POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

Ken... How often have we been told that Nelson is going to be redesigned and this time they are going to get it right?
Peter, the Bullingdon in charge of ethics... You couldn't make it up. The Bullingdon image 'rights holder' can huff and puff as much as he likes (It will be a bloke....) but it is out there on the web and anyone can find it if they look.
See THIS and take your pick.

[Stanley]

Quick reverse ferret this morning at Number 10 as at first they said they were ignoring the fact that Savid Javez had Covid and business would go on as normal. Then, when they realised that they were once more demonstrating one law for the plebs and one for the politicians they hit the reverse button and are now all doing what they have told everyone else to do. It makes them look like what they are, a bunch of spivs looking for an angle.

[Big Kev]

I don't think they were ignoring it, they were 'weaseling' their way onto a pilot scheme that's currently running. There are a select number invited to do a daily lateral flow test every morning, if it's negative you can go about your business for the day. My eldest offspring was able to do this when one of my grandchildren tested positive.
Their u-turn was a result of them not being invited onto the pilot scheme which a number of people weren't happy about...

[Whyperion]

Gets Johnson out of a last of the season's PMQs.

Communities Minister defending the original plan on TV as the No10 lot were unravelling it. There are some right chumps out there.

[Stanley]

I'm listening to Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister trying to whitewash Johnson and his chancellor and sounding distinctly uncomfortable under direct questioning, he sounds extremely unconvincing.
I'm afraid we're looking at madness.

[Tripps]

I copied this note on Nadim Zahawi in May this year. In yesterday's press an article put the value of the properties he owns at £100 million. All perfectly correct and legal I'm sure.

As a Question Time regular, we are familiar with Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon and Minister for Covid Vaccine Delivery.

Previously we have learned of Mr Zahawi’s £25 million property empire, his well-paid connections with the Caribbean tax havens and Kurdish Iraq’s oil concessions, and his horses having their stables heated on his Westminster expenses.

Following his January 6th appearance on Question Time (the review being published on the 7th) the QT Review spotlight illuminated Warren Medical, a company set up in June 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Warren Medical’s three company directors were Mr Zahawi’s wife, confusingly declaring herself as Ms Lana Fawsi Jamil Saib, and two of Mr Zahawi’s sons, confusingly declaring themselves as Jaafar Shanshal and Ahman Shanshal. Even more confusingly, the Zahawi’s family interest in the medical business was not declared in Nadhim Zahawi’s December 2020 list of parliamentary interests.

Interestingly, the subsequent Minister for Vaccine Deployment’s family had no previous medical experience other than, in the interests of equality of opportunity, Jaafar Shanshal having been employed as a researcher by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

May QT Review claim a scalp? Signed and dated documents lodged at Companies House show that the day after QT Review was published, January 8th 2021, Ms Saib and Messrs Shanshal applied to have Warren Medical struck off the company’s register and be dissolved.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that David. That is really interesting.......

[Stanley]

I watched Johnson's speech. I heard it described this morning as 'One of his wonky supermarket trolley' performances. That exactly describes it, an important speech and hardly a joined up sentence in it.
I happen to believe that what a person says and how they deliver it gives a good idea of what their state of mind is. On this basis, the signs are not good!

[plaques]

Watched the short YouTube clip with the buffoon talking about nightclubs. Didn't quite understand what he was talking about in spite of him reading it from a script. I've noticed that with these clips the newspapers are accompanying them with a written account of what he says. Its a sad day when it comes to this and he is representing the UK as a world leader.

[Tizer]

When Hugo Rifkind lampoons Boris in The Times he always has him spouting a load of nonsense and then saying `Good speech! That went down well didn't it!'

[PanBiker]

The nightclub opening issue is a complete cock up. Free for all from midnight on Sunday, lots of venues packed to the rafters, no checking for negative tests in lots of them, everyone has a jolly time according to the news.

Tuesday Boris announces that in order to visit a nightclub or other busy confined space you will need to prove you have been double jabbed. Wait for it,.........this rule not to come into force until the end of September?

