NPR

How much of a shower of cunts do you have to be to piss off the RSPB, the epitome of mild mannered middle class nature conservationism, to the point they do this?

Classic instance of who and what are the current Tory party actually for? I'd wager a chunk of their voters are members of organisations like the RSPB and National Trust. Pissing those groups off is definitely going to filter down to their membership.

Biffer wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 12:46 pm How much of a shower of cunts do you have to be to piss off the RSPB, the epitome of mild mannered middle class nature conservationism, to the point they do this?

Was just about post that. I am a member and have never seen anything quite like that in my 40 years membership!!!!

I suspect the New Conservative Party (formerly the Labour Party) will roll over to have their tummies tickled and vote it through.

I often think of the tories around 2004- 2009 that I used to argue with, if they could read this.

I warned everyone, constantly about how shit they are.
I was called "biased".

This was when bitching constantly about Harriet Harmon was a thing they loved doing.

Christ almighty!
Grant Shapps appointed Defence Secretary

SaintK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:46 am Christ almighty!
Grant Shapps appointed Defence Secretary

In the words of Bill Bailey, It could've been far worse.

About as positive a take I can dredge up.

lemonhead wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:54 am

SaintK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:46 am Christ almighty!
Grant Shapps appointed Defence Secretary

In the words of Bill Bailey, It could've been far worse.

About as positive a take I can dredge up.

you think they cannot surprise, and yet disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox was being strongly linked with a return to the job.

which might only have been to give Shapps, a man who in every ministerial role once he reveals his ignorance has to be moved on, an easier entry, as people conclude yes it could have been worse

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:58 am

lemonhead wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:54 am

SaintK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:46 am Christ almighty!
Grant Shapps appointed Defence Secretary

In the words of Bill Bailey, It could've been far worse.

About as positive a take I can dredge up.

you think they cannot surprise, and yet disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox was being strongly linked with a return to the job.

which might only have been to give Shapps, a man who in every ministerial role once he reveals his ignorance has to be moved on, an easier entry, as people conclude yes it could have been worse

To be fair to the ex photocopier salesman and multi personality web grifter he will, given it is his 5th cabinet job in a year, be very well equipped to get up and running very quickly. I mean how difficult will it be for him, it's only a few soldier and some planes, tanks and ships to worry about! Putin will be shaking in his boots. I would love to see the SVR file on Shapps that is given to Putin to read.In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Putin already has a Russian party donor in place with the low down on the intellectual giant we know as Grant Shapps.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:58 am

lemonhead wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:54 am

SaintK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 8:46 am Christ almighty!
Grant Shapps appointed Defence Secretary

In the words of Bill Bailey, It could've been far worse.

About as positive a take I can dredge up.

you think they cannot surprise, and yet disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox was being strongly linked with a return to the job.

which might only have been to give Shapps, a man who in every ministerial role once he reveals his ignorance has to be moved on, an easier entry, as people conclude yes it could have been worse

Fox and Shapps both Sunak "supporters"

How long does TikTok man continue in his new role with Chinese applications on his phone?

Do we think Shapps has already had his come to Jesus moment, or have they simply seized his phone on entry to the MoD? Because yes ministers were told a while ago not to be stupid about these things, but Grant, and this is a little odd for a Tory, didn't suppose that meant him.

I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:07 am Love Cruella latest, "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME !!!!", stunt.

How the ever loving fuck does she seriously suggest that the Rozzers will investigate every theft ?

She must be the thickest Minister to ever hold such a senior Office in the UK.

We used to. But that was in the days when they're were 30+ officers on duty in a place like Midlothian. Now there are maybe 8.

What a shambles from the DFE, the issue around RAAC has been known about for years but capital investment has been cut to the bone so it has not been dealt with. I was on a DFE conference call back in March about the rebuilding programme they announced and there was an acknowledgment that this was as a major issue as any school that is in the programme but did not have RAAC in its estate was told they would be at the back of the queue. Yet with a couple of days before the start of the new academic year schools are told to shut buildings and make new arrangements, all within their existing budgets.

If ever there was a symbol of Britain under this wretched zombie Government, it's "We knew that schools might collapse on kids, but did nothing until we realised we could get sued if it actually happened."

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

If Farage ever drains the gravy boat on his let's be racist and economically retarded but blame it on Europe campaign he's moving along to the death penalty and guns as matters the UK public needs to know the truth about and be able to vote on. one at a time so as to ensure he doesn't run out of grifting opportunities

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

My bet is the Royal Yacht Britannia 2 gets launched ... again!

