We need to pinpoint the HS responsible for this outrage. The Postman? Jacqui Smith? Reid? maybe Blunkett or Straw?
I am going for Jacqui Smith, because I quite like the Postman.
P.S. I have an mid morning flight out of Bristol next week. I have a Premier Inn booked for £49 on the seafront at Weston for the night before. Perhaps I should be be engaged to procure accommodation for asylum seekers rather than the Government.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
Why would an MP fuss over "drafting" a no confidence letter?
All it needs to say is
"Dear Graham, I have no confidence in Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party. Kind regards, [Forename] [Surname], MP for [Constituency]".
Well, if it were Liz Truss, for example, she'd really need to take her time and check everything very carefully, to avoid those mistakes that are so easy to fall into - such as signing it "Rishi Sunak".
Liz didn't make any mistakes in her written responses to resignations - she used the correct form as every PM before her had done. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look stupid by unwittingly repeating a falsehood.
If that's the "correct form" for signing a letter I'm a Dutchman!
Goedenavond heer.
It was the correct form and was not, of course, a signature.
True it wasn't a signature. Absurd to claim it was the "correct form" for a letter.
Except it is.
Have you ever used it?
Has he ever accepted the resignation of a Chancellor of the Exchequer?
I take it that means you haven't ever used the "correct form" for a letter either.
Shocking!
Here’s Johnson’s reply to Javid’s resignation. with Javid’s name at the bottom…
It might actually be mildly interesting to know whether this peculiar way of letter-writing is a recent innovation or whether it really predates the advent of mass illiteracy. But only mildly.
Jesus. Are you a sexton by trade?
If you calm down and tyhink about it you will see that it is a relic of the days before window envelopes.
I'm doubtful about the relevance of window envelopes, but certainly the receipient's name at the bottom is nothing to do with resignation letters as you implied it was earlier.
No I didn't, I implied that ministerial resigation letters and responses thereto are a subset of relevant letters.
You seem to have been overdoing the stupid pills. Letters intended to go in window envelopes have the recipient's name and address top left. Letters not so intended, do not. It is convenient to be able to tell from a letter whom it is from and whom it is to. Therefore the convention used to be, to put the recipient's name at the bottom.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
They can, it's an agreement with France that stands in the way.
You mean…like the Dublin Agreement?
I've eviscerated this argument of yours upthread.
Please don't persist with it, and embarrass yourself.
You're not thick.
You haven’t, though.
You’ve pointed out that the previous Dublin Agreement played only a minor element in the resettlement of asylum seekers. Indeed, the UK was a very modest net “loser”.
But that doesn’t preclude the possibility that Britain is more attractive without the Dublin Agreement in place, nor the possibility that France was a more effective policeman knowing that the Dublin Agreement was extant.
'Jan Ormiston, an RSPCA trustee and volunteer, said the charity had more than twice the number of rabbits in shelters than before the pandemic. At the Northumberland West shelter, there would normally be about a dozen rabbits, she said, but there were now about 30.
Ormiston said: “We have a rabbit crisis at the minute. We just have so many rabbits that have come into our care. It is unbelievable.” [...] many owners have given up their rabbits after realising they require as much care as a cat – and vet’s bills are just as expensive.'
Given the escalating cost of chicken breast, this is a problem with a very easy solution...
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
Look up the Dublin Agreement. The UK withdrew in January 21, despite warnings that it would make managing asylum seekers more difficult.
I don't subscribe to the views of the author, or endorse the site by the way, but I do think the WEF is a group of very stupid people and the garbage they come out with has the potential to be quite damaging.
Thanks for sharing, but even with your caveats, the content is unmitigated bollocks.
I agree - and much of the bollocks consists of the ideas of the WEF organisation itself. These would be amusing if it weren't for the undisputed reach of the organisation.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
The real problem is nobody has a workable solution and that is across all parties
The problem is the government is looking for others to blame.
It would help if labour and others had a feasible answer which they simply do not
They're not the ones taking large salaries and spending even larger sums of our taxes.
For any opposition seeking to go into government there need practical and credible answers to these questions
Wait till the election campaign. You're always moaning that the opposition parties don't do the Tories' job for them for free.
In other words, they do not have an answer
I have listened to Yvette Cooper and she says she would crack down on the traffickers (already being done with cooperation of France) and agree more cooperation with France, already in the pipeline, and nothing else as an alternative
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
They were knocking on our door every couple of minutes, and got through three big tubs of Celebrations in about an hour and a half. I left the dolling out of sweeties to my wife, who seemed to know most of the people who called round anyway. I hate Halloween!
@ydoethur if that's serious then I'm taken aback. Their mattresses are really good: £600 Hypnos.
Funnily enough, or maybe not, I'm staying at Premier Inn tomorrow. Great value.
Yes, it's serious.
Edit - it may be because I use them only for short stays and I have difficulty sleeping in a strange bed. But Travelodge and Ibis don't seem to cause so big a problem, and Ibis are cheaper.
Why would an MP fuss over "drafting" a no confidence letter?
All it needs to say is
"Dear Graham, I have no confidence in Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party. Kind regards, [Forename] [Surname], MP for [Constituency]".
Well, if it were Liz Truss, for example, she'd really need to take her time and check everything very carefully, to avoid those mistakes that are so easy to fall into - such as signing it "Rishi Sunak".
Liz didn't make any mistakes in her written responses to resignations - she used the correct form as every PM before her had done. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look stupid by unwittingly repeating a falsehood.
If that's the "correct form" for signing a letter I'm a Dutchman!
Goedenavond heer.
It was the correct form and was not, of course, a signature.
True it wasn't a signature. Absurd to claim it was the "correct form" for a letter.
Except it is.
Have you ever used it?
Has he ever accepted the resignation of a Chancellor of the Exchequer?
I take it that means you haven't ever used the "correct form" for a letter either.
Shocking!
Here’s Johnson’s reply to Javid’s resignation. with Javid’s name at the bottom…
It might actually be mildly interesting to know whether this peculiar way of letter-writing is a recent innovation or whether it really predates the advent of mass illiteracy. But only mildly.
Jesus. Are you a sexton by trade?
