A Conservative MP lied under oath, behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive way, and was so dishonest that his claims about a multimillion-pound family dispute could not be taken at face value, a high court judge has ruled.
Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, has spent years taking legal action against his family’s £27 million potato and vegetable business, which he claims forced him out and treated him unfairly.
He could face millions of pounds in legal bills and a referral to the parliamentary standards watchdog after he was found to have been an unsatisfactory, evasive and combative witness who tried to cover up his misconduct.
Last month Judge Brian Rawlings found that Bridgen, 57, had pressured a police inspector to investigate his brother over false allegations of fraud, prompting a costly inquiry lasting more than a year. He denied it after realising it would look “inappropriate”.
Bridgen also made false statements about why he had resigned from the business, AB Produce, almost a decade ago. In court he argued he had been forced out by Paul, 55, his brother, a claim the judge described as a lie. In fact, the judge ruled, he had quit because he thought it might reduce the amount he owed his first wife, Jackie, 57, in divorce proceedings.
Whoever could have imagined it? Andrew Bridgen, an entirely untrustworthy, serial liar. Surely not!
This is a classic in the Lord Sugar school of diplomacy:
"Bridgen later called a board meeting where he allegedly called the directors, whom he deemed to be on his brother’s side, a “team of wankers” and “liars and thieves” and asked to be reinstated on up to £60,000 a year for “half a day to one day’s project work” a month.
For five years after being elected Bridgen had been paid £93,000 a year to attend monthly board meetings. Ellis recalled: “Andrew said that he was effectively bankrupt and could not live on an MP’s salary.”
The directors rejected his request."
Like the SNP MP who I talked about earlier, it's possible to imagine a sequence of events leading to a recall election. But it's one of the safest Tory seats in Britain.
It is now, but was Labour held until 2010, so not ancient history.
The constituency has changed, as have many former mining areas, with a lot of new building and warehouse type work.
Labour should not consider it a lost cause, but rather consider why it fails to appeal there. It isn't a posh bit of the county.
Because labour usually spends its time not listening to the voters and what they want. Labour simply tells them what they should want and it’s supporters abuse them as bigots for not agreeing.
Starmer is changing this.
Up to a point. How far will the members and MPs let him? What are his personal beliefs?
It’s hard to say what his personal political vision is.
He will be subject to scrutiny the closer it gets to an election though.
As for the MPs and members. It depends on how much they want power. The membership seems too have largely purged the batshit Corbyn loving cult.
But the party that was once the party of the working man and woman has been the party of the single issue lobbyist often subcontracting policy making to these groups.
Complaints against two SNP MPs accused of sexual harassment have been upheld by a Westminster authority.
The Sunday Times understands that former nationalist chief whip Patrick Grady and frontbencher Patricia Gibson have received the findings of an independent investigation and have been asked to respond.
Grady, the Glasgow North MP, stood aside from his role in March last year after claims emerged that he had groped two male researchers at an SNP Christmas party in 2016. It was also claimed that Grady, 42, “inappropriately” touched an SNP staff member, then aged 19, in a London pub.
At the time he stood down, it emerged that the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon had been aware of “a concern” about Grady prior to a harassment complaint being made against him. The party said concerns were raised in February 2018 but that no complaint had been made at that point and the matter was dealt with “informally”….
… A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns, with scant regard paid to his health and wellbeing.
Or perhaps, driven to ill health by a sudden realisation that he had been a grotesque, libidinous octopus, with scant regard paid to the mental health and wellbeing of the women he groped?
Actually, in case any offence was taken, I must apologise to any octopus reading this.
A friend who was a psychiatrist, was given a number of cases in the following pattern.
Non-political people from the governing class - senior people in the civil service, charities, public bodies etc. they had all committed crimes of varying seriousness. Domestic abuse was a popular one.
They had been obviously coached to medicalise their issues. Her part in this was supposed to be to recommend they were sent in a branch of the Priory, rather than court.
Being honest to a fault, she recommended that most of them were fit for trial.
The pushback she received through her superiors in the NHS caused her to leave her job in the end. Endless investigations that proved she had done the right thing - followed by reviews where she was marked down for being investigated so much…
This is why I am somewhat questioning about mental health being used as an excuse for crime.
Not sure if this has been posted but this must be terminal for Boris desire to remain in office
The Prime Minister is accused of 'leading the celebrations' at rule-breaking leaving do...
"The event expected to create the biggest headache was on November 13, 2020, to mark the exit of Lee Cain, the No 10 director of communications, which insiders say was instigated by Johnson. “This wasn’t a leaving drinks,” said one source — until the prime minister arrived. “This was the usual press office Friday evening wash-up drinks. Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. “He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.” A photographer is said to have been present throughout and is thought to have captured pictures of Johnson." - The Sunday Times
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Complaints against two SNP MPs accused of sexual harassment have been upheld by a Westminster authority.
The Sunday Times understands that former nationalist chief whip Patrick Grady and frontbencher Patricia Gibson have received the findings of an independent investigation and have been asked to respond.
Grady, the Glasgow North MP, stood aside from his role in March last year after claims emerged that he had groped two male researchers at an SNP Christmas party in 2016. It was also claimed that Grady, 42, “inappropriately” touched an SNP staff member, then aged 19, in a London pub.
At the time he stood down, it emerged that the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon had been aware of “a concern” about Grady prior to a harassment complaint being made against him. The party said concerns were raised in February 2018 but that no complaint had been made at that point and the matter was dealt with “informally”….
… A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns, with scant regard paid to his health and wellbeing.
Or perhaps, driven to ill health by a sudden realisation that he had been a grotesque, libidinous octopus, with scant regard paid to the mental health and wellbeing of the women he groped?
Actually, in case any offence was taken, I must apologise to any octopus reading this.
A friend who was a psychiatrist, was given a number of cases in the following pattern.
Non-political people from the governing class - senior people in the civil service, charities, public bodies etc. they had all committed crimes of varying seriousness. Domestic abuse was a popular one.
They had been obviously coached to medicalise their issues. Her part in this was supposed to be to recommend they were sent in a branch of the Priory, rather than court.
Being honest to a fault, she recommended that most of them were fit for trial.
The pushback she received through her superiors in the NHS caused her to leave her job in the end. Endless investigations that proved she had done the right thing - followed by reviews where she was marked down for being investigated so much…
This is why I am somewhat questioning about mental health being used as an excuse for crime.
It’s not (yet) here.
It’s the victim who’s saying their health has been impaired. … A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns…
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
And in sub Saharan Africa which is what we're talking about 95% a r e Christian majority. Plus the Christians have the holy spirit and stuff on their side so really should try harder
Complaints against two SNP MPs accused of sexual harassment have been upheld by a Westminster authority.
The Sunday Times understands that former nationalist chief whip Patrick Grady and frontbencher Patricia Gibson have received the findings of an independent investigation and have been asked to respond.
Grady, the Glasgow North MP, stood aside from his role in March last year after claims emerged that he had groped two male researchers at an SNP Christmas party in 2016. It was also claimed that Grady, 42, “inappropriately” touched an SNP staff member, then aged 19, in a London pub.
At the time he stood down, it emerged that the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon had been aware of “a concern” about Grady prior to a harassment complaint being made against him. The party said concerns were raised in February 2018 but that no complaint had been made at that point and the matter was dealt with “informally”….
… A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns, with scant regard paid to his health and wellbeing.
Or perhaps, driven to ill health by a sudden realisation that he had been a grotesque, libidinous octopus, with scant regard paid to the mental health and wellbeing of the women he groped?
Actually, in case any offence was taken, I must apologise to any octopus reading this.
A friend who was a psychiatrist, was given a number of cases in the following pattern.
Non-political people from the governing class - senior people in the civil service, charities, public bodies etc. they had all committed crimes of varying seriousness. Domestic abuse was a popular one.
They had been obviously coached to medicalise their issues. Her part in this was supposed to be to recommend they were sent in a branch of the Priory, rather than court.
Being honest to a fault, she recommended that most of them were fit for trial.
The pushback she received through her superiors in the NHS caused her to leave her job in the end. Endless investigations that proved she had done the right thing - followed by reviews where she was marked down for being investigated so much…
This is why I am somewhat questioning about mental health being used as an excuse for crime.
"I'm depressed because I have been such a dickhead...." should not excuse that yep, you have been a criminal dickhead.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Rwanda was a Belgian colony. It has only recently joined the British Commonwralth. So I wouldnt expect British colonial laws.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Hadn't realised the Commonwealth was such a collective of homophobes....