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:16 am

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

If Farage ever drains the gravy boat on his let's be racist and economically retarded but blame it on Europe campaign he's moving along to the death penalty and guns as matters the UK public needs to know the truth about and be able to vote on. one at a time so as to ensure he doesn't run out of grifting opportunities

Don't forget universal private health insurance, he's all for that as well.

sefton wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 4:16 am What a shambles from the DFE, the issue around RAAC has been known about for years but capital investment has been cut to the bone so it has not been dealt with. I was on a DFE conference call back in March about the rebuilding programme they announced and there was an acknowledgment that this was as a major issue as any school that is in the programme but did not have RAAC in its estate was told they would be at the back of the queue. Yet with a couple of days before the start of the new academic year schools are told to shut buildings and make new arrangements, all within their existing budgets.

What do you expect with 6 (or is it 7?) different Education Secretaries in 4 years!
This is an absolute scandal!

Farage really wants to destroy Scottish and Welsh devolution, and bring us back under Englands Supremacistic jack booted goons.

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

That one did the social media rounds after the Letby verdict.

Fox Hunting

Well that makes it all ok then!

Theresa May has expressed regret for using the term “hostile environment” and has criticised Home Office staff for an “inbuilt cynicism” she believes contributed to the Windrush scandal.
May devotes a chapter to the scandal, which unfolded while she was prime minister, in her forthcoming memoir, The Abuse of Power. She concludes that it was an abuse of power and describes the treatment of the Windrush generation who were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants as “shocking”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ ... es-live

Ditching the NHS and hunting don't come with widespread appeal, it's more a nice thing among the sections of society Farage would like to be part of, but it isn't where he's directed his grifting.

Sure he'll take the odd swipe at the wokerati being anti manly things like hunting, but there's no real money in it to keep on banging that drum. Much easier to champion a death penalty, or maybe go after death tax

SaintK wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:35 am Well that makes it all ok then!

Theresa May has expressed regret for using the term “hostile environment” and has criticised Home Office staff for an “inbuilt cynicism” she believes contributed to the Windrush scandal.
May devotes a chapter to the scandal, which unfolded while she was prime minister, in her forthcoming memoir, The Abuse of Power. She concludes that it was an abuse of power and describes the treatment of the Windrush generation who were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants as “shocking”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ ... es-live

Quite, far too little, far too late.

dpedin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:17 am

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 10:34 pm I see the Tories have spun their Greatest Hits tombola and the ball marked "Bring Back National Service" has been plucked out to distract and delight us all.

I’m holding out for capital punishment

My bet is the Royal Yacht Britannia 2 gets launched ... again!

The yacht that...

The Royal family doesn't want
The Navy doesn't want
The MoD doesn't want
Industry doesn't want

On that last one, if they want to spend 10% of the budget for a Royal Yacht on promoting UK Industry overseas for the next ten years, give it to me and I'll sort you out a much better set of promotional opportunities around overseas trade events and missions.

SaintK wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:39 am

sefton wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 4:16 am What a shambles from the DFE, the issue around RAAC has been known about for years but capital investment has been cut to the bone so it has not been dealt with. I was on a DFE conference call back in March about the rebuilding programme they announced and there was an acknowledgment that this was as a major issue as any school that is in the programme but did not have RAAC in its estate was told they would be at the back of the queue. Yet with a couple of days before the start of the new academic year schools are told to shut buildings and make new arrangements, all within their existing budgets.

What do you expect with 6 (or is it 7?) different Education Secretaries in 4 years!
This is an absolute scandal!

Bastards have been sitting on it for 5 years!!!

The first major collapse happened five years ago, in 2018, but none of the seven different Education Secretaries the Conservative Party has fielded since then has needed to do the hard work of finding the money to fix the problem. Finding investment would have been a battle – from 2010 to 2022, real-terms capital spending on schools halved – and not one worth taking on if you expect to spend less than a year in the job.

So this cunt wants to score cheap party political points about it even though they've taken nearly 5 years to do a survey

Education Minister Nick Gibb has said the government began surveying school buildings in England last year, contrasting it with the situation in Wales.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme earlier: “Today, Labour-run Wales is for the first time starting those surveys, we started those surveys in 2022”.

It is true that the Welsh government has recently announced that a survey of its schools "will identify any structures suspected of containing RAAC".
However, it also said that so far it has not received any reports of RAAC being present within schools or colleges.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:37 am Ditching the NHS and hunting don't come with widespread appeal, it's more a nice thing among the sections of society Farage would like to be part of, but it isn't where he's directed his grifting.

Sure he'll take the odd swipe at the wokerati being anti manly things like hunting, but there's no real money in it to keep on banging that drum. Much easier to champion a death penalty, or maybe go after death tax

He's firmly on the Anti Net Zero griftwagon, along with his fellow former Brexit cheerleaders, the anti-vaxx mob and the Research Group Formerly Known As ERG.

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:24 am

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:37 am Ditching the NHS and hunting don't come with widespread appeal, it's more a nice thing among the sections of society Farage would like to be part of, but it isn't where he's directed his grifting.

