In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Adnams Ghost Ship. 0.5% alcohol. Pretty well the real thing!
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Peroni 0% seems okay and I quite like San Miguel 0%.
I find it easier to drink non-alcoholic with food than on its own.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Adnams Ghost Ship. 0.5% alcohol. Pretty well the real thing!
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
The Home Secretary regrets to inform, that your statements on behalf of private entities made on a social (or anti-social?) media platform, are ipso facto in breach of your duty of care and responsibility as a quasi-public employee.
To mitigate any adverse impacts of your serious infraction(s) please sign the appended pledge, that you will absolutely eschew use of your van, in aiding and abetting illegal boat people, as defined by statutes, regulations, press releases, media leaks, etc., etc.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
Previous governments home and around the world have printed money, picked money for free off trees, telling us how clever they are, and there will never be any reckoning for what they are doing. I feel Sorry for Rishi and Starmer as we now enter age of reckoning for what went on before.
Market mayhem is coming. I don’t know exactly when, maybe as soon as Friday of next week. But for certain a lot of that printed money when into stocks, over inflating them and the market.
It’s a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark.
Mark my words. A reckoning is coming. Beware the Ides. Beware the Ides of March.
The flame of Leon has been taken up !
Needs a bit more random capitalisation - but almost there!
At the same it's a nevertheless an interesting post from Lady Rabbit, though. I'm a bit unclear about this whole SVB business ; something else I've just read says only about 4% of their business is international, and that they have a "very limited presence in the UK market". Is this anything like right ?
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
"I might vote Labour" ROFL
I voted Blair twice but sadly Starmer is no Blair
That's nice but you're advocating a terrible PM with a terrible policy, so I'll take Starmer any day of the week.
Presumably when it goes downhill you will proclaim something new.
You say I have a Damascene conversion but you've had so many conversions I'm dizzy. For Johnson, against, for again then against, for Truss then against, then for again, then against Sunak then for again.
Are you some some rudimentary AI?
Sunak is a grown up politician who I have supported long before Truss, and he is going to give Starmer a run for his money despite your hyping, ramping and hubristic postings
He will mitigate GE24 for the conservatives and you need to hope Scotland does not stay with the SNP
You tell him Big G!
Other than Jack W you've probably seen more political leaders, Prime Ministers and political shenanigans than anyone else on here.
No he hasn’t! My first political memories are of the 1945 election.
I've lived under 18 UK Prime ministers, the first being Churchill, then Attlee, then Churchill again.
Snap! I recall my mother telling her sister in 1945 that “Ray (my father, away in the Forces) wants me to vote for Captain (Ray) Gunter but I don’t want to vote Labour!” Gunter won SE Essex, where we lived, for Labour, the only time until 1979 that any part of the then constituency was won by Labour.
My parents were very strong Labour supporters. My father a trade unionist. I remember my class in primary school in Oldham being severely reprimanded for booing at the mention of Churchill. I envied my classmates in clogs. They could make sparks by sliding on the cobbles. Those were the days!
Now I'm a well off Cambridge graduate living in Barnes, local organiser for the LibDems.
Jeremy Hunt has been urged to intervene to prevent a wave of bankruptcies in the tech sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank caused chaos.
Andrew Griffith, the City minister, was locked in talks with officials, regulators and industry figures on Saturday to avert a crisis that could lead to thousands of job losses among SVB’s legion of tech sector customers.
It comes at a time when the government is talking about turning the UK into a science and tech superpower.
The SV/Startup forums are in meltdown just now. Slight change from their normal minimal government/libertarian conversation to 'when will the government bail us out?!?!?!'...
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
I don't hate Lucky Saint, though if you've tried and hated lots of low alcohol beers this is probably one you've already ruled out.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
What the Conservatives need to address is the corrosion in aspiration and the inability of those between 25-45 to accumulate wealth.
It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.
Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
I think the specific issue is that much of the PPE she supplied needed to be discarded as it did not meet requirements.