If we are to talk about Johnson's "shrewdness" (which I agree with), can we discuss Keir Starmer's?
For a man who apparently can't do politics, in two years he has removed Corbyn, taken over the NEC, essentially resolved the bulk of the anti-Semitism issue with praise from the Jewish community, abandoned all of the nutty Corbyn policies, regained Labour's image on NATO and defence and turned a 26 polling deficit into an 11 point lead. And now leads on the economy and best PM, things which Labour hasn't achieved in well over a decade.
For a man who can't do politics, that's quite an achievement. And he did by essentially letting the idiots out themselves.
And he's done the same for Johnson - and now Sunak. I think he's very, very clever.
Indeed, he's also a shrewd, malevolent and malign figure.
Hence why he was willing to stand in Jeremy Corbyn's Cabinet while his more principled colleagues resigned.
I don't think SKS is malevolent or malign. Then again, I don't think Johnson is either. The way things stand I'll probably be voting LD for local reasons next month, but at any GE I'd be voting Labour.
SKS's problem isn't that he's nasty, or malign, or even has particularly nasty or bad policies (of what we've seen so far). It's that he's bland. Grey. He needs some of that Blair magic.
Then again, people thought Major was grey, and it turned out he was a bit more colourful than people thought...
He lacks Blair's magic but one thing he shares with Blair and Boris is he's an unprincipled chancer who will throw anyone under the bus to further his own career prospects.
While anyone decent in Labour resigned from Corbyn's Cabinet over the way Corbyn was treating Jews etc, as @CorrectHorseBattery correctly noted Starmer put furthering his own career ahead of any principles of willingness to stand up for Jews or anyone else.
Like Blair and Boris he'll say or do anything, stand with or betray anyone, in order to put himself first. Which is why he's now where he is instead of someone with any principles.
Corbyn was not mistreating Jews. The complaint was that he did not do anything to counter antisemitic abuse coming principally from the trots Ed Miliband had allowed back in, and had not established adequate procedures in the party.
You can feel the butt-hurt in Putin's whinging about being outgunned by far superior toys. Tough. Don't being a tank to an anti-tank weapon fight.
It's not just the weapons Ukraine has been given. I saw a video taken from a COTS quadcopter — actually the ones the Ukrainians seem to be using have 8 rotors, so maybe an octocopter? — dropping two anti-tank grenades on a Russian armoured vehicle, which then exploded.
The Russians were unaware they were being filmed, that a drone is hovering over them, and they are being destroyed by a relatively puny weapon that is guided by nothing more than gravity and the aim of the drone operator. How would Russian forces fair if they had to fight the Americans armed to the teeth with the latest high-tech weapons?
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Hadn't realised the Commonwealth was such a collective of homophobes....
And the Americans (a 1% reference from last night's show).
If we are to talk about Johnson's "shrewdness" (which I agree with), can we discuss Keir Starmer's?
For a man who apparently can't do politics, in two years he has removed Corbyn, taken over the NEC, essentially resolved the bulk of the anti-Semitism issue with praise from the Jewish community, abandoned all of the nutty Corbyn policies, regained Labour's image on NATO and defence and turned a 26 polling deficit into an 11 point lead. And now leads on the economy and best PM, things which Labour hasn't achieved in well over a decade.
For a man who can't do politics, that's quite an achievement. And he did by essentially letting the idiots out themselves.
And he's done the same for Johnson - and now Sunak. I think he's very, very clever.
Indeed, he's also a shrewd, malevolent and malign figure.
Hence why he was willing to stand in Jeremy Corbyn's Cabinet while his more principled colleagues resigned.
I don't think SKS is malevolent or malign. Then again, I don't think Johnson is either. The way things stand I'll probably be voting LD for local reasons next month, but at any GE I'd be voting Labour.
SKS's problem isn't that he's nasty, or malign, or even has particularly nasty or bad policies (of what we've seen so far). It's that he's bland. Grey. He needs some of that Blair magic.
Then again, people thought Major was grey, and it turned out he was a bit more colourful than people thought...
He lacks Blair's magic but one thing he shares with Blair and Boris is he's an unprincipled chancer who will throw anyone under the bus to further his own career prospects.
While anyone decent in Labour resigned from Corbyn's Cabinet over the way Corbyn was treating Jews etc, as @CorrectHorseBattery correctly noted Starmer put furthering his own career ahead of any principles of willingness to stand up for Jews or anyone else.
Like Blair and Boris he'll say or do anything, stand with or betray anyone, in order to put himself first. Which is why he's now where he is instead of someone with any principles.
Depicting Starmer as anti-semitic when his wife is Jewish, and his children are being brought up in the faith lacks credibility.
Indeed it seems to be one reason that he attracts so much hostility from the hard left.
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
WTF do you mean "pivot"? I never said Rwanda criminalises homosexuality, because I knew that it doesn't, I said " is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers," because it is. Are you gay? If you are go and hang out there for a bit, and you will see what I mean.
How are Ghana and Malawi red herrings when the discussion had already been generalised to include North Africa and the Middle East?
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Rwanda was a Belgian colony. It has only recently joined the British Commonwralth. So I wouldnt expect British colonial laws.
Indeed - the francophone issue, to an extent, drove French involvement there.
Which in turn led to the post genocide government pushing a reverse of that policy. English replaced French....
After about 15 years of walking about in Scotland, had my first access rights battle yesterday trying to make my way to an Argyll lighthouse via a large, sprawling caravan park.
Will get in touch with the local access officer on Tuesday, but it also struck me just how important having an understanding of the Land Reform Act is - I'm sure many walkers have been accosted and forced to take a long detour by that gentleman, particularly if they are from down south.
He had the cheek to quote the act at me, threaten to call the police, and filmed me. He asked an English friend "where are you from?" .He also prevented us going to the beach, which seems particularly unreasonable.
Sunak is less the new May than the new Michael Portillo or David Miliband. The young Crown Prince and Cabinet star seen as the heir apparent who dithered when they had their best chance in government and failed to become PM.
Worryingly for Sunak Portillo and Miliband lost leadership elections to become leader of the opposition too.
I would though now put Ben Wallace rather than Jeremy Hunt as likely next Conservative leader after Johnson, although either would be good
Good morning
Boris and Rishi continue to embarrass and this coming week looks as if it could be one of the most embarrassing for the conservative party as Boris seemingly is going to 'beg' to stay in office
I just hope sufficient of his mps remember integrity matters and sends both Boris and Rishi packing and start the process to elect a new leader
Enough is enough, Boris's time is over, but if his mps keep him in office then they deserve to hand Starmer a landslide in 24
Even on yesterday's polling Starmer would not get a landslide but yes he would become PM with either most seats in a hung parliament or a small majority.
Boris needs to get a grip going forward on domestic politics, as does Sunak
Any comments from you on the subject at hand? Not what Boris could do on the policy front, but whether as a Liar and a Criminal he should be in office at all.
Can't wait for your party of high morals to start attacking Justin Welby. How dare he! Who does he think he is, Archbishop of What, saying that immorality is immoral.
There will be attack articles aimed at "handwringing" bishops trying to derail St Priti's just and wholesome Rwanda policy. Will you continue to support the bullies with their immorality? Or your church? Just curious, because Welby has stitched you up a kipper. You and all the rest of the moral cowards excusing them.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
The UK PM who nearly lost Scotland and then actually lost an unloseable EU referendum, which he called, on his terms, and on his timing?
Cameron is a fucking idiot. Possibly the worst prime minister in 200 years.
“Nearly lost Scotland”. Love the proprietorial arrogance. Keep up the good work.
Looking back, I'm not so sure his Scottish referendum was such a bad move. It wasn't that close. And it has effectively been kicked in to the long grass with this 'once in a generation' thing. The fate of Independence seems to be tied up with the fate of the SNP, who will not be in power forever. Once something has become associated with the 'establishment', it inevitably loses some of its appeal.
Blimey. If that isn't designed to provoke ...!