If you calm down and tyhink about it you will see that it is a relic of the days before window envelopes.
I'm doubtful about the relevance of window envelopes, but certainly the receipient's name at the bottom is nothing to do with resignation letters as you implied it was earlier.
No I didn't, I implied that ministerial resigation letters and responses thereto are a subset of relevant letters.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
"The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control"
Braverman
Yet the party has had twelve years. Only twelve years to fix this.
While that’s partly fair, the boat crossings aspect is much more recent than 12 years ago. It is a global problem, and probably needs global change.
I was just looking at the stats.
Seems to have taken off in 2021, perhaps in response to Britain exiting the Dublin Agreement in January 21.
I’m surprised more has not been made of this connection.
"In 2018, the UK received a total of 37,453 asylum applications, and made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests under Dublin III. Of these 5,510 requests, 209 migrants were transferred out of the UK under Dublin III, whilst 1,215 came in, making the UK a net recipient in 2018. "
Only 4% of Dublin requests were accepted in 2018. 4%. 209 people.
It's an utter irrelevance.
But Channel migrants have exploded since 2021.
Overall asylum seekers are stable more or less, the difference is how they get here.
One thing that I would do is for a European wide ban on dinghy sales except to people who can prove legitimate need for them.
Second, I would invest in the immigration courts and legal system to speed up the assessment of asylum seekers.
Thirdly, I would keep applicants in camps with medical and legal services, and only released once asylum claim is successful.
It needs a bit of European diplomacy and a bit of money spending.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
The Dinghy People Thing is approaching crisis status. I have yet to see even the vaguest suggestion of a solution - from anyone (Tories or Labour or anyone). Apart from Rwanda. Which has not even been tried, and which might likely fail, but we won’t know til we try
When Labour become the government in 2024 (as they surely will) this will be their problem. I wonder what they will do, with so many on their side saying, in effect “just let them all in”
Since you’re back, I’ll repost this for you, before you go on to explaining your own solution to the Channel problem.
Did you get around to apologising for peddling the smears ?
This directly contradicts conspiracy theories pushed by (and since deleted by) Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Dearie me. I will repost my response. If my boyfriend beat me up with a hammer while my wife was out for the evening I would deny knowing him, I would persuade him with if necessary cash inducements to deny knowing me, and the police would say "on the record" that we didn't know each other. How would they actually know, given the obvious can't-prove-a-negative issue? And I have on several occasions broken into the houses of people I know, and never into those of people I don't.
And what is this prissy fucking nonsense about demanding rhat other posters apologise for things? Are you the site governess?
Demand ? You’re being more pompous that you accuse me of being.
It was a civil question, which he can choose to answer or ignore.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
If the aim is just to stop the small boats, the answer is pretty obvious; let people in on normal ferries and process promptly.
The only downside of that is that more people would make the crossing and successfully claim asylum. At the moment all the Hunter Games stuff is part of how the UK restrains numbers.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
I don't subscribe to the views of the author, or endorse the site by the way, but I do think the WEF is a group of very stupid people and the garbage they come out with has the potential to be quite damaging.
... but ...
It's Zerohedge.
Ignore.
And authored by Vigilant Citizen, who's even whackier. But it's basically a resume of the WEF's own public statements; there's no allegation of conspiracy.
Don't you understand little concepts like presentation and context?
Zerohedge may, occasionally, have some truth in it. On days on the fifteenth month ending in Z. But for most of the time, people presenting it as sources, or 'primer', are fully enveloped in the cesspit.
With such sites, use them as a potential source to get more information from more reliable sites, not as any form of evidence in themselves.
But this is a logic cycle. By definition, the only organs that will condemn a very powerful organisation are those considered 'beyond the pale' of polite discourse.
At any rate, I'd have thought you'd like to know that your favourite bogeyman Putin is a WEF alumnus.
"The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control"
Braverman
Yet the party has had twelve years. Only twelve years to fix this.
While that’s partly fair, the boat crossings aspect is much more recent than 12 years ago. It is a global problem, and probably needs global change.
I was just looking at the stats.
Seems to have taken off in 2021, perhaps in response to Britain exiting the Dublin Agreement in January 21.
I’m surprised more has not been made of this connection.
"In 2018, the UK received a total of 37,453 asylum applications, and made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests under Dublin III. Of these 5,510 requests, 209 migrants were transferred out of the UK under Dublin III, whilst 1,215 came in, making the UK a net recipient in 2018. "
Only 4% of Dublin requests were accepted in 2018. 4%. 209 people.
It's an utter irrelevance.
But Channel migrants have exploded since 2021.
Overall asylum seekers are stable more or less, the difference is how they get here.
One thing that I would do is for a European wide ban on dinghy sales except to people who can prove legitimate need for them.
Second, I would invest in the immigration courts and legal system to speed up the assessment of asylum seekers.
Thirdly, I would keep applicants in camps with medical and legal services, and only released once asylum claim is successful.
It needs a bit of European diplomacy and a bit of money spending.
1. Like saying illegal immigrants come in in cars, therefore ban car sales. Bonkers.
2 and3. no help at all because they all, to a first approximation, get asylum, so it's just speeding things up.
While we await any final polls from Denmark where they vote tomorrow, some interesting developments in Austria where they won't be voting (presumably) until 2024.
The latest poll for the Puls 24 as follows (changes from the 2019 election):
The governing People's Party/Green Coalition has fallen from 51% to 27% (an almost UK Conservative fall in support).
Some of the more observant may havr noticed the Beer Party on 10%. As a satirical "party", it's been around in 2014 - its current leader, one Dominik Wlazny, known professionally as Marco Pogo, stood in the recent Austrian presidential election and finished third, albeit a very long way behind but in Vienna he finished second with 10.5% albeit again well behind Van der Bellen (the Green candidate supported by the Social Democrats and People's Party) who won with 47% of the vote.
