Stop voting for fucking Tories

[inactionman]

Sir Bernard outed as a reader of The Sun. Who'd have thought it.

To be honest, much of Thatcher's government in particular had a very nasty view of football fans and did the square root of f-all to protect their interests.

[I like neeps]

My entire feed is now variations on this tweet, or retweets of variations on this tweet:

Very funny.

Also, not how you sell the deal to the DUP. Who have almost no interest in the economic prospects of Northern Ireland.

[Lobby]

Christopher Hitchens view of Ingham seemed pretty on the money. He described him as a “bulldog-visaged, anti-intellectual, aggressive, insecure, class-conscious reactionary tyke” whose influence pushed “Fleet Street… several steps towards an American system of Presidentially-managed coverage and sound-bite deference” and who often engaged in “simple blackmail” with the press to trade access for docility.

Although he was nominally a civil servant, it was Ingham who solidified the role of Government spin doctor to manage the press, so readily adopted by Alistair Campbell and those that have followed him.

[Biffer]

He was a rambunctious old sod alright - didn't he have a Victor Meldrew moment about homosexuals in his home town?

I'm sure he had a "Victor Meldrew" moment about a lot of things

Yep. This.

[SaintK]

He was a rambunctious old sod alright - didn't he have a Victor Meldrew moment about homosexuals in his home town?

I'm sure he had a "Victor Meldrew" moment about a lot of things

That is utterly despicable. Bet he never apologised either.

[Biffer]

I'm sure he had a "Victor Meldrew" moment about a lot of things

That is utterly despicable. Bet he never apologised either.

Worse than that, he continued to maintain it was correct.

[_Os_]

Sunak isn't very good at politics. Armchair ride to the top, safe Tory seat, lost a leadership contest against a moron, and still ended up PM.

He's got his name in the history books already. The Tories are fucked, both in council elections and the coming GE. So what does he have to lose really? He should tell the hard right to fuck off, push through his NI deal, purge the crazies and no hopers by sending them to the backbenches and replace them with MPs no one has heard of (which no one can have a negative opinion on), push for maximum punishment of Big Dog through the privileges process make him pay his own legal fees and block him getting a safe seat next GE (basically politically kill a rival while he can).

He's gone in the next two years anyway, he may as well try and do something, put up a fight at least. Instead Big Dog seems to think he has a shot at a come back this year, and he's in the same NI/GFA/ERG/DUP trap as his predecessors ended up in when everyone knows that story will end in the ERG/DUP getting nothing and being told to fuck off.

If he fails to push this NI deal through he'll look incredibly weak, dead man walking after council elections. Then the return of Big Dog I guess.

It looks like Sunak will get this deal through, the real problem it solves is about businesses in NI, the political problem though doesn't really exist and is concocted by the DUP and ERG. So what happens next looks something like this ...

It's impossible to imagine the DUP happily being the lesser party in power sharing government when not just republicans but SF itself is in power. The entire point of the DUP is preventing republicans having power, they say "no" to everything as any change inevitably leads to that. I would say most of its representatives are bigots, their supporters are a bit different though ... going into power sharing long term as the lesser party to SF (the likely best case scenario for the DUP), will mean their bigoted supporters moving to TUV (probably a minority of their support), others giving up voting, and those in the past which may opted for UUP going to Alliance (because what's the point of soft unionism that's sectarian and cannot get into power). Given a whole raft of factors (demographics, cohesiveness of Irish nationalism, NI still in fact increasingly being different to GB because of the GFA and now Brexit), it could now always be the case that a republican party is dominant in NI. The DUP either accepts that and forms a government, in which case it'll risk going under entirely. Or the DUP keeps saying "no" for some bullshit reason, if they keep obstructing an NI government being formed they will eventually risk amendment of the GFA to allow governments to form when one of the parties that should be involved in power sharing keeps refusing.

The ERG is in a deeper mess. The problem for the Tory far right is they thought they could take UKIP policy, become a populist party and win a vast new constituency of former Labour voters, they thought this was all sustainable long term despite it all being nonsense that couldn't possibly help all the people they've lied to. NI is incidental to this, NI has no impact on the sort of voter the Tories were trying to win in England, who know little about NI and care even less about the NI protocol. Nor would they care or even be aware of NI doing better than GB with its Single Market access. Nothing in NI changes that Tories promised some voters in England levelling up and a better life, which has not appeared.