Just the ramblings of an idiot, I laughed out loud at the stupidity of the troll
The ‘light the blue touch paper with some low information drivel and watch the Nats go mental’ then absolutely nothing happening meme is pretty well established on PB.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Christian missionaries introduced the idea that it was taboo, but it’s not clear from what I can find that the colonial administration ever introduced legislation on the matter (nb it wasn’t a British colony), so I’m not sure it was ever illegal. The government debated making it so in 2009, but decided to leave it as a “private matter”.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
If you have faith there are plenty of lessons that can be taken from the Bible - all of which is "God-breathed" to demonstrate how utterly degenerate and indefensible the policy is. And how egregiously lying is wrong. But its ok - if you simply ignore the parts you disagree with you can be both on the side of "this policy is officially immoral in the eyes of God" and "this policy is moral, I am not a bully, my boss isn't a liar and a crook, and he're mad Nad to attack handwringing bishops who are the enemies of the people"
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
Psalm 139 of King David in the Bible is absolutely clear on the importance of the unborn child. Reducing the number of abortions is as important a Christian message as protecting refugees.
I also don't need any lectures on my Christianity from you. Christ was also clear in the Parable of the Talents about the importance of thrift and savings
Not exactly persuasive, since those passages talk of God knowing you before you were conceived. And if the Old Testament prohibited something, it was very specific about its being prohibited. Your appeal to metaphor is poor exegesis.
I would imagine that they would class it as murder without distinguishing. After all they believe that “every sperm is sacred”
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Hadn't realised the Commonwealth was such a collective of homophobes....
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Christian missionaries introduced the idea that it was taboo, but it’s not clear from what I can find that the colonial administration ever introduced legislation on the matter (nb it wasn’t a British colony), so I’m not sure it was ever illegal. The government debated making it so in 2009, but decided to leave it as a “private matter”.
Interesting to see that list. French, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese former colonies don't seem to feature much. Those British administrators have a lot to anwer for.
You can feel the butt-hurt in Putin's whinging about being outgunned by far superior toys. Tough. Don't being a tank to an anti-tank weapon fight.
It's not just the weapons Ukraine has been given. I saw a video taken from a COTS quadcopter — actually the ones the Ukrainians seem to be using have 8 rotors, so maybe an octocopter? — dropping two anti-tank grenades on a Russian armoured vehicle, which then exploded.
The Russians were unaware they were being filmed, that a drone is hovering over them, and they are being destroyed by a relatively puny weapon that is guided by nothing more than gravity and the aim of the drone operator. How would Russian forces fair if they had to fight the Americans armed to the teeth with the latest high-tech weapons?
Talking of filming. I've been watching some videos that were sent by Russian supporters of the war - via Russian family (who are uniformly hostile to the war).
The Russian ones are surprising in one respect - most show Russian soldiers living like tramps, literally. Sleeping in nests of cardboard and random bits of cloth in APCs or holes in the ground. They don't seem very coordinated in their actions either - just blokes milling about.
It's an interesting disconnect - if that was UK troops, the outrage in the UK would be massive. And these people think these videos are positive.....
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Sunak is less the new May than the new Michael Portillo or David Miliband. The young Crown Prince and Cabinet star seen as the heir apparent who dithered when they had their best chance in government and failed to become PM.
Worryingly for Sunak Portillo and Miliband lost leadership elections to become leader of the opposition too.
I would though now put Ben Wallace rather than Jeremy Hunt as likely next Conservative leader after Johnson, although either would be good
Good morning
Boris and Rishi continue to embarrass and this coming week looks as if it could be one of the most embarrassing for the conservative party as Boris seemingly is going to 'beg' to stay in office
I just hope sufficient of his mps remember integrity matters and sends both Boris and Rishi packing and start the process to elect a new leader
Enough is enough, Boris's time is over, but if his mps keep him in office then they deserve to hand Starmer a landslide in 24
Even on yesterday's polling Starmer would not get a landslide but yes he would become PM with either most seats in a hung parliament or a small majority.
Boris needs to get a grip going forward on domestic politics, as does Sunak
No - Boris and Rishi need to resign
I am surprised you are willing to countenance his behaviour, and I would ask do you value integrity ?
I keep asking the same question. How can you proclaim yourself as a moral man whilst defending immorality? Some things really are as simple as right and wrong.
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Not sure if this has been posted but this must be terminal for Boris desire to remain in office
The Prime Minister is accused of 'leading the celebrations' at rule-breaking leaving do...
"The event expected to create the biggest headache was on November 13, 2020, to mark the exit of Lee Cain, the No 10 director of communications, which insiders say was instigated by Johnson. “This wasn’t a leaving drinks,” said one source — until the prime minister arrived. “This was the usual press office Friday evening wash-up drinks. Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. “He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.” A photographer is said to have been present throughout and is thought to have captured pictures of Johnson." - The Sunday Times
Why?
Why should X people having “usual wash up drinks” be any different to X+1 having drinks following a few words by 1?
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Hadn't realised the Commonwealth was such a collective of homophobes....
...i thought they all sounded differently to me...
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Complaints against two SNP MPs accused of sexual harassment have been upheld by a Westminster authority.
The Sunday Times understands that former nationalist chief whip Patrick Grady and frontbencher Patricia Gibson have received the findings of an independent investigation and have been asked to respond.
Grady, the Glasgow North MP, stood aside from his role in March last year after claims emerged that he had groped two male researchers at an SNP Christmas party in 2016. It was also claimed that Grady, 42, “inappropriately” touched an SNP staff member, then aged 19, in a London pub.
At the time he stood down, it emerged that the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon had been aware of “a concern” about Grady prior to a harassment complaint being made against him. The party said concerns were raised in February 2018 but that no complaint had been made at that point and the matter was dealt with “informally”….
… A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns, with scant regard paid to his health and wellbeing.
Or perhaps, driven to ill health by a sudden realisation that he had been a grotesque, libidinous octopus, with scant regard paid to the mental health and wellbeing of the women he groped?
Actually, in case any offence was taken, I must apologise to any octopus reading this.
A friend who was a psychiatrist, was given a number of cases in the following pattern.
Non-political people from the governing class - senior people in the civil service, charities, public bodies etc. they had all committed crimes of varying seriousness. Domestic abuse was a popular one.
They had been obviously coached to medicalise their issues. Her part in this was supposed to be to recommend they were sent in a branch of the Priory, rather than court.
Being honest to a fault, she recommended that most of them were fit for trial.
The pushback she received through her superiors in the NHS caused her to leave her job in the end. Endless investigations that proved she had done the right thing - followed by reviews where she was marked down for being investigated so much…
This is why I am somewhat questioning about mental health being used as an excuse for crime.
"I'm depressed because I have been such a dickhead...." should not excuse that yep, you have been a criminal dickhead.
Yup.
To me, the especially disgusting thing is misusing mental health as a cover. We are just getting society to deal sensibly with mental health - it's another kind of illness, needs treatment, respect... and these arseholes are putting that progress at risk.
There will be a scandal, sooner or later. The Right Kind Of People get the Priory (often via private insurance paid for as part of their public service jobs). The Wrong People get prison.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Religion holds us back. HYUFD, time to give up your bronze-age superstition.
But not by that impressive a margin. If you take out "God hates queers" there is nothing on the charge sheet, but you still have 70% anti in 1990. 1990 ffs.
Fuck me, the cursed numbers again. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 52|48.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Religion holds us back. HYUFD, time to give up your bronze-age superstition.
But not by that impressive a margin. If you take out "God hates queers" there is nothing on the charge sheet, but you still have 70% anti in 1990. 1990 ffs.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
That's an interesting article, thanks. I'd like to add one more point to the Ukraine part: both sides (Ukraine and Russia) are 'lying', albeit often in different ways.
However, if you look at the things we know, Ukraine's 'lies' on things like equipment destroyed is a lot less egregious. Open-source figures (which will be lowball) are more than half Ukraine's figures for things like tanks, which are easier to verify (things like aircraft are much harder to verify). Russia's figures for the amount of Ukrainian kit destroyed are much more out of sync with the open-source figures. There are good reasons why this might be; but it should be noted that Russia's figures have nearly all of Ukraine's pre-war tank fleet destroyed - including, I believe, the stored ones. This does seem out of sync with what we are seeing on the ground.
Then there are the obvious lies by the Russian side - for instance their line on the Moskva sinking is almost as ridiculous as their MH17 lies. Or their entire justification for the war, which is based on lies, mistruths and a perverted sense of national identities.
Why does this matter? If Russia are lying to the outside world and their public, they might well be lying to themselves. That makes their decisions much less likely to be good ones. There are rumours that a lot of people in Moscow have been sacked for not having told the truth to Putin and the top bods. Does this make it more likely for their replacements to tell the truth? Perhaps, or perhaps the replacements will be more junior people who are *less* likely to tell Putin the bad news.
