite.

... as apposed to the massive story that was appointing a senior KGB officers son to the HoL, & refusing to acknowledge the M15 analysis which said that appointing him was a fucking awful idea ?

Oh hang on; that wasn't a story at all, & it just happened, & no-one much gave a shit, & the MSM didn't bother their arses reporting it !

Tell me why this is different ??

[C69]

The Beeb now running the Story about Prigozhin.
This is going to be dynamite.

... as apposed to the massive story that was appointing a senior KGB officers son to the HoL, & refusing to acknowledge the M15 analysis which said that appointing him was a fucking awful idea ?

Oh hang on; that wasn't a story at all, & it just happened, & no-one much gave a shit, & the MSM didn't bother their arses reporting it !

Tell me why this is different ??

Oh absolutely but at least the MSM are reporting it at least

[fishfoodie]

The Beeb now running the Story about Prigozhin.
This is going to be dynamite.

... as apposed to the massive story that was appointing a senior KGB officers son to the HoL, & refusing to acknowledge the M15 analysis which said that appointing him was a fucking awful idea ?

Oh hang on; that wasn't a story at all, & it just happened, & no-one much gave a shit, & the MSM didn't bother their arses reporting it !

Tell me why this is different ??

Oh absolutely but at least the MSM are reporting it at least

dynamite is Tories dangling from lamp posts; this is a wet fart.

the uk electorate has shown themselves to be immune to the last dozen attacks on their democracy, & fundamental rights; forgive me if I don't hold my breath this time around.

[tabascoboy]

Zahawi, Raab, Johnson, Gullis? How many more in what should be a long and packed agenda...

Chief Political Correspondent Nick Eardley told #BBCBreakfast: The Cabinet is meeting at the PM's country house Chequers with Rishi Sunak dealing with issues about the conduct of several Ministers.

[Tichtheid]

[Tichtheid]

the uk electorate has shown themselves to be immune to the last dozen attacks on their democracy, & fundamental rights; forgive me if I don't hold my breath this time around.

Oh no, you can't insult the electorate, that makes it all the fault of these who vehemently oppose the government

[I like neeps]

The Tories want mums to get back to work, what isn't in their plans to make it happen? Affordable childcare.

You won't meet anyone as economically illiterate as a Tory.

[C69]

The Tories want mums to get back to work, what isn't in their plans to make it happen? Affordable childcare.

You won't meet anyone as economically illiterate as a Tory.

They really are thick as shit.
Worse still in many ways are those who have retired early.
I am waiting the NHS pension review on the matter of flexible retirement.
The NHS is a fecking horrible place to work atm
Hoovering up staff from all over the world and dumping them in environments that they have no idea about whatsoever.
The language barrier has been made much worse by many clinical environments still mandating mask wear.

[Torquemada 1420]

dynamite is Tories dangling from lamp posts;

I'd call that justice.

[Hal Jordan]

"Careless" is a technical term HMRC use to mark the level of the offence, others might have been "Deliberate" (tut) or "Deliberate and Concealed" (big tut).

[_Os_]

1. Imagine a situation where the state has misunderstood its own nationality laws for 20 years. That state has either wrongly issued passports to tens of thousands of people and will now have to take them back. Or has wrongly denied citizenship to tens of thousands of others.
2. Inevitably, it is the British state we're talking about. Those affected are children of EU citizens where the parent from whom British citizenship was derived did not have formal settled status. Children who can claim British citizenship from another parent are not affected.
3. Before 2 October 2000, the Home Office thought that all EU citizens living and working in the UK were "settled" for the purposes of British nationality law, therefore their children born in the UK after 1/1/83 were British.
4. The Home Office changed its mind with effect from 2 October 2000 and decided that EU citizens needed to have been granted indefinite leave to remain to be "settled". But the law had not changed, the Home Office just changed its interpretation of the law.
5. The High Court has found that the Home Office couldn't be right both before 2 October 2000 and after. Either those born between 1/1/83 and 31/12/20 were all not British or they all were British, irrespective of whether the parent had formal settled status.
6. The court decided that they were all not British. The Home Office had been wrongly recognising as British the affected children born before 2/10/00. Their status is now unclear. There may be an appeal, so this may not be the final word.
7. If the outcome stays the same, logic suggests they aren't in truth British citizens even though they may have been issued with passports. Passports are evidence of nationality, they don't confer it. Passports can be (and are) wrongly issued and then have to be withdrawn.
8. If the outcome is reversed (the Home Office was right before 2/10/00 and wrong after) then tens of thousands of children of EU citizens born since then were wrongly charged registration fees or denied citizenship. The parents would not have needed ILR or permanent residence.
9. My write up here. I'm not sure I've explained it clearly in this thread or in the blog post. It's a really complicated issue. But it looks like a monumental, epic screw up by the Home Office, which has simply buried its head in the sand for years.

