POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that Prii 'Orrible is to announce that we are sending some migrants to Rwanda for 'processing'.....This is fantasy land!
See THIS also. It seems there is at least one Tory with principles......

[plaques]

See THIS BBC report that Prii 'Orrible is to announce that we are sending some migrants to Rwanda for 'processing'.....This is fantasy land!

Now we have our government run by criminals perhaps we could ask that nice Mr Putin if we could send them to Siberia. After all the Conservatives are the Party of Law and Order.

[Stanley]

This is the British equivalent Ken, however the Tories are contracting the Rwandans to run the gulags.
The word in the Westminster Village is that three more fixed penalty notices are in the post for Mr Johnson.

[Tripps]

For the benefit of my personal sanity - I'm not going to comment on Politics any more.

It's beyond rational comment.

Hooray I hear you cry . . . . . .

[Stanley]

Please reconsider David. We have to keep commenting to signal that we are aware of what is happening and the gravity of it. This government is destroying democracy and they would love it if we stopped commenting and let them get on with it. Besides, your comments are an island of sanity in an insane world.....

[plaques]

Exposing insanity is part of OG's job.
The latest insane scheme of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is like a page out of Alice in Wonderland. with Priti Patel taking the role of the Queen of Hearts. 'Sentence first—verdict afterwards'... She can't put an exact figure on the costs per person because that hasn't been evaluated yet. Who in their right mind would enter into a contract without knowing the end costs or the outcome. Perhaps she is modelling herself on Matt Hancock the gravy train man.
The general feeling is that this is some hairbrained scheme to act as a Partygate smokescreen. Unfortunately given that we now have a government run by criminals and backed up by advisors of similar criminal standing why can't the remaining Conservative party MP's stand up and boot them out? If they don't take action and continue to Back Johnson they must have no moral courage and are prepared to see the UK's reputation sink into a primeval swamp.

[Stanley]

I heard the start of Question Time last night and the Tory defending Johnson was shouted down, I hope that's a sign of what will happen on the doorstep and in the elections on May 5.

"Exposing insanity is part of OG's job. "
Dead right Ken and we need minds like David's to keep us sharp and on track!

[plaques]

More about the Rwanda proposal. Starting with the background.

The Home Secretary has issued a "ministerial direction" in relation to the Rwanda asylum plan, overruling concerns from her own civil servants,

This looks like an orange top (Trump) move the advice is that it may be open to fraud may not achieve its aims and is far from good value for money. The rational being sold to Joe Public is that it would destroy the business model of the people smugglers. What world do they live in? Do they think that these smugglers will hand a multi-language leaflet to each person explaining the risk they are taking when climbing in the rubber dingy? If someone is prepared to risk their lives crossing in a rubber boat being further detained if they get caught isn't going to make one iota of a difference. This is totally political posturing part of the Brexit 'take control of our borders'.

The Nationality and Borders bill is currently going through parliament.
THE FULL TITLE IS.
Make provision about nationality, asylum and immigration; to make provision about victims of slavery or human trafficking; to provide a power for Tribunals to charge participants where their behaviour has wasted the Tribunal’s resources; and for connected purposes.

The provisions about human trafficking appear to be to penalise and victimise the victim rather than taking action against the perpetrator.

[PanBiker]

Indeed, the move will not make any difference whatsoever to the people smugglers. They don't give two hoots about what happens to them once they have taken the cash and sent them on their way. Quite a lot of chatter at the moment about the legality (under international law) about the deal.

[Stanley]

Like the rest of Patel's proposed solutions, (remember turning back and the SBS 'expert' brought in to implement it?) this is designed more as a distraction from the scale of the mismanagement of the Border Service than to actually achieving anything.
Meanwhile, as another distraction from Partygate problems statesman aspirant Johnson goes to India next week. (LINK) Did I hear him say he will give a 'full explanation' of his various statements (lies) about the activities in Number 10? When will that happen?

[Tizer]

Did I hear him say he will give a 'full explanation' of his various statements (lies) about the activities in Number 10? When will that happen?

I don't know when but the promise has been sitting in the BBC news headlines since last week!

[Tripps]

Well that resolution didn't last long did it?