If Russia loses this war, it might be that a good part of the reason are the lies the regime has told, not just to other countries, not just to the public, but to themselves.
I've sort of opted out of the Ukraine discussion on PB for now, as anything not quite in line with the dominant view too quickly degenerates into personal suspicion, and I can't be bothered with it. But I think you're right, and it's an occupational hazard of autocracies. It's true in private life too - if you make people afraid to tell you you're making a mistake, you'll make more mistakes.
Something I don't properly understand about Russia is the extent to which censorship applies. We get the impression that it's all-encompassing, but then you get a pundit on a mainstream chat show saying "Maybe we should withdraw" and nothing seems to happen to them, so we wonder if it's a licensed trial ballooon or just a one-off. Navalny is clearly persecuted, but he's not been silenced. Some dissidents die in suspicious circumstances, others live apparently normal lives. Is the position that there is an absence of *reliable* protection of free speech, so people are afraid that they'll be victimised but it doesn't always happen and you can sometimes go off-message and get away with it?
I’m happy to argue with you on the merits, Nick. I don’t suspect any malign intent on your part when I think you’re wrong - and I don’t think there are many at all who do.
As far as the inconsistencies of the regime are concerned, I would guess it’s more a case of semi-chaotic organisation rather than a lack of intent to repress dissent. There’s also the point that when you’re controlling a pressure cooker, letting a little steam out from time to time is part of the process.
The Nazis actually had a specific policy - that Aryans were allowed (even expected) to go off message once or twice. It was a pattern of behaviour that got the Gestapo calling at midnight.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Why do you not just gracefully concede when you are wrong. You specifically said 'countries'. You can't just move goal posts. And what has the the following fact you quoted got to do with it or anything. And just to show how daft that fact is you could quote the percentage of any religion of any country and get all sorts of results eg Christians in many African countries might give interesting reading of their tolerance of homosexuality.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
If you have faith there are plenty of lessons that can be taken from the Bible - all of which is "God-breathed" to demonstrate how utterly degenerate and indefensible the policy is. And how egregiously lying is wrong. But its ok - if you simply ignore the parts you disagree with you can be both on the side of "this policy is officially immoral in the eyes of God" and "this policy is moral, I am not a bully, my boss isn't a liar and a crook, and he're mad Nad to attack handwringing bishops who are the enemies of the people"
@Foxy ‘s persuasive list of New Testament passages upthread indicates where Welby is coming from, and I don’t disagree - it was just the phrase ‘God’s judgment’ that I was quibbling over. Each of us makes up our own minds on this stuff, and claiming higher authority is a characteristic and malign habit of the right that progressives should not adopt.
Not sure if this has been posted but this must be terminal for Boris desire to remain in office
The Prime Minister is accused of 'leading the celebrations' at rule-breaking leaving do...
"The event expected to create the biggest headache was on November 13, 2020, to mark the exit of Lee Cain, the No 10 director of communications, which insiders say was instigated by Johnson. “This wasn’t a leaving drinks,” said one source — until the prime minister arrived. “This was the usual press office Friday evening wash-up drinks. Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. “He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.” A photographer is said to have been present throughout and is thought to have captured pictures of Johnson." - The Sunday Times
Why?
Why should X people having “usual wash up drinks” be any different to X+1 having drinks following a few words by 1?
"Usual wash up drinks" is very interesting. It's a phrase completely unknown to google but the sort of thing people say in the hope their audience will nod sagely rather than admit to being too uncool to be unfamiliar with it. Cf "splash party."
There is no such thing, if there were it would have been illegal anyway, and your x = x+1 argument doesn't really work either. The law permits you x spouses simultaneously where x=1, but x+1 is right out.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Do you ever stop? You make some bigoted comment which is a Total Lie, and respond to being demolished by making another bigoted comment.
You have just had demonstrated that homophobia is not a muslim issue - its a religious issue. So many Christians and christian countries where gayers are in trouble and yet you keep digging to attack the muslims.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
If you have faith there are plenty of lessons that can be taken from the Bible - all of which is "God-breathed" to demonstrate how utterly degenerate and indefensible the policy is. And how egregiously lying is wrong. But its ok - if you simply ignore the parts you disagree with you can be both on the side of "this policy is officially immoral in the eyes of God" and "this policy is moral, I am not a bully, my boss isn't a liar and a crook, and he're mad Nad to attack handwringing bishops who are the enemies of the people"
@Foxy ‘s persuasive list of New Testament passages upthread indicates where Welby is coming from, and I don’t disagree - it was just the phrase ‘God’s judgment’ that I was quibbling over. Each of us makes up our own minds on this stuff, and claiming higher authority is a characteristic and malign habit of the right that progressives should not adopt.
I am a lapsed Anglican these days - too much hypocrisy in the church (like our friend in Essex...). But I still believe and I think the fundamental message of Christianity - "Be Excellent to Each Other" - is important.
So of course the Archbishop of Canterbury should call this immorality out. Its literally his job. And I support bringing God into this - whilst He is unlikely to be tutting at us saying "thats not on" the examples of right and wrong are clear enough to show that this sits in the wrong column.
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
90% of the countries where homosexuality is banned globally are Muslim majority.
Now plenty of Muslims are not homophobic but that is the fact
Fact check: total lie
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
Certainly in terms of population the former is a far bigger group than the latter.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
Religion holds us back. HYUFD, time to give up your bronze-age superstition.
But not by that impressive a margin. If you take out "God hates queers" there is nothing on the charge sheet, but you still have 70% anti in 1990. 1990 ffs.
Thatcher. She really was a rancid ghoul.
Yes. She didn't have a direct line into the hate centres in our brains though.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
We can but hope.
One of my Tory opponents is running as the "Unionist" candidate. No blue, no "Tory", absolutely zero mention of the party at all. We know its an absolute shellacking if my ultimate paper candidate non-campaign beats him...
Can HYUFD, who is our resident expert on what God thinks, pitch in ?
Rwanda's main problem is it is full to the gunwales with Christians whose main takeaway from the bible is that God hates queers. I wonder what Welby thinks of that
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda.
It is however in much of Muslim majority North Africa and the Middle East
No, but outlawing it was debated by Parliament as recently as 2010
Homosexuality is illegal under legacy UK colonial law in former colony and now majority Christian countries like Ghana and Malawi, so I really wouldn't be claiming this as a Christian vs Muslim thing
Nice attempted pivot
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
Christian missionaries introduced the idea that it was taboo, but it’s not clear from what I can find that the colonial administration ever introduced legislation on the matter (nb it wasn’t a British colony), so I’m not sure it was ever illegal. The government debated making it so in 2009, but decided to leave it as a “private matter”.
Interesting to see that list. French, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese former colonies don't seem to feature much. Those British administrators have a lot to anwer for.
There is that, but so do the rest. The Rwandan genocide was as much a colonial legacy as is homophobia in former British colonies. And the of course there’s the Belgian Congo, and the appalling French legacy in Vietnam. On balance I’d argue that nineteenth century British colonies had it somewhat less bad than the rest.
Not sure if this has been posted but this must be terminal for Boris desire to remain in office
The Prime Minister is accused of 'leading the celebrations' at rule-breaking leaving do...
"The event expected to create the biggest headache was on November 13, 2020, to mark the exit of Lee Cain, the No 10 director of communications, which insiders say was instigated by Johnson. “This wasn’t a leaving drinks,” said one source — until the prime minister arrived. “This was the usual press office Friday evening wash-up drinks. Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. “He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.” A photographer is said to have been present throughout and is thought to have captured pictures of Johnson." - The Sunday Times
Why?
Why should X people having “usual wash up drinks” be any different to X+1 having drinks following a few words by 1?
Boris made the rules and his disregard will terminate his premiership, one way or another
The former leader of the SPD, Sigmar Gabriel, is now accusing the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany of being a conspiracy theorist after he pointed out his personal responsibility for Nord Stream 2.
What leaps out at me from the delta poll is 11% Labour lead, but ten behind in the key midlands battle ground, one of Labours worse polls for that split. Sure there are key marginals all round the place, and the lead up north is good for a few of those, but let’s be honest 11% overall, ten behind in midlands has a whiff if piling on negatory votes in places they just don’t need them.
General election night isn’t just the size of your vote but the bang you get from it.