The Beer Party's main campaigning aims as follows (from the 2020 elections):
A beer fountain for Vienna replacing the Hochstrahlbrunnen Allow outdoor dining in winter Mandatory aptitude test for politicians Cover fixed pandemic-related costs to save the culture scene Abolish mandatory closing times for restaurants and bars Abolish tax on drinks in bars/restaurants and compensate with a new 50% tax on Radlers and "other atrocities" Universal monthly provision of a barrel of beer to all Austrian households (50L per adult and 20L per child) Banning Radlers in Vienna and instituting a Radler buyback program exchanging Radlers for beer Increasing voter turnout by allowing voters to "return the seriousness to Austrian politics that it deserves" A person is a person, live and let live (except for Radler-drinkers)
There seems to be an issue with Radlers and its drinkers but there's one or two ideas in the above to which I'm sure we could all sign up.
Without the Beer Party (or assuming they're too busy in the Gasthaus to campaign):
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
This is a much better debate on here on this, than the House of Commons just had.
Big G responding to questions at the governments dispatch box, leaving less hostages to fortune than Sievella’s answers.
Can I just remind the Rt Hon Member for Windswept Coastline North Wales, what our esteemed PB friend and colleague RCS, Rt Hon Member for the Flame Imperishable, explained to us as to why Labour wont have any issue at all with migrants crossing channel, when they are in power. Its a theory needing to be aired again here in this debate. Preferably by RSC Ilúvatar himself.
Why would an MP fuss over "drafting" a no confidence letter?
All it needs to say is
"Dear Graham, I have no confidence in Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party. Kind regards, [Forename] [Surname], MP for [Constituency]".
Well, if it were Liz Truss, for example, she'd really need to take her time and check everything very carefully, to avoid those mistakes that are so easy to fall into - such as signing it "Rishi Sunak".
Liz didn't make any mistakes in her written responses to resignations - she used the correct form as every PM before her had done. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look stupid by unwittingly repeating a falsehood.
If that's the "correct form" for signing a letter I'm a Dutchman!
Someone dug up an older letter showing it is in fact the form used.
It’s convention to include the addressee’s name in the bottom left (so when the letter is folded in three the name appears in the little plastic window in the envelope).
But Truss signed over the name rather than in the middle of the page (partly because she has a large signature) and because the letter was only one page there wasn’t much space
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
This is a much better debate on here on this, than the House of Commons just had.
Big G responding to questions at the governments dispatch box, leaving less hostages to fortune than Sievella’s answers.
Can I just remind the Rt Hon Member for Windswept Coastline North Wales, what our esteemed PB friend and colleague RCS, Rt Hon Member for the Flame Imperishable, explained to us as to why Labour wont have any issue at all with migrants crossing channel, when they are in power. It needs to be issued again here in this debate. Preferably by RSC Ilúvatar himself.
Putting limits on immigration is just sensible politics as usual, hysterical ranting about an invasion is unbecoming for junior spad let alone the Home Secretary.
Astonishing how Braverman now makes Patel look like a wet liberal
This is how the GOP though became completely unmoored from reality. Each candidate trying to be more insane and extreme than the next in a race to the cesspool of undemocratic madness.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
They can, it's an agreement with France that stands in the way.
You mean…like the Dublin Agreement?
I've eviscerated this argument of yours upthread.
Please don't persist with it, and embarrass yourself.
You're not thick.
You haven’t, though.
You’ve pointed out that the previous Dublin Agreement played only a minor element in the resettlement of asylum seekers. Indeed, the UK was a very modest net “loser”.
But that doesn’t preclude the possibility that Britain is more attractive without the Dublin Agreement in place, nor the possibility that France was a more effective policeman knowing that the Dublin Agreement was extant.
I don't subscribe to the views of the author, or endorse the site by the way, but I do think the WEF is a group of very stupid people and the garbage they come out with has the potential to be quite damaging.
... but ...
It's Zerohedge.
Ignore.
And authored by Vigilant Citizen, who's even whackier. But it's basically a resume of the WEF's own public statements; there's no allegation of conspiracy.
Don't you understand little concepts like presentation and context?
Zerohedge may, occasionally, have some truth in it. On days on the fifteenth month ending in Z. But for most of the time, people presenting it as sources, or 'primer', are fully enveloped in the cesspit.
With such sites, use them as a potential source to get more information from more reliable sites, not as any form of evidence in themselves.
But this is a logic cycle. By definition, the only organs that will condemn a very powerful organisation are those considered 'beyond the pale' of polite discourse.
(Snip)
Private Eye. Often politely discussed (often with laughter), and often hits valid targets.
Argument disproven.
(Having said that, even Private Eye has occasional big misses. Its MMR coverage being a sad example.)
The Dinghy People Thing is approaching crisis status. I have yet to see even the vaguest suggestion of a solution - from anyone (Tories or Labour or anyone). Apart from Rwanda. Which has not even been tried, and which might likely fail, but we won’t know til we try
When Labour become the government in 2024 (as they surely will) this will be their problem. I wonder what they will do, with so many on their side saying, in effect “just let them all in”
Since you’re back, I’ll repost this for you, before you go on to explaining your own solution to the Channel problem.
Did you get around to apologising for peddling the smears ?
This directly contradicts conspiracy theories pushed by (and since deleted by) Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Dearie me. I will repost my response. If my boyfriend beat me up with a hammer while my wife was out for the evening I would deny knowing him, I would persuade him with if necessary cash inducements to deny knowing me, and the police would say "on the record" that we didn't know each other. How would they actually know, given the obvious can't-prove-a-negative issue? And I have on several occasions broken into the houses of people I know, and never into those of people I don't.
And what is this prissy fucking nonsense about demanding rhat other posters apologise for things? Are you the site governess?
Demand ? You’re being more pompous that you accuse me of being.
It was a civil question, which he can choose to answer or ignore.
Did you get around to stopping beating your wife yet?
Straw clutching. Dems always so better on registered voter rather than likely voter numbers. Often by huge margins.
Yes, there is absolutely a chance that likely voter screens are missing low propensity Dems like how they missed Trump votets in 2016. But they could equally be missing Qanon wackos being activated.
"The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control"
Braverman
Yet the party has had twelve years. Only twelve years to fix this.
That’s a little unfair - it implies that the problem is unchanged from 12 years ago. I think the problem has got worse and the systems have broken/the government has not responded effectively
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
They can, it's an agreement with France that stands in the way.