By my reckoning that is in almost 11 weeks time! Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Scientific community have described such venues as "Super Spreaders"

If this is the best they can do it's God help us.

NW news last night at Blackburn Hospital on the Covid ward, full to busting, doctor in charge says the majority are young formerly healthy 20 - 30 year old's who have not been vaccinated. Now there's a surprise.

[Tizer]

There's lot of significant news that I see in the one newspaper I read, the Saturday edition of The Times, that doesn't seem to get aired on other news media. Here are a few examples from last Saturday...

Fears are growing in the Netherlands that the country's drugs mafia has shifted from traditional crime and gangland killings to a campaign of terror aimed at destabilising the entire country. The head of the Dutch police union says the killers are going after people in the justice system. One has just been shot dead in the street.

The US is sending its largest-ever formation of stealth fighters to the Indo-Pacific region to demonstrate America's ability to operate in China's self-declared area of military domination. It's called Operation Pacific Iron. This could flare up into something nasty.

Pakistan is threatening to shoot down Afghan fighter planes that are operating against the Taliban near the Pakistan border. Again, potential for a local war.

A big car insurance scam has been going on in the UK with young people being enticed to buy cheap insurance on the Web from fake businesses claiming to be brokers. Police have now raided properties in a number of towns to capture criminals operating the scam.

In France there has been a surge in people claiming to be witches or wizards. It's said to be due to distrust in the authorities. They're responsible for a lot of scams based on charging for putting spells on people.

[Stanley]

I can understand the last one Peter. We need witches and wizards to counter the chaos we see. I hear now that there will be no official list of workers who can ignore a track and trace ping to isolate. Instead individual firms can apply to the relevant ministry for an exemption on a case by case basis. Good luck with that! Easier to just delete the app I think.
We need some sort of magic intervention Peter·...

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC article about Cummings and follow the links. Whatever you think about the man he seems to be giving a consistent story and has produced hard evidence not disputed by Downing Street.

[Tizer]

The Guardian continues publishing the results of its investigation into Pegasus, the `spying tool' developed by the company NSO. Now it reports that Macron and 13 leaders are on the leaked data list. It's behind a paywall on the paper's web site but other news media have summarised it, such as here...
`Massive data leak includes the phone numbers of 13 world leaders' LINK

Later...By the way, in my list of hidden news above I forgot to mention the Philip Morris fiasco. The tobacco giant is buying British company Vectura which makes asthma inhalers and other products that help people suffering the health damage caused by cigarettes....
`Philip Morris uncovers the two faces of Big Tobacco' The Times
André Calantzopoulos, executive chairman of Philip Morris International (PMI), made a bold claim to investors in February. A “smoke-free future” was within reach, said the boss of the company behind Marlboro, the world’s top-selling cigarette. On July 9, he made what he hopes will be a big stride towards that future. After months quietly talking to the inhaler-maker Vectura, his hand was forced by the private equity firm Carlyle making a bid for his British target. Calantzopoulos’s company then broke cover with its own £1 billion offer, declaring that it was all part of a plan to transform PMI into a “health and wellness company”. More in this FT article: FT

[Whyperion]

In France there has been a surge in people claiming to be witches or wizards. It's said to be due to distrust in the authorities. They're responsible for a lot of scams based on charging for putting spells on people.

One reason for the dealth penalty on such persons, more to do with the fear they put on others lives, and the fradery on the remainder!.

[Whyperion]

Cummins interview needs a lot of thought, Much ammo in it for Corbyn, and Starmer , to use , if they are intelligent. While I could look at later, I am interested in the about 3 dozen people whom would like to control the UK (as some kind of intelligencia meritocracy), for the benefit of Britain. I wonder whom, and what the (alternative?) benefits are.