Another thing to add, some pollsters produce consistent good polls for the different parties, and each month tends to have a labour sympathetic run, and then Kantor and others can come together showing smaller leads.
That means compare polls from companies to feel the trends. The green, Lab, Lib added together falling about 55 or more is a good indicator too, as those three share voter based on pollster
I don’t really want an argument with the owners 😕 But to be fair to me you are allowing everyone else to talk excitedly over just same thing, the bits of this poll sub sample they most like - surely my caution message is most sensible one to add to that?
No actually, to be fair, I do want an argument. Don’t you think there is something going on in the midlands? On a historical trend, something based around Brexit, it’s swung Tory and stuck there - despite everything going on right now, so imagine the sub samples if it was a much liked PM and government?
What would help maybe is constituency polls, such as where Watson seat was lost, are Labour still struggling to get that one and others back?
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
We can but hope.
One of my Tory opponents is running as the "Unionist" candidate. No blue, no "Tory", absolutely zero mention of the party at all. We know its an absolute shellacking if my ultimate paper candidate non-campaign beats him...
Interesting. Is he aware of the ambiguity of the word in Scots discourse? Or playing on it? Though Banff & Buchan is not Lanarkshire, obviously.
Edit: must be one of those Independents who so often turn out to be Tories who daren't call themselves that, or have had a temporary throwing-of-toys-out-the-local-party-pram.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
We can but hope.
One of my Tory opponents is running as the "Unionist" candidate. No blue, no "Tory", absolutely zero mention of the party at all. We know its an absolute shellacking if my ultimate paper candidate non-campaign beats him...
Interesting. Is he aware of the ambiguity of the word in Scots discourse? Or playing on it? Though Banff & Buchan is not Lanarkshire, obviously.
Edit: must be one of those Independents who so often turn out to be Tories who daren't call themselves that, or have had a temporary throwing-of-toys-out-the-local-party-pram.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
We can but hope.
One of my Tory opponents is running as the "Unionist" candidate. No blue, no "Tory", absolutely zero mention of the party at all. We know its an absolute shellacking if my ultimate paper candidate non-campaign beats him...
Interesting. Is he aware of the ambiguity of the word in Scots discourse? Or playing on it? Though Banff & Buchan is not Lanarkshire, obviously.
Edit: must be one of those Independents who so often turn out to be Tories who daren't call themselves that, or have had a temporary throwing-of-toys-out-the-local-party-pram.
He is an official Conservative candidate...
So the C*** word must be in his leaflets and his ballot ticket? Is it legal to conceal that if one is an official party candidate?
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Heartless non-analogy based on trees
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
However, the Home Office has now admitted that the proposed legislation, which is due to go back to the House of Commons this week, in fact contains no provision to provide safe government-backed routes for asylum seekers.
A letter dated 5 April from Home Office minister Tom Pursglove to the humanitarian charity MSF UK directly contradicts Patel by stating that safe and legal routes “do not form part of the bill”…
… When asked to explain Patel’s assertion that safe and legal routes were included in the bill, the Home Office said its “new plan for immigration” would strengthen existing routes for refugees, “so they don’t have to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers”.
Senior Conservatives fear traditional voters will desert them after Partygate https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/16/senior-conservatives-partygate-fines-boris-johnson-rishi-sunak … “If you go to our newer working-class, blue-collar voters, I’m not sure they’re that bothered,” said one northern Tory MP. “But if you go to our traditional middle-class Tory voter, they’re angry. That’s how I would define it. I think he should’ve resigned.”
A minister said: “We’re going down a route that isolates the people in the middle. I don’t know whether there’s enough votes on the right and the core of the party to get us through. I just think it’s offensive and it’s doing real brand damage. I’m just appalled.”…
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Heartless non-analogy based on trees
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
If you mean HMG rather than I is being heartless, then quite so. Doesn't make sense to me.
Senior Conservatives fear traditional voters will desert them after Partygate https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/16/senior-conservatives-partygate-fines-boris-johnson-rishi-sunak … “If you go to our newer working-class, blue-collar voters, I’m not sure they’re that bothered,” said one northern Tory MP. “But if you go to our traditional middle-class Tory voter, they’re angry. That’s how I would define it. I think he should’ve resigned.”
A minister said: “We’re going down a route that isolates the people in the middle. I don’t know whether there’s enough votes on the right and the core of the party to get us through. I just think it’s offensive and it’s doing real brand damage. I’m just appalled.”…
So partygate pisses off the core vote, fuel bills get everybody else.
Yes, quite a fall for Sunak. I hope all who got on at the brilliant 250/1 tipped by the departed Philip Thompson (wonder how he's filling his days now?) took some profit while he was super-short.
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Heartless non-analogy based on trees
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
If you mean HMG rather than I is being heartless, then quite so. Doesn't make sense to me.
Didn't know that about equines ...
No, I meant my tree ring suggestion was the heartless analogy.
If we are to talk about Johnson's "shrewdness" (which I agree with), can we discuss Keir Starmer's?
For a man who apparently can't do politics, in two years he has removed Corbyn, taken over the NEC, essentially resolved the bulk of the anti-Semitism issue with praise from the Jewish community, abandoned all of the nutty Corbyn policies, regained Labour's image on NATO and defence and turned a 26 polling deficit into an 11 point lead. And now leads on the economy and best PM, things which Labour hasn't achieved in well over a decade.
For a man who can't do politics, that's quite an achievement. And he did by essentially letting the idiots out themselves.
And he's done the same for Johnson - and now Sunak. I think he's very, very clever.
Indeed, he's also a shrewd, malevolent and malign figure.
Hence why he was willing to stand in Jeremy Corbyn's Cabinet while his more principled colleagues resigned.
I don't think SKS is malevolent or malign. Then again, I don't think Johnson is either. The way things stand I'll probably be voting LD for local reasons next month, but at any GE I'd be voting Labour.
SKS's problem isn't that he's nasty, or malign, or even has particularly nasty or bad policies (of what we've seen so far). It's that he's bland. Grey. He needs some of that Blair magic.
Then again, people thought Major was grey, and it turned out he was a bit more colourful than people thought...
He lacks Blair's magic but one thing he shares with Blair and Boris is he's an unprincipled chancer who will throw anyone under the bus to further his own career prospects.
While anyone decent in Labour resigned from Corbyn's Cabinet over the way Corbyn was treating Jews etc, as @CorrectHorseBattery correctly noted Starmer put furthering his own career ahead of any principles of willingness to stand up for Jews or anyone else.
Like Blair and Boris he'll say or do anything, stand with or betray anyone, in order to put himself first. Which is why he's now where he is instead of someone with any principles.
If he hadn't served in Corbyn's shadow cabinet, RLB would likely be Labour leader, Momentum and the far left would still be running the show, and the Labour party would likely still be mired with cases of anti-Semitism.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It was excellent and I rather enjoyed the first half as well for its humour.
Morning all.
I gave up at this, I'm afraid:
Someone mentioned that if you properly shuffle a pack of cards, the probability of the cards dealt ever being repeated in the same order in a later deal were astronomical (being blocked, I don’t have the exact wording)
It takes fully half a second to log out of twitter so you *can* read it...
yes 52 ! is a huge number - you are indeed making history when you shuffle a pack of cards as it will never have been done before in that order
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Heartless non-analogy based on trees
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
If you mean HMG rather than I is being heartless, then quite so. Doesn't make sense to me.
Didn't know that about equines ...
No, I meant my tree ring suggestion was the heartless analogy.
Still, I think you might have got a key insight - that HMG is pretending one can be precise about such things. I really do wonder.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It was excellent and I rather enjoyed the first half as well for its humour.
Morning all.
I gave up at this, I'm afraid:
Someone mentioned that if you properly shuffle a pack of cards, the probability of the cards dealt ever being repeated in the same order in a later deal were astronomical (being blocked, I don’t have the exact wording)
It takes fully half a second to log out of twitter so you *can* read it...
yes 52 ! is a huge number - you are indeed making history when you shuffle a pack of cards as it will never have been done before in that order
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possible permutations
Notable that so many think Johnson and Sunak broke the rules "in a similar manner", given that the former is not only implicated in many more incidents than the latter, but also that Johnson is the person responsible for all the rest who did.
Not a great sign, that. My surge of renewed faith in the perspicacity of the British people is slightly dampened by it.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It was excellent and I rather enjoyed the first half as well for its humour.