Sure he'll take the odd swipe at the wokerati being anti manly things like hunting, but there's no real money in it to keep on banging that drum. Much easier to champion a death penalty, or maybe go after death tax

He's firmly on the Anti Net Zero griftwagon, along with his fellow former Brexit cheerleaders, the anti-vaxx mob and the Research Group Formerly Known As ERG.

Ah, now I did rather overlook that teensy little morsel. One might think nobody could be that stupid and/or a big enough arsehole to look to profit from such, but clearly it's no problem for Farage, Moggy et al

ONS Data revised, British economy is officially above pre-pandemic levels and in the middle ground of the G7


WE BACK BABY

Biffer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:04 am

dpedin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:17 am

Slick wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:45 am

I’m holding out for capital punishment

My bet is the Royal Yacht Britannia 2 gets launched ... again!

The yacht that...

The Royal family doesn't want
The Navy doesn't want
The MoD doesn't want
Industry doesn't want

On that last one, if they want to spend 10% of the budget for a Royal Yacht on promoting UK Industry overseas for the next ten years, give it to me and I'll sort you out a much better set of promotional opportunities around overseas trade events and missions.

A Royal Corporation devoted to promoting business overseas with the King as patron and a hefty yacht sized budget actually wouldn’t be a bad idea

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:56 pm

Biffer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:04 am

dpedin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:17 am

My bet is the Royal Yacht Britannia 2 gets launched ... again!

The yacht that...

The Royal family doesn't want
The Navy doesn't want
The MoD doesn't want
Industry doesn't want

On that last one, if they want to spend 10% of the budget for a Royal Yacht on promoting UK Industry overseas for the next ten years, give it to me and I'll sort you out a much better set of promotional opportunities around overseas trade events and missions.

A Royal Corporation devoted to promoting business overseas with the King as patron and a hefty yacht sized budget actually wouldn’t be a bad idea

Exactly. That's what the Department of International Trade of whatever the fuck it's called now is meant to have as part of it's remit, but it's very minor compared to trade treaties etc. A Royal Corporation which reports at arms length to that department could be very effective.

Biffer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:58 pm

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:56 pm

Biffer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 10:04 am

The yacht that...

The Royal family doesn't want
The Navy doesn't want
The MoD doesn't want
Industry doesn't want

On that last one, if they want to spend 10% of the budget for a Royal Yacht on promoting UK Industry overseas for the next ten years, give it to me and I'll sort you out a much better set of promotional opportunities around overseas trade events and missions.

A Royal Corporation devoted to promoting business overseas with the King as patron and a hefty yacht sized budget actually wouldn’t be a bad idea

Exactly. That's what the Department of International Trade of whatever the fuck it's called now is meant to have as part of it's remit, but it's very minor compared to trade treaties etc. A Royal Corporation which reports at arms length to that department could be very effective.

Actually what we need is a body that overlooks all these different departments (DBT, FCDO, British council etc) and makes sure they are integrated in their approach, not another department feeding in.

Other countries are so much better at it than us.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:12 pm

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:24 am

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:37 am Ditching the NHS and hunting don't come with widespread appeal, it's more a nice thing among the sections of society Farage would like to be part of, but it isn't where he's directed his grifting.

Sure he'll take the odd swipe at the wokerati being anti manly things like hunting, but there's no real money in it to keep on banging that drum. Much easier to champion a death penalty, or maybe go after death tax

He's firmly on the Anti Net Zero griftwagon, along with his fellow former Brexit cheerleaders, the anti-vaxx mob and the Research Group Formerly Known As ERG.

Ah, now I did rather overlook that teensy little morsel. One might think nobody could be that stupid and/or a big enough arsehole to look to profit from such, but clearly it's no problem for Farage, Moggy et al

He's also banging the drum for this year's attempt by Tufton Street types to worm their way onto the National Trust board under the usual guise of anti-woke and fighting the rewriting of history, as though a small notice on the wall of one of the rooms mentioning that this lovely country pile was funded by the profits of sugar plantations or similar is somehow being disingenuous.

They'll succeed eventually, they have shit loads of money and resources and simply need to chip away every year until fatigue or a following wind allows them in. See: Brexit, US abortion et al.

So everything we thought we knew about the economy and GDP for the last two years turns out to have being wrong.

tc27 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:34 pm So everything we thought we knew about the economy and GDP for the last two years turns out to have being wrong.

What's this about? Are we saying the government have made up some numbers and are now promoting this narrative or are these independent figures and we are actually doing better than we though?

Genuine question, genuinely confused.

And if we are back to pre-pandemic, why are so many people still struggling?

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:26 pm And if we are back to pre-pandemic, why are so many people still struggling?

Inflation and (ironically) stagnant wages.

tc27 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:42 pm

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 2:26 pm And if we are back to pre-pandemic, why are so many people still struggling?

Inflation and (ironically) stagnant wages.

But I thought rampant socialist blockbuster public sector payrises were to blame for inflation!