Best Of

"Woman is fined £150 for pouring coffee down a drain - after being 'chased' by three jobsworth council officers"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15215979/Woman-fined-150-jobsworth-council-officers-pouring-coffee-drain.html

This is a classic gripe I am interestingly hearing from even left leaning friends.

If you working hard, paying your taxes, doing the right thing, the state has found 27,000 ways to punish minor indescretions and increasingly efficient at it.

If you just don't get a f##k, the punishments are neglible from the police ignoring it, absolutely useless at finding these people , and even if they do things like fines spread over many years set at tiny weekly amounts.

That's from illegal businesses to scrotes who are shoplifting, nicking phones, letting off illegal fireworks etc.

It's not just that.
If you're carrying on business diligently, then the cost of avoiding minor indiscretions, by complying with the growing thicket of regulation, is increasing every year.

"Woman is fined £150 for pouring coffee down a drain - after being 'chased' by three jobsworth council officers"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15215979/Woman-fined-150-jobsworth-council-officers-pouring-coffee-drain.html

This is a classic gripe I am interestingly hearing from even left leaning friends.

If you working hard, paying your taxes, doing the right thing, the state has found 27,000 ways to punish minor indescretions and increasingly efficient at it.

If you just don't get a f##k, the punishments are neglible from the police ignoring it, absolutely useless at finding these people , and even if they do things like fines spread over many years set at tiny weekly amounts.

That's from illegal businesses to scrotes who are shoplifting, nicking phones, letting off illegal fireworks etc.

Morning all

I don't think those figures mean much - I don't know if "Europe" is in the political background as much as it was for us from rebates via Bruges via Maastricht to the Euro to Lisbon etc. We had 35 years of Europe being in our politics from Thatcher to Major to Blair to Brown to Cameron - each one of them had "issues" with the EEC and later the EU.

Arguably, it destroyed the Conservative Party - now, whether you think that's another "dividend" or not is up to you but I'm certain the party would not be where it is now otherwise but every party had a fracture on this issue of some degree.

Claims of the death of the Tory party are massively premature. They were in government last year and lost an election after 14 years in power. People were and still are sick of them. Add in the purge of the pro Europeans and a lot of ‘talent’ and centrism has gone from the MP roster.
But. They are still polling more than Ed Daley’s apparently hugely sucessful Lib Dem’s, and pretty close to the party who won a huge majority last year.

Those who would welcome the extinction of conservatism should be careful what they wish. Conservative politics isn’t right wing nastiness. It’s personal responsibility, a state which lets individuals get on with their lives, but includes a safety net for those who struggle. It believes that those who can work, should. It believes in wealth creation, which aids all.

And if you have no conservatives, you risk being left with Reform.

The current incarnation of the Tory Party is indistinguishable from Reform. Just look at Lams recent remarks on mass deportation, or even the last thread. Clarkson wouldn't be welcome in the Tory party with his open criticism of Brexit.

The party of which you speak is dead.

Morning all! We are more than 3 years from the General Election and we now have the "Conservative" Party with a new policy to deport taxpaying residents.

Seriously, we're not that far away from not only pogroms against brown people but parties including the "Conservative" party competing with the far right on how many they can deport if elected.

WTAF has happened to our politics?

And my take on this is the same as the people who whined that their participation in the Unite the Fascists march in no way was an endorsement of fascism or the fascists who organised the march or the fascists handing out flags to them or the fascists screaming racist abuse from the platform.

If you're in it, you're associated with it.

The most cleansing moment of my life in politics was sitting in that special Labour CLP meeting - called at the party's insistence - so that we could all have anti-semitism training. I read the pamphlet handed out, with a forward by party leader Corbyn saying that association with AS is a Bad Thing actually. I looked at the photos just released of Corbyn marching with screaming anti-semites. I observed the argument going on across the room where pro-Corbyn supporters were screaming about AS being a weapon used against Corbyn.

And in a moment of absolute clarity I knew my 25 years of membership was done. It was warm. Peaceful. And I got up, picked up my coat and left.

I urge friends in the Conservative Party appalled by this policy to consider when their own moment of absolute clarity might arrive.

I don't want to turn into Scott and paste but this seems a useful summary of the Maccabi Tel Aviv situation.

https://x.com/SpencerJJoseph/status/1980590941980197225

Summary of the Maccabi Tel Aviv fiasco :

1. A decision to ban the entire away support from a football match has not been made by a Safety Advisory Group in England for almost 25 years.

2. A former Hezbollah terrorist was a ‘community advisor’ on security issues.

3. Most clubs with a record of hooliganism in Europe get a UEFA ban, not just restrictions from local police.

4. Maccabi have no history of problems with Aston Villa or any other English clubs.

5. The Dutch prosecution service made it clear that Maccabi fans were attacked by a group of Islamists in Amsterdam.

6. There are many clubs with a worse record of hooliganism than Maccabi who have not been banned in England.

7. Every club has a few idiots who can be identified as individuals and banned - not the entire club.

8. Some activists are now trying to get the game called off, showing a political agenda has always been at work.

Morning all

I don't think those figures mean much - I don't know if "Europe" is in the political background as much as it was for us from rebates via Bruges via Maastricht to the Euro to Lisbon etc. We had 35 years of Europe being in our politics from Thatcher to Major to Blair to Brown to Cameron - each one of them had "issues" with the EEC and later the EU.

Arguably, it destroyed the Conservative Party - now, whether you think that's another "dividend" or not is up to you but I'm certain the party would not be where it is now otherwise but every party had a fracture on this issue of some degree.

Claims of the death of the Tory party are massively premature. They were in government last year and lost an election after 14 years in power. People were and still are sick of them. Add in the purge of the pro Europeans and a lot of ‘talent’ and centrism has gone from the MP roster.
But. They are still polling more than Ed Daley’s apparently hugely sucessful Lib Dem’s, and pretty close to the party who won a huge majority last year.

Those who would welcome the extinction of conservatism should be careful what they wish. Conservative politics isn’t right wing nastiness. It’s personal responsibility, a state which lets individuals get on with their lives, but includes a safety net for those who struggle. It believes that those who can work, should. It believes in wealth creation, which aids all.

And if you have no conservatives, you risk being left with Reform.

Though given what Katie Did Next, we may have reached the point where it's not clear why Reform are worse.

Here Lam explicitly sets out her proposal - which is official Conservative Party policy - to deport long-standing legal permanent residents who have *ever* claimed any benefit, including the state pension or child benefit (even if the child is British), or who earn less than £39K.

https://bsky.app/profile/jdportes.bsky.social/post/3m3q7sr5k5c27

My wife would have been deported a few years ago under this policy - she's a UK citizen now. I wouldn't be able to live in her country of origin either and so we would be separated for ever.

Why would I consider voting for this abomination of a party in any circumstances for the rest of my life?