Morning all.
I gave up at this, I'm afraid:
Someone mentioned that if you properly shuffle a pack of cards, the probability of the cards dealt ever being repeated in the same order in a later deal were astronomical (being blocked, I don’t have the exact wording)
It takes fully half a second to log out of twitter so you *can* read it...
yes 52 ! is a huge number - you are indeed making history when you shuffle a pack of cards as it will never have been done before in that order
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possible permutations
Of course a mere nothing compared to Grahams's number though!
A Conservative MP lied under oath, behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive way, and was so dishonest that his claims about a multimillion-pound family dispute could not be taken at face value, a high court judge has ruled.
Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, has spent years taking legal action against his family’s £27 million potato and vegetable business, which he claims forced him out and treated him unfairly.
He could face millions of pounds in legal bills and a referral to the parliamentary standards watchdog after he was found to have been an unsatisfactory, evasive and combative witness who tried to cover up his misconduct.
Last month Judge Brian Rawlings found that Bridgen, 57, had pressured a police inspector to investigate his brother over false allegations of fraud, prompting a costly inquiry lasting more than a year. He denied it after realising it would look “inappropriate”.
Bridgen also made false statements about why he had resigned from the business, AB Produce, almost a decade ago. In court he argued he had been forced out by Paul, 55, his brother, a claim the judge described as a lie. In fact, the judge ruled, he had quit because he thought it might reduce the amount he owed his first wife, Jackie, 57, in divorce proceedings.
On topic. I thought Rishi was good. I liked him and was excited about him replacing Boris and making a difference. So this is not good really if it means Boris stays beyond his sell by date. ☹️
I think Rishi is different than Boris and this government. When he said he wouldn’t have said the Saville remark it wasn’t calculating it was instincts not to be a dog whistle. (And my Dad has convinced me) Rishi’s budget couple of months ago was very good as we don’t know what battles he has won inside a populist government who wanted savings blown in short termist policy, it was largely held back in case inflation crunch becomes a recession.
I think a lot of PB commentators struggle to call it right because they can’t think from the position of wanting the Tory’s to win the next election. If you want to call it right you have to be able to put a head on wanting a Tory win and see the inherent vice in good and bad polling and chances of winning. For example, if you want the Tory’s winning the next election, are you thinking it’s a good move with 2019 voters to dump Boris with Truss? Would Truss have won the landslide majority? You call them spineless, but is it not a fair calculation to let Boris go into the next GE now and see if he could work his old magic?
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It is an extremely poor article in which Meeks pontificates on a subject (Bayes Theorem) about which he characteristically knows nothing.
I once tried to explain what a Fisher matrix was to Meeks ... I was told law is more important than mathematics.
I had to stop reading when he said “I understand the maths, I really do”; I couldn’t risk tossing my phone at the Pyrenees due to his ignorance of the subject.
Well, hang on. Take the R & C Are Dead situation where you are tossing a coin and telling me the outcome. When you get to the 90th heads in a row I am coming to conclusions about your honesty and/or the fairness of the coin. Surely what I am doing is updating my priors, which is exactly what Mr Meeks is correctly on about?
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It was excellent and I rather enjoyed the first half as well for its humour.
Morning all.
I gave up at this, I'm afraid:
Someone mentioned that if you properly shuffle a pack of cards, the probability of the cards dealt ever being repeated in the same order in a later deal were astronomical (being blocked, I don’t have the exact wording)
It takes fully half a second to log out of twitter so you *can* read it...
yes 52 ! is a huge number - you are indeed making history when you shuffle a pack of cards as it will never have been done before in that order
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possible permutations
Imagine you had a machine that could generate a million permutations of a deck of cards every single second. You run it every single second, every day, for the entire time span of the universe (13.8 billion years). Now suppose everybody on the planet (8 billion people) has one of these machines and is also running it constantly. Now suppose that every single star in our galaxy (400 billion stars) has the same number of people doing the same thing, from the Big Bang to now. Now suppose that every single galaxy in the observable universe (2 trillion galaxies) has the same number of stars each with the same number of people churning through a million combinations a second from the beginning of time.
The question is, how many universes do you need to get through ALL the combinations? Assuming the best case scenario that nobody on any planet in any galaxy across the span of all history ever gets the same combination that anyone else has ever got in any of the million combinations per second they are all churning out?
The answer is: you need 29,000,000,000 universes to get there.
So that's 29 billion universes each with 2 trillion galaxies each with 400 billion stars each with 8 billion people each shuffling a pack of cards a million times per second without a break for the entire span of time that has ever happened.
Sunak is less the new May than the new Michael Portillo or David Miliband. The young Crown Prince and Cabinet star seen as the heir apparent who dithered when they had their best chance in government and failed to become PM.
Worryingly for Sunak Portillo and Miliband lost leadership elections to become leader of the opposition too.
I would though now put Ben Wallace rather than Jeremy Hunt as likely next Conservative leader after Johnson, although either would be good
Good morning
Boris and Rishi continue to embarrass and this coming week looks as if it could be one of the most embarrassing for the conservative party as Boris seemingly is going to 'beg' to stay in office
I just hope sufficient of his mps remember integrity matters and sends both Boris and Rishi packing and start the process to elect a new leader
Enough is enough, Boris's time is over, but if his mps keep him in office then they deserve to hand Starmer a landslide in 24
Broadly, the Conservatives have three personnel options from here.
1 Keep Johnson. 2 Ditch the man, but try to keep the appeal, the va-va-voom... Truss? We've not heard much from her recently. 3 Repudiate Johnsonian. Hunt would be a step too far, surely. Would Wallace be sufficiently different? And would the party be up for that?
In terms of policy, what would a government with 30 months left do? Steer to the centre, or fulfill the dreams the Conservative right have had for years while they can?
Well, they could try and steer the ship of state through incredibly choppy and unpredictable seas in the national interest, trying to avoid us being a part of a nuclear war, reducing inflation, remembering those on benefits, the homeless and the feckless. Who knows, a government that did that well might even deserve to be re-elected.
(And people try to claim lawyers don't have a sense of humour.)
Adolf Hitler: Steiner's assault will bring it under control. General der Infanterie Hans Krebs: My fuhrer, Steiner... Generaloberst Alfred Jodl: Steiner couldn't mobilize enough men. He was unable to carry out the assault. Adolf Hitler: [Removes glasses] These men will stay here: Kietel, Jodl, Krebs and Burgdorf.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
It was excellent and I rather enjoyed the first half as well for its humour.
Morning all.
I gave up at this, I'm afraid:
Someone mentioned that if you properly shuffle a pack of cards, the probability of the cards dealt ever being repeated in the same order in a later deal were astronomical (being blocked, I don’t have the exact wording)
It takes fully half a second to log out of twitter so you *can* read it...
yes 52 ! is a huge number - you are indeed making history when you shuffle a pack of cards as it will never have been done before in that order
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possible permutations
Only faux-"Christians" like yourself get het up about abortion.
On this day of all days surely even a pretendy-Christian like you might want to think about Christ's actual teachings. I can think of many of Christ's sermons about the poor and needy etc, even one about paying taxes, but not a single one from Christ himself about foetuses or any of the other nonsense you work yourself up about.
Maybe Welby is inspired by the teachings of Christ himself in what he's speaking about, rather than whatever bothers you. But if he wants to shape politics, perhaps he should consider running for election.
As long as we have an established church (and I know you disagree with that but let’s not get sidetracked on that discussion as it’s not the main point) ++Welby has a duty to speak up on national issues
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
They should cut off an arm and count the annual growth rings.
Teeth have growth rings IIRC. But significant uncertainty, I presume, so you can't use dental x-rays to say if someone is 18 precisely, surely? Was that the argument?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
Heartless non-analogy based on trees
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
If you mean HMG rather than I is being heartless, then quite so. Doesn't make sense to me.
Didn't know that about equines ...
No, I meant my tree ring suggestion was the heartless analogy.
Still, I think you might have got a key insight - that HMG is pretending one can be precise about such things. I really do wonder.
The latest from Alastair Meeks, formerly of this parish. The first half is not quite up to his usual standard, being a fairly obvious statement of the risk of assuming that events are completely random. But he then leads on to Covid and Ukraine. Anyway, it's an renjoyable read, as his pieces always are.
Interesting article. I liked this from one of his previous ones about Twitter.