https://freemovement.org.uk/high-court- ... -citizens/

Windrush MK2 is loading.

To be clear what this will mean, if it goes through. Anyone born in the UK to two EU citizen parents between 1983 and 2020, will be stripped of their British citizenship (because their parents would've been very unlikely to have ILR when they were born, as their parents would've been using free movement to come to the UK and not subject to visa control, IRL would be a pointless thing for them to get). What this will mean is potentially thousands of people in their adulthood who have only ever lived in the UK, will suddenly find themselves unable to work, unable to access benefits or the NHS, stateless, applying for non-UK citizenship (they may or may not qualify for), and having to prove they've lived in the UK for the past 5 years (that essentially depends on Home Office discretion regardless what evidence is provided) to acquire ILR in their new non-UK passport. The lead times on all those processes (potentially years), will simply mean some people without strong family/friend connections they can rely on (potentially for years) end up on the street or dead ... and I'm not exaggerating.

Immigration/citizenship law needs urgent attention in the UK, and not in the way Tory Home Secretaries bang on about. No one in the system (courts/Home Office/experts) really knows how it works and interpretation changes often, a total mess.

[tabascoboy]

Windrush MK2 is loading.

To be clear what this will mean, if it goes through. Anyone born in the UK to two EU citizen parents between 1983 and 2020, will be stripped of their British citizenship (because their parents would've been very unlikely to have ILR when they were born, as their parents would've been using free movement to come to the UK and not subject to visa control, IRL would be a pointless thing for them to get). What this will mean is potentially thousands of people in their adulthood who have only ever lived in the UK, will suddenly find themselves unable to work, unable to access benefits or the NHS, stateless, applying for non-UK citizenship (they may or may not qualify for), and having to prove they've lived in the UK for the past 5 years (that essentially depends on Home Office discretion regardless what evidence is provided) to acquire ILR in their new non-UK passport. The lead times on all those processes (potentially years), will simply mean some people without strong family/friend connections they can rely on (potentially for years) end up on the street or dead ... and I'm not exaggerating.

Immigration/citizenship law needs urgent attention in the UK, and not in the way Tory Home Secretaries bang on about. No one in the system (courts/Home Office/experts) really knows how it works and interpretation changes often, a total mess.

Well with this one at least the current Government can claim this issue dates back over numerous administrations right back to their own British Nationality Act 1981, but also can't pin this exclusively on the Labour governments as is their usual wont and "strategy". Let's hope that they sit down and work to a settlement that isn't the clusterfuck we have come to expect...

[_Os_]

Well with this one at least the current Government can claim this issue dates back over numerous administrations right back to their own British Nationality Act 1981, but also can't pin this exclusively on the Labour governments as is their usual wont and "strategy". Let's hope that they sit down and work to a settlement that isn't the clusterfuck we have come to expect...

If I was one of those people I would start the process of applying for any non-UK citizenship I was entitled to immediately.

In this area of UK law, rationality/common sense/fairness whatever you want to call it, doesn't always make an appearance when you think it will. You come to expect thorough going insanity.