You mean…like the Dublin Agreement?
I've eviscerated this argument of yours upthread.
Please don't persist with it, and embarrass yourself.
You're not thick.
CR, remember that thing I told you about how you can turn personal and nasty in an argument ...?
Err, there's nothing personal and nasty in this.
I'm simply warning @Gardenwalker to not embarrass himself as he knows perfectly well the Dublin Convention is nothing close to even the beginning of an answer.
An example of how out of touch Twitter is: #BringBackMasks is trending at the moment.
Still wear mine indoors. Most of the young Asians around here wear them indoors and outdoors.
I don't even notice I wear it now. Like knickers.
At no point in the last two years has anyone who wants to wear a mask been prevented from wearing one, morning, noon and night.
The problem comes when the rabid pro-maskers try to force their beliefs on the rest of us.
No thanks
Quite. Each to their own. No compulsion. Seems a weird time for it to be trending though with cases and 'hospitalisations' in decline again. There would be little chance of mass compliance again anyway so unless the Ebola variant swings by its moot
Why would an MP fuss over "drafting" a no confidence letter?
All it needs to say is
"Dear Graham, I have no confidence in Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party. Kind regards, [Forename] [Surname], MP for [Constituency]".
Well, if it were Liz Truss, for example, she'd really need to take her time and check everything very carefully, to avoid those mistakes that are so easy to fall into - such as signing it "Rishi Sunak".
Liz didn't make any mistakes in her written responses to resignations - she used the correct form as every PM before her had done. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look stupid by unwittingly repeating a falsehood.
If that's the "correct form" for signing a letter I'm a Dutchman!
Goedenavond heer.
It was the correct form and was not, of course, a signature.
True it wasn't a signature. Absurd to claim it was the "correct form" for a letter.
Except it is.
Have you ever used it?
Has he ever accepted the resignation of a Chancellor of the Exchequer?
I take it that means you haven't ever used the "correct form" for a letter either.
Shocking!
Here’s Johnson’s reply to Javid’s resignation. with Javid’s name at the bottom…
It might actually be mildly interesting to know whether this peculiar way of letter-writing is a recent innovation or whether it really predates the advent of mass illiteracy. But only mildly.
Jesus. Are you a sexton by trade?
If you calm down and tyhink about it you will see that it is a relic of the days before window envelopes.
I'm doubtful about the relevance of window envelopes, but certainly the receipient's name at the bottom is nothing to do with resignation letters as you implied it was earlier.
No I didn't, I implied that ministerial resigation letters and responses thereto are a subset of relevant letters.
Sure, sure.
top tip: editing my post in the quote in your reply, does not edit the original post. Anyone reading the thread can see what you have done and why.
An example of how out of touch Twitter is: #BringBackMasks is trending at the moment.
Still wear mine indoors. Most of the young Asians around here wear them indoors and outdoors.
I don't even notice I wear it now. Like knickers.
Interesting. Without in any way commenting on the rights or wrongs of it I would say that perhaps less than one in a thousand seem to be wearing them where I am in the shires. If you do see one it is invariably being worn by someone advanced in years and appearing to have underlying health issues.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
If the aim is just to stop the small boats, the answer is pretty obvious; let people in on normal ferries and process promptly.
The only downside of that is that more people would make the crossing and successfully claim asylum. At the moment all the Hunter Games stuff is part of how the UK restrains numbers.
Just back from Spain. Very pleasant week in Zaragoza.
Mask report: Spain has a mask requirement on public transport which was, as far as I could tell, complied with 100%. Elsewhere, one or two people wearing masks, but the vast majority of people out for their evening paseo or in the museums were maskless.
The whole point of the Braverman performance was to tick every hard right box imaginable, using the most inflammatory language, and so to make it impossible for Sunak to sack her without major political repercussions. Her message to him is basically: "If I go, you do too". And Sunak's problem is that she could well be right.
The thing is, she knows she is right; the current level of boat people is unsustainable, and when you know there's no comeback, you can go completely ham on something and challenge people to oppose you.
What is more challenging for her is solving the damn thing.
It's a classic dividing line issue, thought, because the Left - and plenty of (most?) liberal centrists too - refuse to accept it's even an issue, and to the extent they do they argue to make it easier, and therefore cede the entire terrain to the Conservatives - even though they have abjectly failed to solve it.
It's clever politics. It's risky for the Conservatives only if they get outflanked to the Right.
They have to deliver. That's the risk.
They don't, as long as they have someone to blame for the failure- probably Human Rights Lawyers. In fact for some people, solving the problem would render them obsolete and that would never do.
It's horrible, but the retail politics makes sense.
Rhetoric without delivery after 12 years of power will not reap rewards. Most people are not hate-filled Daily Mail readers who view refugees as sub-human scum who deserve firebombing, diphtheria and detention. They just want solutions. If the Tories are not providing any they will look elsewhere.
They want solutions which don't involve shelling out £200/person/night indefinitely, though.
Tell Premier Inn you are only paying £100 a night.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
If Suella Braverman’s critics have a killer fact, they’d better deploy it fast. Because if there are many more debates like this - in which she can frame herself as the person preventing immigrants checking into £600 pound hotel rooms - she’s going to end up a national heroine.
Of course no-one thinks we should pay £600 a night for hotel rooms. It is just that some of us will blame the people in power for the last 12 years whereas others prefer to blame everyone else.
Who is she blaming for this outrage?
Priti Patel? Grant Shapps? Herself?
She is literally the Home Secretary, the buck stops with her.
Oh FFS! If the right wingers REALLY want to stop immigration, they would dig a funeral pit and execute all illegal immigrants / channel crossers into it and broadcast it on BBC World Service. I guarantee you it would stop mass immigration.
But nobody is going to do that so these people are going to keep arriving and you are going to have to spend money on solving the problem instead of listening to total w*nkers like Farage, Braverman and the other loons.
Grow up and wipe the drool of your chins and the spittle off your screens. And while we are at it, just remember that if we had stayed in the EU we could have forced immigrants to be resettled back on the continent.