"When you stop and think about it, there’s no particular reason why morally commendable people should have particularly insightful views, particularly on matters which have no particular moral dimension, but it’s an assumption that most of us make most of the time."
Sunak is less the new May than the new Michael Portillo or David Miliband. The young Crown Prince and Cabinet star seen as the heir apparent who dithered when they had their best chance in government and failed to become PM.
Worryingly for Sunak Portillo and Miliband lost leadership elections to become leader of the opposition too.
I would though now put Ben Wallace rather than Jeremy Hunt as likely next Conservative leader after Johnson, although either would be good
Good morning
Boris and Rishi continue to embarrass and this coming week looks as if it could be one of the most embarrassing for the conservative party as Boris seemingly is going to 'beg' to stay in office
I just hope sufficient of his mps remember integrity matters and sends both Boris and Rishi packing and start the process to elect a new leader
Enough is enough, Boris's time is over, but if his mps keep him in office then they deserve to hand Starmer a landslide in 24
Even on yesterday's polling Starmer would not get a landslide but yes he would become PM with either most seats in a hung parliament or a small majority.
Boris needs to get a grip going forward on domestic politics, as does Sunak
An 11 point Labour lead and on HYUFD's analysis there could still be a hung Parliament.
Sunak is less the new May than the new Michael Portillo or David Miliband. The young Crown Prince and Cabinet star seen as the heir apparent who dithered when they had their best chance in government and failed to become PM.
Worryingly for Sunak Portillo and Miliband lost leadership elections to become leader of the opposition too.
I would though now put Ben Wallace rather than Jeremy Hunt as likely next Conservative leader after Johnson, although either would be good
Good morning
Boris and Rishi continue to embarrass and this coming week looks as if it could be one of the most embarrassing for the conservative party as Boris seemingly is going to 'beg' to stay in office
I just hope sufficient of his mps remember integrity matters and sends both Boris and Rishi packing and start the process to elect a new leader
Enough is enough, Boris's time is over, but if his mps keep him in office then they deserve to hand Starmer a landslide in 24
Even on yesterday's polling Starmer would not get a landslide but yes he would become PM with either most seats in a hung parliament or a small majority.
Boris needs to get a grip going forward on domestic politics, as does Sunak
An 11 point Labour lead and on HYUFD's analysis there could still be a hung Parliament.
Starmer fans please explain!
At this point the Tories go to the same lengths to explain "here is how Johnson can still win" as we Corbynites did for Corbyn.
The comments below are interesting. A pretty universal agreement that he should go with only the odd grifter saying "just a bit of cake" before being shouted down.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Seems the only way he might go before the GE is if there is an absolute shellacking in early May locals.
We can but hope.
One of my Tory opponents is running as the "Unionist" candidate. No blue, no "Tory", absolutely zero mention of the party at all. We know its an absolute shellacking if my ultimate paper candidate non-campaign beats him...
Interesting. Is he aware of the ambiguity of the word in Scots discourse? Or playing on it? Though Banff & Buchan is not Lanarkshire, obviously.
Edit: must be one of those Independents who so often turn out to be Tories who daren't call themselves that, or have had a temporary throwing-of-toys-out-the-local-party-pram.
He is an official Conservative candidate...
Do you get to write your own leaflets Dale?
If I was standing as Libdem right now I would have Lebedev on front page in ermine. And questions for Boris. “Are you aware your good friend had a campaign to infiltrate the establishment?” “How many visits to villa and castle in Italy? How much of free flights, accommodation and private cars? Is there any such thing as a free lunch?” “At the time of these free flights, visits to villa and castles, were you aware your friend suggested MI6 killed Alexander Litvinenko, played down invasion of Crimea, said Putin showed leadership in Syria and Russians thanked Putin for “unimaginable freedoms? Everyone else seemed aware of this.” “At what point did you decide to recommend your friend a peerage, and for what reasons?” “When you were told no, blocked on national security grounds, what did you do next?”
Lebedev the most serious lapse of Boris Johnson’s judgement yet - a hundred times worse than Partygate. He made this guy a lawmaker.
Comments
He will be subject to scrutiny the closer it gets to an election though.
As for the MPs and members. It depends on how much they want power. The membership seems too have largely purged the batshit Corbyn loving cult.
But the party that was once the party of the working man and woman has been the party of the single issue lobbyist often subcontracting policy making to these groups.
Non-political people from the governing class - senior people in the civil service, charities, public bodies etc. they had all committed crimes of varying seriousness. Domestic abuse was a popular one.
They had been obviously coached to medicalise their issues. Her part in this was supposed to be to recommend they were sent in a branch of the Priory, rather than court.
Being honest to a fault, she recommended that most of them were fit for trial.
The pushback she received through her superiors in the NHS caused her to leave her job in the end. Endless investigations that proved she had done the right thing - followed by reviews where she was marked down for being investigated so much…
This is why I am somewhat questioning about mental health being used as an excuse for crime.
Yep, you are Boris.....
However, homosexual acts remain legal in Rwanda, which perhaps we should ignore the red herrings of Ghana and Malawi.
(TBF, I'd be interested to know how they became legal in Rwanda, if ' legacy UK colonial law in former colony' usually makes homosexual* acts a criminal offence. Don't mention the intervening 50-70 years where laws could have been changed.)
* Corrected a typo from "homosoxual", which would be interesting for some eccentric cityboys.
It’s the victim who’s saying their health has been impaired.
… A friend of the complainant who accused the MPs recently told how he believes he has been driven to ill health by a lack of support from the party since raising concerns…
There are 69 countries where homosexuality is illegal. 33 of these can be described as "Muslim majority" (I have included countries where the number of Muslims is slightly below 50% but still a plurality:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Chad, Comoros, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territory (Gaza Strip), Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen
Meanwhile, the other 36 are not:
Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Dominica, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
They are mostly Christian, with some Buddhist, and one or two others.
The Russians were unaware they were being filmed, that a drone is hovering over them, and they are being destroyed by a relatively puny weapon that is guided by nothing more than gravity and the aim of the drone operator. How would Russian forces fair if they had to fight the Americans armed to the teeth with the latest high-tech weapons?
Indeed it seems to be one reason that he attracts so much hostility from the hard left.
There are multiple verses on the Bible about helping the poor, the weary, the needy, so if you start from the perspective that all of these individuals are genuine asylum seekers we have a moral duty to assist (which doesn’t necessarily mean residence in the UK)
The issue is that there are an indeterminant number of economic migrants mixed in and falsely claiming to be refugees. That is a purely transactional decision for the UK if someone adds value to the country.
If anyone can come up with a way to distinguish between the two classes that would be fantastic. It would also be beneficial if the advocates of unlimited immigration didn’t spend their time making life difficult … I remember the case where they took the government to court for using dental examinations to determine whether individuals without papers were eligible for a scheme designed to aid children. If a scheme is designed to aid children it doesn’t seem unreasonable that there should be a mechanism to verify who qualifies rather than just taking peoples word as being true
Are you gay? If you are go and hang out there for a bit, and you will see what I mean.
How are Ghana and Malawi red herrings when the discussion had already been generalised to include North Africa and the Middle East?
Really, how hard is this stuff for you?
40% chance of the league
60% chance of the FA Cup
30% chance of the CL
7.2% assuming each is independent of the other........
Which in turn led to the post genocide government pushing a reverse of that policy. English replaced French....
Will get in touch with the local access officer on Tuesday, but it also struck me just how important having an understanding of the Land Reform Act is - I'm sure many walkers have been accosted and forced to take a long detour by that gentleman, particularly if they are from down south.
He had the cheek to quote the act at me, threaten to call the police, and filmed me. He asked an English friend "where are you from?" .He also prevented us going to the beach, which seems particularly unreasonable.
Can't wait for your party of high morals to start attacking Justin Welby. How dare he! Who does he think he is, Archbishop of What, saying that immorality is immoral.
There will be attack articles aimed at "handwringing" bishops trying to derail St Priti's just and wholesome Rwanda policy. Will you continue to support the bullies with their immorality? Or your church? Just curious, because Welby has stitched you up a kipper. You and all the rest of the moral cowards excusing them.
50% of British Muslims also want to make homosexuality illegal in the UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
Yes, people are sick of Partygate. But Boris Johnson broke the law and he misled Parliament. That's why he must go
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10725003/DAN-HODGES-Yes-people-sick-Partygate-Boris-broke-law-Thats-go.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
I don't agree that they are independent, but that's another story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Rwanda
Christian missionaries introduced the idea that it was taboo, but it’s not clear from what I can find that the colonial administration ever introduced legislation on the matter (nb it wasn’t a British colony), so I’m not sure it was ever illegal.