The requirements that were made at the time of the purchase agreement, or requirements that were subsequently added because of the evolution of the pandemic?
I genuinely don’t know, but the NAO should be working hard to recoup money paid to suppliers who didn’t deliver what was contracted.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
You just can't help yourself with the dehumanising language can you?
You don't know me, and I don't know you. I have an opinion on your attitude which I will keep to myself, yet you have psycho analysed me and determined I am a ****. I am genuinely extremely polite, but I no longer suffer fools gladly. Those who have worked for me report they hold me in high regard, although I can give you the name of one who hated the ground I walked on. Make of that what you will.
Pete you are one of the kindest and most decent posters on this site, what has been written about you is total nonsense.
Thank you for being there for me when I needed it, what is being said to you is utterly disgraceful and hypocritical.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
You just can't help yourself with the dehumanising language can you?
It's fascinating that you self-identify as one of those.
Of course, you're absolutely right since you only ever log on to post to spread some.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Guiness 00 is my go to beer now. At push, Corona 00 is drinkable, and the Brewdog IPAs are good, but sadly not vegan so not for me. My wife swears Tanqueray 00 gin is good....sadly 0 alcohol spirits are nowhere near drinkable yet.
Personally I've never found anything better than Becks blue, which also has the advantage of being cheap.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
The Upper West Side though is overwhelmingly Democrat and would probably be LD if it was in London
Not sure. The demographic is elderly Jewish ladies. It’s like a shabby high-rise Hampstead. I say a rare Lab/LD swing seat.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
A chield's amang you takin notes, And, faith, he'll prent it.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
Utter bollocks.
It wins the award for silliest post of 2023 so far.
If Boris had flipped the other way, and Remain won 51:49 or something, @Roger would be penning odes to him.
As a non idealogical Remainer, I find the lack of self knowledge on both sides interesting. For quite a few people here, no matter what else, which side you were on is a lifelong label of good or bad.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
What the Conservatives need to address is the corrosion in aspiration and the inability of those between 25-45 to accumulate wealth.
It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.
Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
How do you accumulate wealth ?
Get a skill Get a job Get a pension Get a house
So better technical education, higher pay, tax incentives on saving, affordable housing.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
Instead of #PBTories it's now #PBLefties
They're like sheep, don't think, can't handle an alternative argument and persistently try and make it personal.
At least before with the Tory herd we had an intelligent Labour critique on here rather than the loud donkey supporters in the stands we have today.
You responded to my posts last evening by calling me a twat. I have called you out, but I have never abused you.
That was because you persistently labelled me as "off topicing" you despite it not complete bollocks, and demonstrably so, and then you persisted in it and even amplified your claim - effectively calling me a liar.
So it was richly deserved.
You're essentially a time waster. The guy that tries to detain a Conservative canvasser on his doorstep for hours (and strangely has the time to do it) just to stop him talking to anyone else.
Whenever we have crossed swords I wind up with off topics. If it's not you, you must have an admirer.
You don't know me, and I don't know you. I have an opinion on your attitude which I will keep to myself, yet you have psycho analysed me and determined I am a ****. I am genuinely extremely polite, but I no longer suffer fools gladly. Those who have worked for me report they hold me in high regard, although I can give you the name of one who hated the ground I walked on. Make of that what you will.
Then might I suggest you take my word at face value and not persist in smearing unfairly?
Lots of people work for me too and also hold me in high regard.
Of course, there's always one you don't get on with. That's people, unfortunately.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.
Please do not do that
Careful BigG. some of these posts are all about me. People might tumble my game and that I am actually Leon.
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
They don’t sing? Try “Birds of a Feather”, which I’ve liked on Spotify at some stage.
Well they clearly do a bit then! But not on any of their tracks I've got on my phone. And most of the singing on that is Antwaun, who isn't in the band
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Guiness 00 is my go to beer now. At push, Corona 00 is drinkable, and the Brewdog IPAs are good, but sadly not vegan so not for me. My wife swears Tanqueray 00 gin is good....sadly 0 alcohol spirits are nowhere near drinkable yet.