And after that post I think I could do with some time away from politics and the utter whinge-fest and self-serving denial of reality from our own PB loons that passes for "solutions".
Good night and good luck!
How could we force immigrants to be resettled back to the continent if we were in the EU
I utterly reject the right but to suggest money and being in the EU would solve the problem is simply unrealistic
Maybe you could detail exactly how you would prevent these terrible crossings rather than a rant
This is a much better debate on here on this, than the House of Commons just had.
Big G responding to questions at the governments dispatch box, leaving less hostages to fortune than Sievella’s answers.
Can I just remind the Rt Hon Member for Windswept Coastline North Wales, what our esteemed PB friend and colleague RCS, Rt Hon Member for the Flame Imperishable, explained to us as to why Labour wont have any issue at all with migrants crossing channel, when they are in power. It needs to be issued again here in this debate. Preferably by RSC Ilúvatar himself.
Eh?
Ohhhhhh. I’m sure your analysis was this problem would just disappear, sometime soon?
By all means call me out if I have got that wrong, I will take your word for it and not go searching back through old comments.
We need to pinpoint the HS responsible for this outrage. The Postman? Jacqui Smith? Reid? maybe Blunkett or Straw?
I am going for Jacqui Smith, because I quite like the Postman.
P.S. I have an mid morning flight out of Bristol next week. I have a Premier Inn booked for £49 on the seafront at Weston for the night before. Perhaps I should be be engaged to procure accommodation for asylum seekers rather than the Government.
Just back from Spain. Very pleasant week in Zaragoza.
Mask report: Spain has a mask requirement on public transport which was, as far as I could tell, complied with 100%. Elsewhere, one or two people wearing masks, but the vast majority of people out for their evening paseo or in the museums were maskless.
Would you recommend Zaragoza? Thinking of stopping there en route from Bilbao to Barcelona.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
Gosh, that sounds dangerous. Hope they didn't fall off.
Why would an MP fuss over "drafting" a no confidence letter?
All it needs to say is
"Dear Graham, I have no confidence in Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party. Kind regards, [Forename] [Surname], MP for [Constituency]".
Well, if it were Liz Truss, for example, she'd really need to take her time and check everything very carefully, to avoid those mistakes that are so easy to fall into - such as signing it "Rishi Sunak".
Liz didn't make any mistakes in her written responses to resignations - she used the correct form as every PM before her had done. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look stupid by unwittingly repeating a falsehood.
If that's the "correct form" for signing a letter I'm a Dutchman!
Goedenavond heer.
It was the correct form and was not, of course, a signature.
True it wasn't a signature. Absurd to claim it was the "correct form" for a letter.
Except it is.
Have you ever used it?
Has he ever accepted the resignation of a Chancellor of the Exchequer?
I take it that means you haven't ever used the "correct form" for a letter either.
Shocking!
Here’s Johnson’s reply to Javid’s resignation. with Javid’s name at the bottom…
It might actually be mildly interesting to know whether this peculiar way of letter-writing is a recent innovation or whether it really predates the advent of mass illiteracy. But only mildly.
The name is the addressee - for the envelope window. Not part of the signature panel at all
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
We've 'done' Halloween for the first time this year. I've resisted it so far, but this year I gave in. We've carved pumpkins before, but we've never lit one up outside out front door (the village's sign that you're taking part). So far we've had about a hundred people at our front door in a wide variety of outfits; from Harry Potter to a blow-up Samuraa suit. And it's been tremendous fun. The little 'uns loved it.
Pretty expensive in sweets, but the smiles are worth the cost.
Again, that apostrophe. It is uns, not 'uns, unless of course you see them as little 'un's?
I'm cogitating how small, cheap, and easily inserted into a Quality Street a tab of LSD is.
You joke, but the police came round yesterday to warn that people were spiking halloween candy with fentanyl and so we should be careful
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
An example of how out of touch Twitter is: #BringBackMasks is trending at the moment.
Still wear mine indoors. Most of the young Asians around here wear them indoors and outdoors.
I don't even notice I wear it now. Like knickers.
Interesting. Without in any way commenting on the rights or wrongs of it I would say that perhaps less than one in a thousand seem to be wearing them where I am in the shires. If you do see one it is invariably being worn by someone advanced in years and appearing to have underlying health issues.
The whole point of the Braverman performance was to tick every hard right box imaginable, using the most inflammatory language, and so to make it impossible for Sunak to sack her without major political repercussions. Her message to him is basically: "If I go, you do too". And Sunak's problem is that she could well be right.
The thing is, she knows she is right; the current level of boat people is unsustainable, and when you know there's no comeback, you can go completely ham on something and challenge people to oppose you.
What is more challenging for her is solving the damn thing.
It's a classic dividing line issue, thought, because the Left - and plenty of (most?) liberal centrists too - refuse to accept it's even an issue, and to the extent they do they argue to make it easier, and therefore cede the entire terrain to the Conservatives - even though they have abjectly failed to solve it.
It's clever politics. It's risky for the Conservatives only if they get outflanked to the Right.
They have to deliver. That's the risk.
They don't, as long as they have someone to blame for the failure- probably Human Rights Lawyers. In fact for some people, solving the problem would render them obsolete and that would never do.
It's horrible, but the retail politics makes sense.
Rhetoric without delivery after 12 years of power will not reap rewards. Most people are not hate-filled Daily Mail readers who view refugees as sub-human scum who deserve firebombing, diphtheria and detention. They just want solutions. If the Tories are not providing any they will look elsewhere.
They want solutions which don't involve shelling out £200/person/night indefinitely, though.
Tell Premier Inn you are only paying £100 a night.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
I would've thought that would cost more than the £100 a night it would save...
So I'm sure Braverman will think it's an excellent idea!
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
"The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control"
Braverman
Yet the party has had twelve years. Only twelve years to fix this.
While that’s partly fair, the boat crossings aspect is much more recent than 12 years ago. It is a global problem, and probably needs global change.
I was just looking at the stats.
Seems to have taken off in 2021, perhaps in response to Britain exiting the Dublin Agreement in January 21.
I’m surprised more has not been made of this connection.