[Stanley]

Philip Morris.... You couldn't make it up Peter.
As for wider politics..... Anyone following this thread for the last five years may have been under the impression that we are all remainers based on experience and common sense. We exposed the lies and raised the questions but of course the Leave faction got their way.
Looking at the state of play today, the Brexiteers sowed the wind and now are reaping the whirlwind. The protocol they negotiated for leaving has turned out to be a disaster and unworkable. Naturally, they expect the EU to let them try a different approach but the EU have said that they are not in the business of re-negotiating the terms. They are offering the UK solutions to the problems but they all involve the UK adhering to EU standards.
So the Brexiteers are up shit creek without a paddle.
By the way, we have the highest uptake of the latest variant in the world.

[plaques]

All the headlines are that the protocol is a 'fudge' which we entered into to keep things moving. Lets be clear about this, the 'fudge' was between mainland UK and Northern Ireland. The buffoon then offered this up to the EU and said it would work. The EU accepted the word of a proven liar and agreed to the protocol that had been offered. Article 16 is not something that can be unilaterally imposed its for very exceptional circumstances that could not be foreseen. The EU has offered that if Buffoon agrees to the food rules that we have been following for the past years then everything can continue as before. The buffoon doesn't want that he wants equivalence. ie: what the standard is today. But everyone knows we are negotiating trade deals that will reduce future food standards. We are to be left as a plague island that nobody will want to visit eating food that nobody else will touch.

[Tizer]

Buffoon and Frost are living in their own little make believe world where good old England rules and the EU will do whatever we want. This is the image they portray to satisfy the right-wing press and they'll continue because they'll never admit to being wrong. (Note today's Express headline: `Think Again EU! You Must Change Course Over Deal'.) Why should the EU change anything to suit us? We are the ones who chose to hand in our notice. The EU will just shrug and carry on as usual while feeling sorry for all those Britons who know the UK would have been much, much better to stay in the EU. There'll be big trouble when all those Leavers realise they were duped.

[PanBiker]

Makes you wonder how much of a cock up the Tory Government has to make before folk demand a change.. They have screwed the country over with Brexit and made a complete shambles of managing the pandemic leaving over 130,000 folk dead in the wake of their indecision.

As a Labour Party member I will agree though that at the moment our own party leader is no real opposition or credible alternative. The trick is to convince the electorate that the only working policies that this government has are actually from the Labour Party Manifesto and are based more on Socialist principles than capitalist greed. Mention Socialism though and you are stuffed from the outset as the media sites "reds under the bed" and Communist state and all that kind of nonsense.

[Stanley]

Very true, all of you. I can find nothing to argue against what you say. Add the fact that the main body of the media are the wellspring of the reds under the bed syndrome and always have been. As in America, socialism has become a dirty word describing ultra left wing principles. This is and always was nonsense but the far right have to have that concept to hide the more sinister aspects of the way they lean towards fascism.
Listening to the Commons today you get the impression that Parliament is being completely ignored. Lindsay Hoyle keeps saying so but has he any sanctions?

[PanBiker]

Before there will be any massive change we have to ditch the first past the post electoral system and the us and them mentality and utilise some form of PR. This idea of course needs a proper grown up debate to make it happen and the problem is we have entranced politicians that don't want to change. FPTP will always be binary in the main and across the house which is basically gladiatorial and confrontational. We need a big circular assembly, preferably purpose built outside of London, North Midlands would be about right. PR which would lead to more coalitions and meeting of minds. Make voting compulsory at the same time.

Oh dear! That's shot the entire plan down as we cant possibly make anyone do anything that they don't want to do as ably demonstrated during the pandemic.

[Stanley]

A bit of education in Civics in early years at school wouldn't be a bad idea.
If the covid19 statistics keep going up like they have this week the government might be facing yet another U-turn.
See THIS for news that the Police Federation have said that they have no confidence in Priti Patel and have withdrawn their support from the pay review body after news of a cap on police pay over £24,000 per annum. This is seen as a pay cut due to inflation and therefore an insult.

[Stanley]

See THIS excellent article about the coal mine in Cumbria. It's a reminder of the interface between green commitment and hard reality. Nobody mentions the use of other ways of smelting iron than using coking coal which I note is now being called 'Metallic coal'. Its not going to look good at the climate conference.....