Personally I've never found anything better than Becks blue, which also has the advantage of being cheap.
Perhaps the problem for the Conservatives, apart from the general hubris which tends to overcome parties after long periods in office, is they haven't realised or come to terms with the post-pandemic world and its culture.
Talking about "aspiration" and "wealth creation" (nothing new, it was the same in the 1980s) makes a lot of assumptions about the value people place on those things. I'd argue (and the public reaction to the Truss/Kwarteng proposals seemed to support this) there has been a shift away from Guizot-style individualism back to notions of collective responsibility and community.
It's not quite "the individual is dead, long live the community" but notions of fairness and making sure the poorest are adequately fed and housed over and above individualistic wealth accumulation seem to be back in vogue.
I'd contend it would be fertile ground for One Nation Conservatism but that ground has been forfeited by the Conservatives and is being occupied by Labour who often do well masquerading as One Nation Tories.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised. I await your visceral response😀
Hmm. Earlier on you advised me to chill (and that mediation, veganism and being tee-total were key to this) and now you've posted something - in response to a totally different poster - that's deeply personal ending up with saying you approach despising me.
Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.
Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.
If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.
But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Buy a go fast boat hull in Florida. Fit it out with reconditioned Deltics.
Become a smuggler.
If caught, the possession of restored, working Deltics will mean the jury will leave the box. To carry you in triumph through the town. After nullification on your behalf.
It’s going to be one of those moments that takes us closer to state ownership of the means of production. Government interventionism is all the rage at the moment. It was until now mainly in the industrial sector. Now it may impinge on tech.
The alternative is possibly worse. Shuttering a load of startups all at once, irrespective of their actual prospects, could be hugely damaging.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
The system is ridiculous. The earnings cap is too low and it doesn't take into account non-UK income. So a shop assistant on 26k ( who will be a net taker from the Treasury over their lifetime) can bring over an arranged, uneducated, teen bride, even if he has met her once, with the plan for her to never work and pop out kids. Meanwhile, an expat technology manager on 100k can't bring over a wife of 10 years.
They should just double the cap and include both foreign earnings and spousal earnings. And require a relationship of two years, even for married couples.
@Mexicanpete please don't go. You are one of the only people that makes this site bearable.
If this site makes you that unhappy then perhaps you should take a break from it.
You seem to derive all your identity and self-worth from people you've never met, and in opposition to those you vehemently disagree with who you've also never met.
I've told you before that has real world consequences to real people - not least of all yourself.
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
"I might vote Labour" ROFL
I voted Blair twice but sadly Starmer is no Blair
That's nice but you're advocating a terrible PM with a terrible policy, so I'll take Starmer any day of the week.
Presumably when it goes downhill you will proclaim something new.
You say I have a Damascene conversion but you've had so many conversions I'm dizzy. For Johnson, against, for again then against, for Truss then against, then for again, then against Sunak then for again.
Are you some some rudimentary AI?
Sunak is a grown up politician who I have supported long before Truss, and he is going to give Starmer a run for his money despite your hyping, ramping and hubristic postings
He will mitigate GE24 for the conservatives and you need to hope Scotland does not stay with the SNP
You tell him Big G!
Other than Jack W you've probably seen more political leaders, Prime Ministers and political shenanigans than anyone else on here.
No he hasn’t! My first political memories are of the 1945 election.
I've lived under 18 UK Prime ministers, the first being Churchill, then Attlee, then Churchill again.
Snap! I recall my mother telling her sister in 1945 that “Ray (my father, away in the Forces) wants me to vote for Captain (Ray) Gunter but I don’t want to vote Labour!” Gunter won SE Essex, where we lived, for Labour, the only time until 1979 that any part of the then constituency was won by Labour.
My parents were very strong Labour supporters. My father a trade unionist. I remember my class in primary school in Oldham being severely reprimanded for booing at the mention of Churchill. I envied my classmates in clogs. They could make sparks by sliding on the cobbles. Those were the days!