"In 2018, the UK received a total of 37,453 asylum applications, and made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests under Dublin III. Of these 5,510 requests, 209 migrants were transferred out of the UK under Dublin III, whilst 1,215 came in, making the UK a net recipient in 2018. "
Only 4% of Dublin requests were accepted in 2018. 4%. 209 people.
It's an utter irrelevance.
We are also the outlier on both measures - we accept far more incoming requests (%) than others and don’t implement many outgoing requests
Just back from Spain. Very pleasant week in Zaragoza.
Mask report: Spain has a mask requirement on public transport which was, as far as I could tell, complied with 100%. Elsewhere, one or two people wearing masks, but the vast majority of people out for their evening paseo or in the museums were maskless.
Would you recommend Zaragoza? Thinking of stopping there en route from Bilbao to Barcelona.
The two Cathedrals are impressive & there are some decentish Roman remains in the centre. Also a Goya museum with a full set of his late etchings / prints if that’s your thing. The origami museum is a small gem.
Tapas in the El Tubo district was excellent & very reasonably priced.
The city itself is a tad rundown & was presumably hit very hard by the financial crash. I wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way, but if it’s en route? Sure.
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
I am genuinely astonished to see that post has been liked by somebody who isn't TSE.
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
Weren't we sealion?
German planned invasion of England was sealion, hence the little boats ‘invading’.
"The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control"
Braverman
Yet the party has had twelve years. Only twelve years to fix this.
While that’s partly fair, the boat crossings aspect is much more recent than 12 years ago. It is a global problem, and probably needs global change.
I was just looking at the stats.
Seems to have taken off in 2021, perhaps in response to Britain exiting the Dublin Agreement in January 21.
I’m surprised more has not been made of this connection.
"In 2018, the UK received a total of 37,453 asylum applications, and made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests under Dublin III. Of these 5,510 requests, 209 migrants were transferred out of the UK under Dublin III, whilst 1,215 came in, making the UK a net recipient in 2018. "
Only 4% of Dublin requests were accepted in 2018. 4%. 209 people.
It's an utter irrelevance.
We are also the outlier on both measures - we accept far more incoming requests (%) than others and don’t implement many outgoing requests
Yes, the reality is this only really works if they claim asylum in another EU country first, and we can prove it.
The vast vast majority coming across aren't stupid enough to make that rookie error.
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
I am genuinely astonished to see that post has been liked by somebody who isn't TSE.
I’m genuinely surprised that it wasn’t written by Dura Ace.
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
Weren't we sealion?
German planned invasion of England was sealion, hence the little boats ‘invading’.
This morning the British ambassador in Paris handed the French government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to prevent all further migrant channel crossings, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with France.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
I am genuinely astonished to see that post has been liked by somebody who isn't TSE.
I’m genuinely surprised that it wasn’t written by Dura Ace.
It is great that PBers go to the effort of reporting US midterm opinion polls. However, without knowing which candidate is running for which party they aren't so informative to folk like me who don't follow these things so closely.
So can I please ask that you add (D) or (R) after the name so I know whether I should cheer or boo.
The whole point of the Braverman performance was to tick every hard right box imaginable, using the most inflammatory language, and so to make it impossible for Sunak to sack her without major political repercussions. Her message to him is basically: "If I go, you do too". And Sunak's problem is that she could well be right.
The thing is, she knows she is right; the current level of boat people is unsustainable, and when you know there's no comeback, you can go completely ham on something and challenge people to oppose you.
What is more challenging for her is solving the damn thing.
It's a classic dividing line issue, thought, because the Left - and plenty of (most?) liberal centrists too - refuse to accept it's even an issue, and to the extent they do they argue to make it easier, and therefore cede the entire terrain to the Conservatives - even though they have abjectly failed to solve it.
It's clever politics. It's risky for the Conservatives only if they get outflanked to the Right.
They have to deliver. That's the risk.
They don't, as long as they have someone to blame for the failure- probably Human Rights Lawyers. In fact for some people, solving the problem would render them obsolete and that would never do.
It's horrible, but the retail politics makes sense.
Rhetoric without delivery after 12 years of power will not reap rewards. Most people are not hate-filled Daily Mail readers who view refugees as sub-human scum who deserve firebombing, diphtheria and detention. They just want solutions. If the Tories are not providing any they will look elsewhere.
They want solutions which don't involve shelling out £200/person/night indefinitely, though.
Tell Premier Inn you are only paying £100 a night.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
Naah, I stayed in the premier inn (or possibly travelodge?) at cullompton services a bit ago, because an Irish transport firm wanted to drop off a horse for me there at 4 in the morning. Fabulously clean, fab bed. Ditto identikit airport hotels in this coubntry. It's the one off olde character innes that's vulnerable to h & S.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
Did you inform the police?
They won't give a fuck.
My father used to have a pied-à-terre in Brixton. Before my mother eventually browbeat him into selling it in about 2015 he used to have fellas happily piping away on crack sat on his doorstep. He called the cops many time and I don't think they ever turned up once. His excuse was that it wasn't close to Europe's busiest drug rehab clinic when he bought in 1963.
We need to pinpoint the HS responsible for this outrage. The Postman? Jacqui Smith? Reid? maybe Blunkett or Straw?
I am going for Jacqui Smith, because I quite like the Postman.
P.S. I have an mid morning flight out of Bristol next week. I have a Premier Inn booked for £49 on the seafront at Weston for the night before. Perhaps I should be be engaged to procure accommodation for asylum seekers rather than the Government.
It will all be down to Corbyn by bedtime
Brexit encouraged them to come. Brexit a far bigger “come over and see me” invite than Angela Merkel ever made.
For Troo Global Britain the whole planet must live here. Put up by government in the best hotels.
The whole point of the Braverman performance was to tick every hard right box imaginable, using the most inflammatory language, and so to make it impossible for Sunak to sack her without major political repercussions. Her message to him is basically: "If I go, you do too". And Sunak's problem is that she could well be right.
The thing is, she knows she is right; the current level of boat people is unsustainable, and when you know there's no comeback, you can go completely ham on something and challenge people to oppose you.