If this deal goes through as looks likely, Sunak could end Big Dog and purge any ERG holdouts.

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

[fishfoodie]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

[sturginho]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

[Paddington Bear]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

Nationalist parties poll a few percent over unionist ones and suddenly the sacred agreement isn't so sacred after all...

[_Os_]

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

Nationalist parties poll a few percent over unionist ones and suddenly the sacred agreement isn't so sacred after all...

The DUP's game is basically this: Try to take down the GFA (which they never supported), by relying on the GFA (and the broken politics that made it necessary) for all their leverage and power. This is not sustainable.

This has been their game throughout Brexit, they claim the GFA is being violated (no one ever agreeing with their interpretation, including the courts), then say their demands must be met to preserve the GFA, all whilst their overall (unstated) goal is ending the GFA and going back to a pre Anglo-Irish Agreement era (which is impossible).

The truth is the ground is moving from under them, they got 21.3% of the vote last time in NI. Unionist parties combined got 40%. Some of their potential constituency have worked out that a sectarian form of unionism is non-viable long term, this is a large part of the reason Alliance grew to 13.5%. The other part of their potential constituency has decided they're not bigoted enough and have moved to the TUV which grew to 7.6%. UUP continue their decline now down to their lowest ever of 11.2% (from generations ago having two thirds of the vote). In the DUP's potential constituency the only parties that are growing are Alliance and TUV.

Power sharing happens between the largest nationalist/republican party and the largest unionist/loyalist party. But on current trends there is a chance Alliance will be bigger than any unionist party, and Alliance is neither nationalist or unionist.

The DUP are taking a huge risk staying out of government. Because their power rests solely on the GFA, beyond that it's less real as time passes. Any threat of violence doesn't really hold up. With republican paramilitaries if there's a cause with at least some validity they would be able to rely on international support somewhere and would have support both in NI and RoI, it's a proven fact they don't go away and become increasingly sophisticated under those conditions. Loyalist paramilitaries aren't the same, they basically never had international backers (besides a quite complicated story about apartheid era SA), if UK security services don't want them to operate then they don't. Loyalist paramilitaries trying to operate against the wishes of the UK state to overturn whatever choices the UK state makes, just isn't a thing that would last long.

The DUPs 'attempts to undermine the GFA using Brexit, have just accelerated a united Ireland. If they continue causing problems then the outcome is going to be more of the same, which would mean cutting them out of power sharing potentially. If loyalists then attempted violence to change that, the solution would be far more likely to be a united Ireland than GFA2. The international community is not going to work out some whole new convoluted way of doing government to further preserve the power of 21%-40% of an electorate, after they refused to form a government for no good reason.

[_Os_]

One of the victims of Frost is historical Lords. When I read books on India and characters like Lord William Bentinck I always imagined them as really bright but now I read about Lords and a nagging doubt comes over me

Brexit Moses has come down from Mount Sinai, reveals this changes little to nothing and his own deal is still shithouse.

"What this deal does not seem to do is change the fundamentals. To restate them: the Protocol currently applies EU laws on customs, the goods single market, VAT and state aid in Northern Ireland. These EU laws work as if Northern Ireland was an EU member, enforced by EU institutions and ultimately the European Court of Justice. The EU must be confident that goods moving into Northern Ireland meet its standards and are authorised under EU customs, and that is what creates the trade barriers.
It is not obvious that this new deal changes this basic structure, only how it is applied. The Protocol is simply renamed the “Windsor Framework”. It is slightly amended but remains in place, and EU law remains supreme in Northern Ireland. "
"it isn’t taking back control. Indeed, it may entrench the Protocol superstructure rather than weaken it."
"A fairer statement of the position would be “this deal softens the application of the Protocol, but does not remove it. It’s the best we could persuade the EU to do because we weren’t prepared to use the Protocol Bill and the EU knew it”. "

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... ns-bitter/

[Hal Jordan]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

Not if the Americans are on board, I suspect. But it would have to be a Democratic leader, the GOP are too busy proposing secession, adopting the AR-15 as the national gun of America and generally screaming about Dominion and wokery.