I just skimmed through the Rwanda memorandum of understanding. Rwanda MOU. Announced on Maunday Thursday at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend when Parliament is in recess. (again). Coincidental I'm sure. No consultation or discussion - resistance from the Home Office staff, up to and including the Permanent Secretary, and at least one Home Office Minister was totally unaware of the initiative. Democracy in action.

It's probably just as well that none of it has much chance of happening. It's very long on detail in some areas, but startlingly short in others. For instance - this is an interesting one liner. In contrast for the traffic the other way - I see no mention of numbers or vetting. We will almost certainly end up with a 'net gain' of migrants, and Rwanda - (I think there were 800,00 people murdered in their genocide) - will get rid of some of their problems.

16 Resettlement of vulnerable Refugees
16.1 The Participants will make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both Participants’ commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.


Remember a couple of years ago, when the number of illegal immigrants was important enough for the Home Secretary (Sajid Javed at the time ) to interrupt a 'holiday' in New Zealand, and fly home to deal with it. That worked well didn't it? Now the PM personally has put the Royal Navy in charge and assured us that 'no vessel crossing the Channel will go undetected'. I'm sure he meant to say 'unimpeded'. It can only be concluded that regardless of what they say - their deeds show that the Government actually don't want to stop the traffic.

Of course none of this matters if you are of the opinion that immigration is a totally good thing and there should be no limits at all. There are many such people. In that case why not set up a facility in every country in the world and give a free airline ticket to anyone who requested one. In logical fallacy circles This is known as Argumentum / Reductio ad absurdum.

[Stanley]

Thanks for digging deeper into this sorry affair David. I haven't the patience to do stuff like that. That's a stunner about us agreeing to take Rwandan refugees. Why no mention of that elsewhere? Have they not done what you have done and read the Memorandum?
The problem with the channel is that once the boats have left French territorial waters they have to be rescued as the repercussions attendant on the inevitable eventual deaths from a policy of 'turn back' would be worse than the problem.
I suspect that the main problem is the reduction in Home Office staff that has been going on ever since computers were discovered by the management. Made worse over the last ten years by austerity measures leading to further cuts. The same syndrome can be seen in all public services (Including the Police and NHS).
The bottom line is that this administration doesn't think it should be responsible for anything.
There are many good reasons for admitting some migrants and rejecting others. Problem is you need an adequate number of skilled staff. We have neglected that last item.

[plaques]

Priti Patel (the Queen of Hearts) is taking full advantage of the lack of information by proclaiming " I like my idea best" . Having promised to 'take control of our borders' and after spending two years with other half baked ideas like suggesting the RLNI tow boats back out to sea its now Joe Publics fault for not coming up with anything better. That's what I call chutzpah.

Boris the Buffoon 'Grand Order of Lies' is off to India to do a trade deal part of which will probably be to allow unrestricted entry into the UK for a large number of Indian citizens. This will please the xenophobic right wingers no end.

The end result of this 'control are borders' will be to exchange the Europeans who we have been happy to trade with and to take holidays in their countries for another nationalities whose outcome is far from certain.

[PanBiker]

First of all Pritti Orrible's idea does nothing to address the problem of the traffickers. Deporting the victims once they have been scammed of their money and sent on their way is useless. I have a perfectly obvious and feasible idea that would not cost anywhere near as much. It would require us talking to the French though to allow the installation of undercover operators from the UK into France, (we have done this before when needs must). Their brief would be to infiltrate the network of perpetrators and take them out. literally or by means of arrest under international law.

[Tripps]

I've just looked at a map of Africa. It occurred to me that a good deal of time effort and expense could be saved if people fleeing Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and especially Democratic Republic of Congo (next door) - just squared it with Ms Patel, and went directly to Rwanda, cutting out the dangerous expensive channel crossing, and sought asylum there.

I read that orphans from the Rwanda genocide have been turfed out of the accomodation being lined up for the incomers from England. Not sure if I believe it as that all happened nearly 30 years ago.

This topic is really too serious to be flippant. Sorry.

[Big Kev]

I've just looked at a map of Africa. It occurred to me that a good deal of time effort and expense could be saved if people fleeing Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and especially Democratic Republic of Congo (next door) - just squared it with Ms Patel, and went directly to Rwanda, cutting out the dangerous expensive channel crossing, and sought asylum there.

To be honest, if Rwanda is considered a safe place of refuge why not?