What is more challenging for her is solving the damn thing.
It's a classic dividing line issue, thought, because the Left - and plenty of (most?) liberal centrists too - refuse to accept it's even an issue, and to the extent they do they argue to make it easier, and therefore cede the entire terrain to the Conservatives - even though they have abjectly failed to solve it.
It's clever politics. It's risky for the Conservatives only if they get outflanked to the Right.
They have to deliver. That's the risk.
They don't, as long as they have someone to blame for the failure- probably Human Rights Lawyers. In fact for some people, solving the problem would render them obsolete and that would never do.
It's horrible, but the retail politics makes sense.
Rhetoric without delivery after 12 years of power will not reap rewards. Most people are not hate-filled Daily Mail readers who view refugees as sub-human scum who deserve firebombing, diphtheria and detention. They just want solutions. If the Tories are not providing any they will look elsewhere.
They want solutions which don't involve shelling out £200/person/night indefinitely, though.
Tell Premier Inn you are only paying £100 a night.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
Naah, I stayed in the premier inn (or possibly travelodge?) at cullompton services a bit ago, because an Irish transport firm wanted to drop off a horse for me there at 4 in the morning. Fabulously clean, fab bed. Ditto identikit airport hotels in this coubntry. It's the one off olde character innes that's vulnerable to h & S.
On our half-term trip we stayed at a Premier Inn and a Travelodge. Neither are anything special - in the least - but both provided clean accommodation and a good breakfast. Job done.
I don't stay in hotels or B&B's as much as I used to, but IME it's hard to get really bad experiences in the chains. But also quite hard to get brilliant experiences in them as well.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
Did you inform the police?
They won't give a fuck.
My father used to have a pied-à-terre in Brixton. Before my mother eventually browbeat him into selling it in about 2015 he used to have fellas happily piping away on crack sat on his doorstep. He called the cops many time and I don't think they ever turned up once. His excuse was that it wasn't close to Europe's busiest drug rehab clinic when he bought in 1963.
I think the police find reports of crime to be quite the distraction. Especially for crimes which are almost certain to not be solved.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
Did you inform the police?
It would take a 'special' kind of dedicated individual to travel around central London on the weekend and report all suspected incidences of cocaine consumption to the cops
It is great that PBers go to the effort of reporting US midterm opinion polls. However, without knowing which candidate is running for which party they aren't so informative to folk like me who don't follow these things so closely.
So can I please ask that you add (D) or (R) after the name so I know whether I should cheer or boo.
Off topic, we went out for a stroll earlier and the local estate was mobbed with Trick or Treaters. Disappointing lack of mums in witches outfits, however.
I was on the tube late on Saturday night. Lots of interesting costumes. And the first time I’ve seen someone snorting coke on a tube train…
Did you inform the police?
It would take a 'special' kind of dedicated individual to travel around central London on the weekend and report all suspected incidences of cocaine consumption to the cops
You'd certainly have to be very determined to cause a major political scandal like that.
Just back from Spain. Very pleasant week in Zaragoza.
Mask report: Spain has a mask requirement on public transport which was, as far as I could tell, complied with 100%. Elsewhere, one or two people wearing masks, but the vast majority of people out for their evening paseo or in the museums were maskless.
Would you recommend Zaragoza? Thinking of stopping there en route from Bilbao to Barcelona.
The two Cathedrals are impressive & there are some decentish Roman remains in the centre. Also a Goya museum with a full set of his late etchings / prints if that’s your thing. The origami museum is a small gem.
Tapas in the El Tubo district was excellent & very reasonably priced.
The city itself is a tad rundown & was presumably hit very hard by the financial crash. I wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way, but if it’s en route? Sure.
Also, the Aragon assembly meets in a building that’s part of the old castle, which you can tour & is worth the visit. Getting to stand in Ferdinand & Isabella’s throne room does have a certain frisson about it.
The whole point of the Braverman performance was to tick every hard right box imaginable, using the most inflammatory language, and so to make it impossible for Sunak to sack her without major political repercussions. Her message to him is basically: "If I go, you do too". And Sunak's problem is that she could well be right.
The thing is, she knows she is right; the current level of boat people is unsustainable, and when you know there's no comeback, you can go completely ham on something and challenge people to oppose you.
What is more challenging for her is solving the damn thing.
It's a classic dividing line issue, thought, because the Left - and plenty of (most?) liberal centrists too - refuse to accept it's even an issue, and to the extent they do they argue to make it easier, and therefore cede the entire terrain to the Conservatives - even though they have abjectly failed to solve it.
It's clever politics. It's risky for the Conservatives only if they get outflanked to the Right.
They have to deliver. That's the risk.
They don't, as long as they have someone to blame for the failure- probably Human Rights Lawyers. In fact for some people, solving the problem would render them obsolete and that would never do.
It's horrible, but the retail politics makes sense.
Rhetoric without delivery after 12 years of power will not reap rewards. Most people are not hate-filled Daily Mail readers who view refugees as sub-human scum who deserve firebombing, diphtheria and detention. They just want solutions. If the Tories are not providing any they will look elsewhere.
They want solutions which don't involve shelling out £200/person/night indefinitely, though.
Tell Premier Inn you are only paying £100 a night.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
Naah, I stayed in the premier inn (or possibly travelodge?) at cullompton services a bit ago, because an Irish transport firm wanted to drop off a horse for me there at 4 in the morning. Fabulously clean, fab bed. Ditto identikit airport hotels in this coubntry. It's the one off olde character innes that's vulnerable to h & S.
On our half-term trip we stayed at a Premier Inn and a Travelodge. Neither are anything special - in the least - but both provided clean accommodation and a good breakfast. Job done.
I don't stay in hotels or B&B's as much as I used to, but IME it's hard to get really bad experiences in the chains. But also quite hard to get brilliant experiences in them as well.
Sure. but they aren't selling a brilliant experience, just job done with no nasty surprises.
Well, yes. I mean, isn't there some law against putting people up in Premier Inns?
Tip. When you are about to post your one-liners, pause and ask yourself if they fall into the category of facetious or, worse, snide rather than funny.
xx
I did.