Now I'm a well off Cambridge graduate living in Barnes, local organiser for the LibDems.
My wife, originally a Rochdale girl, has similar memories of clogs! Now she lives in N. Essex! My father, from. S.Wales mining stock, moved steadily rightwards! I campaigned for the Liberals on the 60’s and 70’s but I’m more likely to vote Labour now. Although at the last County election I voted for the (winning) Green.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Guiness 00 is my go to beer now. At push, Corona 00 is drinkable, and the Brewdog IPAs are good, but sadly not vegan so not for me. My wife swears Tanqueray 00 gin is good....sadly 0 alcohol spirits are nowhere near drinkable yet.
Personally I've never found anything better than Becks blue, which also has the advantage of being cheap.
What do you use it for?
Any purpose has to be better than drinking it.
Do they still have photos of Sandra from Largs on cans of Tennants? Fantastic marketing as the contents were undrinkable.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Clausthaler is pretty good. St Pauli is bloody awful. As in Brew Dog's Nanny State.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Buy a go fast boat hull in Florida. Fit it out with reconditioned Deltics.
Become a smuggler.
If caught, the possession of restored, working Deltics will mean the jury will leave the box. To carry you in triumph through the town. After nullification on your behalf.
Jeremy Hunt has been urged to intervene to prevent a wave of bankruptcies in the tech sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank caused chaos.
Andrew Griffith, the City minister, was locked in talks with officials, regulators and industry figures on Saturday to avert a crisis that could lead to thousands of job losses among SVB’s legion of tech sector customers.
It comes at a time when the government is talking about turning the UK into a science and tech superpower.
The SV/Startup forums are in meltdown just now. Slight change from their normal minimal government/libertarian conversation to 'when will the government bail us out?!?!?!'...
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
They don’t sing? Try “Birds of a Feather”, which I’ve liked on Spotify at some stage.
Well they clearly do a bit then! But not on any of their tracks I've got on my phone. And most of the singing on that is Antwaun, who isn't in the band
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
What a bummer. So much for the supposed right to a family life. British citizens should be able to bring their spouses from anywhere to live with them in Britain, subject only to confidence that the marriage is genuine. Is there nothing similar to the Surinder Singh loophole (via e.g. RoI) any more?
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Buy a go fast boat hull in Florida. Fit it out with reconditioned Deltics.
Become a smuggler.
If caught, the possession of restored, working Deltics will mean the jury will leave the box. To carry you in triumph through the town. After nullification on your behalf.
@Mexicanpete please don't go. You are one of the only people that makes this site bearable.
If this site makes you that unhappy then perhaps you should take a break from it.
You seem to derive all your identity and self-worth from people you've never met, and in opposition to those you vehemently disagree with who you've also never met.
I've told you before that has real world consequences to real people - not least of all yourself.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
"I might vote Labour" ROFL
I voted Blair twice but sadly Starmer is no Blair
That's nice but you're advocating a terrible PM with a terrible policy, so I'll take Starmer any day of the week.
Presumably when it goes downhill you will proclaim something new.
You say I have a Damascene conversion but you've had so many conversions I'm dizzy. For Johnson, against, for again then against, for Truss then against, then for again, then against Sunak then for again.
Are you some some rudimentary AI?
Sunak is a grown up politician who I have supported long before Truss, and he is going to give Starmer a run for his money despite your hyping, ramping and hubristic postings
He will mitigate GE24 for the conservatives and you need to hope Scotland does not stay with the SNP
You tell him Big G!
Other than Jack W you've probably seen more political leaders, Prime Ministers and political shenanigans than anyone else on here.
No he hasn’t! My first political memories are of the 1945 election.
I've lived under 18 UK Prime ministers, the first being Churchill, then Attlee, then Churchill again.