[fishfoodie]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

It's just a piece of legislation, allbeit a Treaty, if all the signatories agree changes are needed, which isn't unexpected after 25 years & glacial progress on the Assemble functionality .....

The Governments could even cover themselves with a confirmatory Referendum in NI if they do make changes.

[Camroc2]

Ironically it hasn't actually solved his NI problem (and it definitely is a problem, if NI keeps not having a government there will be international pressure), because that isn't actually about Brexit. The moronic Frost hasn't spoken yet, his big gambit on all this was if the DUP is appeased and the "bad deal" (authored by err Frost) is improved then it all goes away, well lets see ...

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

It is an international treaty between the UK and Ireland. If Both partners agree on amending it, then it can be amended.

[GogLais]

If the DUP does as we all expect, & still refuses to join the Assembly, it gives the Governments all the justification they need to re-write the GFI to change it from requiring a party from the Unionist, & Nationalist sides, & just make it the from the two largest parties, so allowing the Alliance to be more than a spectator & encourage a move away from sectarian politics

Wouldnt amending the GFA (even with good intentions) open up an even bigger can of worms?

It is an international treaty between the UK and Ireland. If Both partners agree on amending it, then it can be amended.

Haven’t bothered checking but isn’t it more than a simple bilateral agreement between the two states? Or at least it took more than that to get to it.

[SaintK]

Hancock may not be enjoying reading today's Telegraph over his breakfast Cornflakes today

[dpedin]

Hancock may not be enjoying reading today's Telegraph over his breakfast Cornflakes today

Well this is interesting!

Hancocks WhatsApp messages leaked to Daily Nazigraph by Isabel Oakshott who helped ghostwrite his memoirs 'Pandemic Diaries'. Timing is interesting as is response from Hancock and his supporters.

Oakshott, partner of bampot Tice, is particularly miffed with current Tory Gov and the Windsor Agreement as it is a sell out of the hard Brexit (whatever that is) that they want to see. In fact they are pissed off with anything resembling a closer alignment between this country and the EU on any matter so will do whatever they can to throw shit at Sunal and the Gov and to promote their new anti EU vehicle Reform party.

Oakshott has previous form on this type of thing and wrote story on Darroch and his views on Trump based on leaked Gov emails. If Hancock trusted her to help write his book of fiction and gave her his messages then he is a complete feckin moron and deserves all he gets.

Hancock and supporters are saying the messages have been misquoted and we should wait for official enquiry to understand what happened during pandemic - this from the twat who has made a quick quid or two and appeared on I'm a Celeb and who wrote a best selling, sorry disaster, of a book in which he lied and doctored facts about his time as Health Secretary to make himself look good. Talk about pot calling ....

These twats - Hancock, Tice, Oakshott - are a bunch of useless feckin idiots. It is however interesting to watch them all fight like rats in a sack. Who knows what will come along next as the fighting gets dirtier and dirtier!

[Tichtheid]

Hancock and supporters are saying the messages have been misquoted and we should wait for official enquiry to understand what happened during pandemic - this from the twat who has made a quick quid or two and appeared on I'm a Celeb and who wrote a best selling, sorry disaster, of a book in which he lied and doctored facts about his time as Health Secretary to make himself look good. Talk about pot calling ....

Yeah, well that report isn't getting made public before the next election, if indeed it ever does.

[Paddington Bear]

Oakeshott is about the least trustworthy person in Westminster, and I do not say that lightly. Staggering he ever thought this wouldn't happen.

[SaintK]

Hancock and supporters are saying the messages have been misquoted and we should wait for official enquiry to understand what happened during pandemic - this from the twat who has made a quick quid or two and appeared on I'm a Celeb and who wrote a best selling, sorry disaster, of a book in which he lied and doctored facts about his time as Health Secretary to make himself look good. Talk about pot calling ....

Yeah, well that report isn't getting made public before the next election, if indeed it ever does.