[tabascoboy]

HMRC boss tells MPs ‘innocent errors’ are not penalised amid Zahawi tax row

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... wi-tax-row

[dpedin]

Well with this one at least the current Government can claim this issue dates back over numerous administrations right back to their own British Nationality Act 1981, but also can't pin this exclusively on the Labour governments as is their usual wont and "strategy". Let's hope that they sit down and work to a settlement that isn't the clusterfuck we have come to expect...

If I was one of those people I would start the process of applying for any non-UK citizenship I was entitled to immediately.

In this area of UK law, rationality/common sense/fairness whatever you want to call it, doesn't always make an appearance when you think it will. You come to expect thorough going insanity.

What a feckin shitshow! Home Office just isn't fit for purpose.

[Hal Jordan]

I get the feeling that some in the Home Office will only be happy when no one has a right to live here, irrespective of where they were born.

[tabascoboy]

I get the feeling that some in the Home Office will only be happy when no one has a right to live here, irrespective of where they were born.

...and the entire population apart from a "lucky" few, deported to Rwanda for "processing"


Windrush inquiry head disappointed as Braverman drops ‘crucial’ measures

Wendy Williams’ remarks come after home secretary confirms three key commitments will not now be implemented

The head of the inquiry into the Windrush debacle has expressed disappointment after Suella Braverman confirmed she has dropped three key reform commitments made after the Home Office scandal.

The home secretary said she would not implement two changes that would have increased independent scrutiny of the Home Office’s immigration policies and a third promise to run reconciliation events with Windrush families.

The recommendations were accepted three years ago by the government, after a formal inquiry by Wendy Williams examined the scandal under which the Home Office erroneously classified legal residents, many of whom arrived from Caribbean countries as children in the 1950s and 1960s, as immigrants living in the UK illegally.

Braverman wrote in a written ministerial statement: “The Home Office regularly reviews the best way to deliver against the intent of Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned review.

“As such, after considering officials’ advice, I have decided not to proceed with recommendations 3 (run reconciliation events), 9 (introduce migrants’ commissioner) and 10 (review the remit and role of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration) in their original format.”

The decision to drop promises made by the former home secretary Priti Patel, which was first reported in the Guardian and dismissed as speculation by a government minister, has prompted Williams to issue a rare statement.

Williams said she was concerned that the government had dropped the promise to create the post of a migrants’ commissioner, who would have been responsible for speaking up for migrants and identifying systemic problems within the UK immigration system.

Another promise, to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) so that they would be able to launch and release their own inquiries has also been abandoned, as work on the post-Windrush reform programme is downgraded.

Williams said: “I am disappointed that the department has decided not to implement what I see as the crucial external scrutiny measures, namely my recommendations related to the migrants’ commissioner (recommendation 9) and the ICIBI (recommmendation 10), as I believe they will raise the confidence of the Windrush community, but also help the department succeed as it works to protect the wider public, of whom the Windrush generation is such an important part.”

Patel made a firm promise to introduce all 30 recommendations made by Williams in 2020, who listed in her Windrush Lessons Learned review the precise steps the department needed to take to avoid any repeat of the scandal.

David Neal, the current independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said the decision was a “missed opportunity” to improve scrutiny and trust in the government’s policies.

One of the people affected by the scandal, Judy Griffith, 68, was told by a jobcentre employee that she was an “illegal immigrant” in 2015, 52 years after she had arrived as a nine-year-old from Barbados. She was unable to work and as a result got into significant arrears and narrowly escaped eviction. She was also unable to travel, could not visit her sick mother in Barbados and missed her funeral in 2016. She said was depressed to hear that some of the reform commitments were being dropped.

“It feels like they aren’t interested in learning lessons. So many reports and recommendations have been published but so much of it has not been followed through,” she said. “So many of us are still waiting for justice.”

[dpedin]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64409947

Good God!

[fishfoodie]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64409947

Good God!

He has all the necessary requirements to work for GB News, as he's a despicable, immoral,, bigoted cunt.

Does the UK not have any legislation for, "Equal Time", when media outlets, give Politicians a platform ?