And it was still a fair comment.
Never had a decent night's sleep in a Premier Inn.
I'd hate to think facetious or snide one-liners are no longer permitted. Adding a second line would rarely improve them.
I fucking love Premier Inns. I'd be absolutely delighted if you offered me a night in a Premier Inn. Though a blanket wouldn't go amiss. Easier than trying to wrestle with the temperature controls.
Comments
I am going for Jacqui Smith, because I quite like the Postman.
P.S. I have an mid morning flight out of Bristol next week. I have a Premier Inn booked for £49 on the seafront at Weston for the night before. Perhaps I should be be engaged to procure accommodation for asylum seekers rather than the Government.
You seem to have been overdoing the stupid pills. Letters intended to go in window envelopes have the recipient's name and address top left. Letters not so intended, do not. It is convenient to be able to tell from a letter whom it is from and whom it is to. Therefore the convention used to be, to put the recipient's name at the bottom.
You’ve pointed out that the previous Dublin Agreement played only a minor element in the resettlement of asylum seekers. Indeed, the UK was a very modest net “loser”.
But that doesn’t preclude the possibility that Britain is more attractive without the Dublin Agreement in place, nor the possibility that France was a more effective policeman knowing that the Dublin Agreement was extant.
So pull your head out of your arse.
Funnily enough, or maybe not, I'm staying at Premier Inn tomorrow. Great value.
The UK withdrew in January 21, despite warnings that it would make managing asylum seekers more difficult.
I don't even notice I wear it now. Like knickers.
"Suella Braverman has brought Home Office 'into disrepute', say Priti Patel allies" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/31/suella-braverman-has-brought-home-office-disrepute-multiple/
I have listened to Yvette Cooper and she says she would crack down on the traffickers (already being done with cooperation of France) and agree more cooperation with France, already in the pipeline, and nothing else as an alternative
#everyoneoutofstepexceptme
When in doubt, blame Labour.
Or a curry that might have been eaten by Labour.
Edit - it may be because I use them only for short stays and I have difficulty sleeping in a strange bed. But Travelodge and Ibis don't seem to cause so big a problem, and Ibis are cheaper.
The problem comes when the rabid pro-maskers try to force their beliefs on the rest of us.
No thanks
One thing that I would do is for a European wide ban on dinghy sales except to people who can prove legitimate need for them.
Second, I would invest in the immigration courts and legal system to speed up the assessment of asylum seekers.
Thirdly, I would keep applicants in camps with medical and legal services, and only released once asylum claim is successful.
It needs a bit of European diplomacy and a bit of money spending.
You’re being more pompous that you accuse me of being.
It was a civil question, which he can choose to answer or ignore.
The only downside of that is that more people would make the crossing and successfully claim asylum. At the moment all the Hunter Games stuff is part of how the UK restrains numbers.
Or perhaps he meant “thic”, because he is down with da kidz.
At any rate, I'd have thought you'd like to know that your favourite bogeyman Putin is a WEF alumnus.
2 and3. no help at all because they all, to a first approximation, get asylum, so it's just speeding things up.
Big G responding to questions at the governments dispatch box, leaving less hostages to fortune than Sievella’s answers.
Can I just remind the Rt Hon Member for Windswept Coastline North Wales, what our esteemed PB friend and colleague RCS, Rt Hon Member for the Flame Imperishable, explained to us as to why Labour wont have any issue at all with migrants crossing channel, when they are in power. Its a theory needing to be aired again here in this debate. Preferably by RSC Ilúvatar himself.
It’s convention to include the addressee’s name in the bottom left (so when the letter is folded in three the name appears in the little plastic window in the envelope).
But Truss signed over the name rather than in the middle of the page (partly because she has a large signature) and because the letter was only one page there wasn’t much space
Argument disproven.
(Having said that, even Private Eye has occasional big misses. Its MMR coverage being a sad example.)
Civil question.
Twit.
Yes, there is absolutely a chance that likely voter screens are missing low propensity Dems like how they missed Trump votets in 2016. But they could equally be missing Qanon wackos being activated.
I'm simply warning @Gardenwalker to not embarrass himself as he knows perfectly well the Dublin Convention is nothing close to even the beginning of an answer.
Seems a weird time for it to be trending though with cases and 'hospitalisations' in decline again.
There would be little chance of mass compliance again anyway so unless the Ebola variant swings by its moot
I went into the wrong pub today and asked for real ale. I was told they didn't serve any because it didn't sell and they cater to a "younger crowd".
That hurt.
Mask report: Spain has a mask requirement on public transport which was, as far as I could tell, complied with 100%. Elsewhere, one or two people wearing masks, but the vast majority of people out for their evening paseo or in the museums were maskless.
When they object ask if they want a health & safety inspection. Of every facility. Every week. Until they agree.
By all means call me out if I have got that wrong, I will take your word for it and not go searching back through old comments.
Problem solved. Strafe the fuckers, because who knows they are not operation Sealion all over again?
Gets a like.
So I'm sure Braverman will think it's an excellent idea!
https://youtu.be/sBxr2_w5ga8
Tapas in the El Tubo district was excellent & very reasonably priced.
The city itself is a tad rundown & was presumably hit very hard by the financial crash. I wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way, but if it’s en route? Sure.
The vast vast majority coming across aren't stupid enough to make that rookie error.
So can I please ask that you add (D) or (R) after the name so I know whether I should cheer or boo.
Thanks!
My father used to have a pied-à-terre in Brixton. Before my mother eventually browbeat him into selling it in about 2015 he used to have fellas happily piping away on crack sat on his doorstep. He called the cops many time and I don't think they ever turned up once. His excuse was that it wasn't close to Europe's busiest drug rehab clinic when he bought in 1963.
For Troo Global Britain the whole planet must live here. Put up by government in the best hotels.
Blame that. 😈
I don't stay in hotels or B&B's as much as I used to, but IME it's hard to get really bad experiences in the chains. But also quite hard to get brilliant experiences in them as well.
I'd be absolutely delighted if you offered me a night in a Premier Inn.
Though a blanket wouldn't go amiss. Easier than trying to wrestle with the temperature controls.