The report won't see the light of day for years if this government has it's way.
Sweden has already published it's review and France are not far behind!

[Mahoney]

There must be a case for him releasing the material himself now so that the Torygraph's take on them can be challenged, otherwise the Torygraph completely controls how to spin them.

[SaintK]

Spoiler

Show

Hancock may not be enjoying reading today's Telegraph over his breakfast Cornflakes today

Well this is interesting!

Hancocks WhatsApp messages leaked to Daily Nazigraph by Isabel Oakshott who helped ghostwrite his memoirs 'Pandemic Diaries'. Timing is interesting as is response from Hancock and his supporters.

Oakshott, partner of bampot Tice, is particularly miffed with current Tory Gov and the Windsor Agreement as it is a sell out of the hard Brexit (whatever that is) that they want to see. In fact they are pissed off with anything resembling a closer alignment between this country and the EU on any matter so will do whatever they can to throw shit at Sunal and the Gov and to promote their new anti EU vehicle Reform party.

Oakshott has previous form on this type of thing and wrote story on Darroch and his views on Trump based on leaked Gov emails. If Hancock trusted her to help write his book of fiction and gave her his messages then he is a complete feckin moron and deserves all he gets.

Hancock and supporters are saying the messages have been misquoted and we should wait for official enquiry to understand what happened during pandemic - this from the twat who has made a quick quid or two and appeared on I'm a Celeb and who wrote a best selling, sorry disaster, of a book in which he lied and doctored facts about his time as Health Secretary to make himself look good. Talk about pot calling ....

These twats - Hancock, Tice, Oakshott - are a bunch of useless feckin idiots. It is however interesting to watch them all fight like rats in a sack. Who knows what will come along next as the fighting gets dirtier and dirtier!

Hancock deserves every gram of shit hurled his way. Let's see if he sues for lible
Oakeshott was rabidly anti-lockdown if I recall correctly.

[SaintK]

This will teach him to share this stuff so that he could try and get his excuses and side of the story in first

They show how Mr Hancock expressed concerns that expanding testing in care home could "get in the way" of his self-imposed target of 100,000 Covid tests per day.
They also contain evidence as to how Mr Hancock reached the target by including in the tally large numbers of tests that he knew might never be processed.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2F ... covid%2F

[tabascoboy]

I'm sure that our beloved PM will have convincing answers for any PMQ from Scots/English/Welsh MPs about why they can't share the benefit of access to the Single Market that he is now proposing for NI only...

[inactionman]

Am I being thick* or can any UK company set up a branch or simply operate in NI and then use that route for entry to EU? Or are there blocks to operating in NI for any other UK company?


* in general, asking that question usually means that yes, I'm being thick

[tabascoboy]

Am I being thick* or can any UK company set up a branch or simply operate in NI and then use that route for entry to EU? Or are there blocks to operating in NI for any other UK company?


* in general, asking that question usually means that yes, I'm being thick

Judging by what Leadsom has said, that appears to be what they are suggesting

Invest in Northern Ireland to get single market access, says Andrea Leadsom

[SaintK]

What a piece of work Oakeshott is and no mistake!!
Hancock is thick as pigshit to even have talked to her let alone hand her all his messages and texts in ther hope that shje would polish his halo

When Matt Hancock entrusted more than 100,000 of his personal WhatsApp messages to Isabel Oakeshott, he hoped the political journalist would help him write a book to rehabilitate his reputation as a pro-lockdown health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Oakeshott has admitted leaking the entire archive of messages to the Daily Telegraph, which is planning days of critical anti-lockdown stories about Hancock’s role in the pandemic.
Setting aside the merits of the news stories being underpinned by the trove of messages, Conservative MPs and political journalists have expressed some astonishment that Hancock entrusted millions of words of his private correspondence to Oakeshott, of all people

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ ... -hancock

[Hal Jordan]

I'm sure that our beloved PM will have convincing answers for any PMQ from Scots/English/Welsh MPs about why they can't share the benefit of access to the Single Market that he is now proposing for NI only...

That's yesterday's news, lockdown, Covid and I'm A Celebrity are far better clickbait.