The government debated making it so in 2009, but decided to leave it as a “private matter”.
The Russian ones are surprising in one respect - most show Russian soldiers living like tramps, literally. Sleeping in nests of cardboard and random bits of cloth in APCs or holes in the ground. They don't seem very coordinated in their actions either - just blokes milling about.
It's an interesting disconnect - if that was UK troops, the outrage in the UK would be massive. And these people think these videos are positive.....
Glad to see classic goal post shift hasn't gone out of fashion.
Why should X people having “usual wash up drinks” be any different to X+1 having drinks following a few words by 1?
http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/attitudes-towards-gay-rights/
Religion holds us back. HYUFD, time to give up your bronze-age superstition.
To me, the especially disgusting thing is misusing mental health as a cover. We are just getting society to deal sensibly with mental health - it's another kind of illness, needs treatment, respect... and these arseholes are putting that progress at risk.
There will be a scandal, sooner or later. The Right Kind Of People get the Priory (often via private insurance paid for as part of their public service jobs). The Wrong People get prison.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 52|48.
Each of us makes up our own minds on this stuff, and claiming higher authority is a characteristic and malign habit of the right that progressives should not adopt.
There is no such thing, if there were it would have been illegal anyway, and your x = x+1 argument doesn't really work either. The law permits you x spouses simultaneously where x=1, but x+1 is right out.
You have just had demonstrated that homophobia is not a muslim issue - its a religious issue. So many Christians and christian countries where gayers are in trouble and yet you keep digging to attack the muslims.
Something about planks and eyes springs to mind.
When the Hate Mail readers are against you, its all over.
Anyone ever heard of the bottom right word?
I've never seen it before - I got it because it was the only possibility that looked like a pronounceable word.
Daily Quordle 83
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Nearly didn't get the bottom left one, just sneaked in under the wire on the last guess.
So of course the Archbishop of Canterbury should call this immorality out. Its literally his job. And I support bringing God into this - whilst He is unlikely to be tutting at us saying "thats not on" the examples of right and wrong are clear enough to show that this sits in the wrong column.
Makes you wonder how SOA 1967 got passed
The Rwandan genocide was as much a colonial legacy as is homophobia in former British colonies. And the of course there’s the Belgian Congo, and the appalling French legacy in Vietnam.
On balance I’d argue that nineteenth century British colonies had it somewhat less bad than the rest.
https://twitter.com/sigmargabriel/status/1515609748976156673
No actually, to be fair, I do want an argument. Don’t you think there is something going on in the midlands? On a historical trend, something based around Brexit, it’s swung Tory and stuck there - despite everything going on right now, so imagine the sub samples if it was a much liked PM and government?
What would help maybe is constituency polls, such as where Watson seat was lost, are Labour still struggling to get that one and others back?
You're thinking perhaps of the closure of the epiphyseal plates at th ends of the human long bones but again that is a gradual process from what I recall. Edit: also needs X-rays, so there is an issue there either way in terms of invasive medical procedures, and p[rofessional standards.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Rush!
Edit: must be one of those Independents who so often turn out to be Tories who daren't call themselves that, or have had a temporary throwing-of-toys-out-the-local-party-pram.
Edit, sorry, meant entry on the ballot paper.
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Phew
I understand horses change their teeth in a set pattern annually up to the age of 12 which is why "past mark of mouth" means what it does. i don't think humans can be carbon dated in this way, but perhaps some sorts of dna copying errors accumulate at a fixed rate or something.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/17/fury-as-patels-borders-bill-found-misleading-on-safe-routes-for-migrants
…. During a parliamentary debate last November – held the day after 27 people drowned in the Channel as they tried to cross from France – Patel assured MPs that the bill “does create safe and legal routes”.
However, the Home Office has now admitted that the proposed legislation, which is due to go back to the House of Commons this week, in fact contains no provision to provide safe government-backed routes for asylum seekers.
A letter dated 5 April from Home Office minister Tom Pursglove to the humanitarian charity MSF UK directly contradicts Patel by stating that safe and legal routes “do not form part of the bill”…
… When asked to explain Patel’s assertion that safe and legal routes were included in the bill, the Home Office said its “new plan for immigration” would strengthen existing routes for refugees, “so they don’t have to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/16/senior-conservatives-partygate-fines-boris-johnson-rishi-sunak
… “If you go to our newer working-class, blue-collar voters, I’m not sure they’re that bothered,” said one northern Tory MP. “But if you go to our traditional middle-class Tory voter, they’re angry. That’s how I would define it. I think he should’ve resigned.”
A minister said: “We’re going down a route that isolates the people in the middle. I don’t know whether there’s enough votes on the right and the core of the party to get us through. I just think it’s offensive and it’s doing real brand damage. I’m just appalled.”…
Didn't know that about equines ...
Remarkable
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/sharks-rays/eyes-one-shark-age-nothing-fear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeJ64KD5cg
5️⃣8️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
quordle.com
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It was the top right I struggled with. Bottom right familiar from Westerns...
I think Rishi is different than Boris and this government. When he said he wouldn’t have said the Saville remark it wasn’t calculating it was instincts not to be a dog whistle. (And my Dad has convinced me) Rishi’s budget couple of months ago was very good as we don’t know what battles he has won inside a populist government who wanted savings blown in short termist policy, it was largely held back in case inflation crunch becomes a recession.
I think a lot of PB commentators struggle to call it right because they can’t think from the position of wanting the Tory’s to win the next election. If you want to call it right you have to be able to put a head on wanting a Tory win and see the inherent vice in good and bad polling and chances of winning. For example, if you want the Tory’s winning the next election, are you thinking it’s a good move with 2019 voters to dump Boris with Truss? Would Truss have won the landslide majority? You call them spineless, but is it not a fair calculation to let Boris go into the next GE now and see if he could work his old magic?
You run it every single second, every day, for the entire time span of the universe (13.8 billion years).
Now suppose everybody on the planet (8 billion people) has one of these machines and is also running it constantly.
Now suppose that every single star in our galaxy (400 billion stars) has the same number of people doing the same thing, from the Big Bang to now.
Now suppose that every single galaxy in the observable universe (2 trillion galaxies) has the same number of stars each with the same number of people churning through a million combinations a second from the beginning of time.
The question is, how many universes do you need to get through ALL the combinations? Assuming the best case scenario that nobody on any planet in any galaxy across the span of all history ever gets the same combination that anyone else has ever got in any of the million combinations per second they are all churning out?
The answer is: you need 29,000,000,000 universes to get there.
So that's 29 billion universes
each with 2 trillion galaxies
each with 400 billion stars
each with 8 billion people
each shuffling a pack of cards a million times per second without a break for the entire span of time that has ever happened.
(And people try to claim lawyers don't have a sense of humour.)
Adolf Hitler: Steiner's assault will bring it under control.
General der Infanterie Hans Krebs: My fuhrer, Steiner...
Generaloberst Alfred Jodl: Steiner couldn't mobilize enough men. He was unable to carry out the assault.
Adolf Hitler: [Removes glasses] These men will stay here: Kietel, Jodl, Krebs and Burgdorf.
Is perhaps of interest.
"When you stop and think about it, there’s no particular reason why morally commendable people should have particularly insightful views, particularly on matters which have no particular moral dimension, but it’s an assumption that most of us make most of the time."
Starmer fans please explain!
Re-weighting of the polls will surely follow
If I was standing as Libdem right now I would have Lebedev on front page in ermine. And questions for Boris. “Are you aware your good friend had a campaign to infiltrate the establishment?”
“How many visits to villa and castle in Italy? How much of free flights, accommodation and private cars? Is there any such thing as a free lunch?”
“At the time of these free flights, visits to villa and castles, were you aware your friend suggested MI6 killed Alexander Litvinenko, played down invasion of Crimea, said Putin showed leadership in Syria and Russians thanked Putin for “unimaginable freedoms?
Everyone else seemed aware of this.”
“At what point did you decide to recommend your friend a peerage, and for what reasons?”
“When you were told no, blocked on national security grounds, what did you do next?”
Lebedev the most serious lapse of Boris Johnson’s judgement yet - a hundred times worse than Partygate. He made this guy a lawmaker.
Democratic America is sleep walking into totalitarianism.