[plaques]

Leaving God out of this which as they say moves in mysterious ways. I think Tripps cynical logic is if all these people who live nearly next door to Rwanda and entered Rwanda asking for 'Patel' asylum it would save them a lot of travelling and expense while saving the UK money in flying them back.
All this is total nonsense since it is probably illegal in the first place and is just the start of a series of smokescreens to hide Johnson's criminal activities. Meanwhile polls are showing that the main concern with the electorate is the cost of living with Johnson and Sunak doing nothing about it only trying to cover the end of their alimentary canals and saving their own skins.

[Stanley]

David, I too wondered about 'orphans' being turfed out. Questioning that detail isn't flippant.
I heard a man on R4 yesterday who had investigated the shipping of asylum seekers to Rwanda for I think it was Israel. He said that almost all the people sent had immediately gone yo Uganda and started the long journey back to Europe from there via people smugglers. He did not agree that Rwanda is a safe place, he said it exhibited all the signs of being a dictatorship.
See THIS BBC report on the latest broadside from Patel who believes she is a better judge of ethics than Justin Welby.

[Stanley]

I'm listening to the sound of the Tory Party closing ranks as we near a statement in the Commons by the liar in chief. We are told that he will argue it is time to move on and address current problems instead of pursuing him because he did nothing wrong. That's it, get used to it, he hasn't reached the point where the Tories feel insecure enough to vote him out.

[plaques]

Today the commons will hear the ongoing saga of " I followed all rules", I didn't do anything wrong", I don't think I did anything wrong". A vote of NO Confidence will go in Johnson's favour and give him another 12 months of lying in time. Come the election Labour will point out the to the red wall constituents whatever their MP said on an individual basis they still voted for him.

Experts have just come to the conclusion that if people have less money to spend because their income fall below inflation they will have to cut back on their expenditure. Which stone have they been hiding under? They are also predicting the economy could go into recession later this year and may continue into next year. In other words things are going to get worse.

Rees-Mogg is urging civil servants to get back in their offices. If working from home is more efficient how is this helping to be a more efficient government?

[Stanley]

You've hit all my buttons Ken. The day started badly with Brandon Lewis doing the news round claiming that the Johnson fine is best compared to a speeding fine. Understandably there has been outrage about that. As expected Johnson brazened it out, repeated his apologies and said it was time to move on. Don't hold your breath about the referral to the Privileges Committee. Johnson has his party stitched up and the only time they will ditch him is when they see the public has turned against him and he is no longer a vote winner. That would mean their jobs are in danger and that's what's at the core of the way the Tory Party is being run at the moment.
As for Rees Mogg and his pathetic efforts to get civil servants back behind their desks. The reason why he is bleating on about that is because he has nothing else to do now he is no longer Leader of the House.
As we move further into the year the parlous state of the economy is going to become more and more apparent. I think Ken's right about the possibility of recession. The ability of the public to spend on the High Street is going to shrink as inflation bites. That means our pathetic GDP figures will shrink even more. The prospects are not good and sooner or later people are going to see through the fog of Covid and recognise that the real reason for most of our woes is the fact we let the Tories get control 12 years ago. Show me one policy since then that has improved the lot of the common man.

[Stanley]

MPs queuing up to say that Johnson has explained adequately what he thought happened in Number 10. Boring. Can we please have an opportunity to give an opinion on him?

[plaques]

MPs queuing up to say that Johnson has explained adequately what he thought happened in Number 10. Boring. Can we please have an opportunity to give an opinion on him?

Having studied Boris's reply it seems to go from...
I followed all rules", I didn't do anything wrong", I don't think I did anything wrong" . to..." I'm still of the opinion that I didn't break any rules but events conspired against me to make it look as though I did".

This particular 'gathering' of working colleagues which turned into a birthday celebration took place in the Cabinet office the most secure office in No10 amongst people who had no business being there and even included Lulu Lytle the no 11 flat decorator who just wandered in.

More about Boris in Wonderland....
The social significance of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

There are no rules here, and everyone present at the tea party is operating beyond social constraints. The Mad Hatter's Tea Party can be taken as a parallel to society. Society is a collection of social norms which we abuse and use to our own advantage.

[Tripps]

This is quite a long read, but worth it I'd say. Explains a lot.

Oxford Union Debating Society