Useful timing, really...

There is a concerted push by the grifters to paint the lockdown as completely unnecessary as Covid wasn't a real threat.

[GogLais]

I'm sure that our beloved PM will have convincing answers for any PMQ from Scots/English/Welsh MPs about why they can't share the benefit of access to the Single Market that he is now proposing for NI only...

I guess the fact that we don’t have a land border with the EU might have something to do with it.

[fishfoodie]

I'm sure that our beloved PM will have convincing answers for any PMQ from Scots/English/Welsh MPs about why they can't share the benefit of access to the Single Market that he is now proposing for NI only...

I guess the fact that we don’t have a land border with the EU might have something to do with it.

Start digging that tunnel immediately !

[GogLais]

I'm sure that our beloved PM will have convincing answers for any PMQ from Scots/English/Welsh MPs about why they can't share the benefit of access to the Single Market that he is now proposing for NI only...

I guess the fact that we don’t have a land border with the EU might have something to do with it.

Start digging that tunnel immediately !

Or crack on with the Holyhead Dublin bridge.

[tabascoboy]

I guess the fact that we don’t have a land border with the EU might have something to do with it.

Start digging that tunnel immediately !

Or crack on with the Holyhead Dublin bridge.

Or the extended Boris Bridge to Drogheda for Scotland!

Funny how leaving the single market was no sacrifice because...FREEDOM! but now it's a fantastic opportunity...

[C69]

Handcock V Oakenshit


Blue on blue going mad

[fishfoodie]

I guess the fact that we don’t have a land border with the EU might have something to do with it.

Start digging that tunnel immediately !

Or crack on with the Holyhead Dublin bridge.

You're a nation of miners !


... although the Severn Bridge is nice too

If you do a good job,we'll give you the contract for our attempt at a Dublin Metro line

[C69]

The Tory Party is having a proxy war.
It's delicious to watch

[Slick]

What a piece of work Oakeshott is and no mistake!!
Hancock is thick as pigshit to even have talked to her let alone hand her all his messages and texts in ther hope that shje would polish his halo

When Matt Hancock entrusted more than 100,000 of his personal WhatsApp messages to Isabel Oakeshott, he hoped the political journalist would help him write a book to rehabilitate his reputation as a pro-lockdown health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Oakeshott has admitted leaking the entire archive of messages to the Daily Telegraph, which is planning days of critical anti-lockdown stories about Hancock’s role in the pandemic.
Setting aside the merits of the news stories being underpinned by the trove of messages, Conservative MPs and political journalists have expressed some astonishment that Hancock entrusted millions of words of his private correspondence to Oakeshott, of all people

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ ... -hancock

It would be interesting to know what some of the less fame hungry, attention seeking journalists think of this

[Torquemada 1420]

What a piece of work Oakeshott is and no mistake!!
Hancock is thick as pigshit to even have talked to her

Assuming that's all he did.

[Sandstorm]

What a piece of work Oakeshott is and no mistake!!
Hancock is thick as pigshit to even have talked to her

Assuming that's all he did.

“Did you have sexual relations with Matt Hancock?”

[I like neeps]

What a piece of work Oakeshott is and no mistake!!
Hancock is thick as pigshit to even have talked to her let alone hand her all his messages and texts in ther hope that shje would polish his halo

When Matt Hancock entrusted more than 100,000 of his personal WhatsApp messages to Isabel Oakeshott, he hoped the political journalist would help him write a book to rehabilitate his reputation as a pro-lockdown health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, Oakeshott has admitted leaking the entire archive of messages to the Daily Telegraph, which is planning days of critical anti-lockdown stories about Hancock’s role in the pandemic.
Setting aside the merits of the news stories being underpinned by the trove of messages, Conservative MPs and political journalists have expressed some astonishment that Hancock entrusted millions of words of his private correspondence to Oakeshott, of all people

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ ... -hancock

It's insane he picked Oakeshott. Fame hungry, anti lockdown political pressure group mascerading as a journalist who has a long history of throwing sources under the bus and sometimes straight to jail.

Fame and money hungry Hancock has got what he deserves here.