Snap! I recall my mother telling her sister in 1945 that “Ray (my father, away in the Forces) wants me to vote for Captain (Ray) Gunter but I don’t want to vote Labour!” Gunter won SE Essex, where we lived, for Labour, the only time until 1979 that any part of the then constituency was won by Labour.
My parents were very strong Labour supporters. My father a trade unionist. I remember my class in primary school in Oldham being severely reprimanded for booing at the mention of Churchill. I envied my classmates in clogs. They could make sparks by sliding on the cobbles. Those were the days!
Now I'm a well off Cambridge graduate living in Barnes, local organiser for the LibDems.
My wife, originally a Rochdale girl, has similar memories of clogs! Now she lives in N. Essex! My father, from. S.Wales mining stock, moved steadily rightwards! I campaigned for the Liberals on the 60’s and 70’s but I’m more likely to vote Labour now. Although at the last County election I voted for the (winning) Green.
Still plenty of time for you to expand the family partisan experience, by embracing Cornish Nationalism.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
I think this is exactly right. The debate about ‘welcome migrants’ signs earlier focused on numbers arriving but I think the way in which people arrive also shows how welcoming we are.
‘Stop the boats’ would be much more palatable as a slogan if safe and legal routes allowed us to take our fair share.
Obviously what counts as our fair share and how we stop the boats is still controversial, but I think the difficulties for people coming here the ‘right’ way are unconscionable (I know, I’ve gone through the admin).
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Buy a go fast boat hull in Florida. Fit it out with reconditioned Deltics.
Become a smuggler.
If caught, the possession of restored, working Deltics will mean the jury will leave the box. To carry you in triumph through the town. After nullification on your behalf.
Still got my Dad's Deltic maintenance bumf ...
I understand this post.
Not sure I did your previous one.
You wouldn't, It's Scots.
Burns ';On The Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland'
tr: There's a fellow amongst you taking notes And forsooth he'll print it.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
They should be but they don't seem interested.
The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.
Remember how much crap Cameron went through, for keeping Andy Coulson? That was because he was invaluable to the PM, as the voice of the working classes.
The Tories could actually still win the next election, if they can appeal to that particular demographic. Johnson could do it by himself, Rishi Rich can’t.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
They should be but they don't seem interested.
The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.
Remember how much crap Cameron went through, for keeping Andy Coulson? That was because he was invaluable to the PM, as the voice of the working classes.
The Tories could actually still win the next election, if they can appeal to that particular demographic. Johnson could do it by himself, Rishi Rich can’t.
Hence why he made Lee Anderson the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
I thought you could prove "income" in an alternative way - by having, IIRC £60000 in savings, not including housing equity. Not easy to come up with £60k though, I understand.
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
They don’t sing? Try “Birds of a Feather”, which I’ve liked on Spotify at some stage.
Well they clearly do a bit then! But not on any of their tracks I've got on my phone. And most of the singing on that is Antwaun, who isn't in the band
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised. I await your visceral response😀
Hmm. Earlier on you advised me to chill (and that mediation, veganism and being tee-total were key to this) and now you've posted something - in response to a totally different poster - that's deeply personal ending up with saying you approach despising me.
Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
@Mexicanpete please don't go. You are one of the only people that makes this site bearable.
If this site makes you that unhappy then perhaps you should take a break from it.
You seem to derive all your identity and self-worth from people you've never met, and in opposition to those you vehemently disagree with who you've also never met.
I've told you before that has real world consequences to real people - not least of all yourself.
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
They don’t sing? Try “Birds of a Feather”, which I’ve liked on Spotify at some stage.
Well they clearly do a bit then! But not on any of their tracks I've got on my phone. And most of the singing on that is Antwaun, who isn't in the band
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
Not going to plan, it seems.
One thing that could save the government and the BBC hierarchy, in the very short-term, is the SVB situation spreading to other areas of the economy. In the long-term, ofcourse, that would be much more serious than Gary Lineker.
Black swan or damp squib ? Only you, the jury of PB, decides.
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
They should be but they don't seem interested.
The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.
I'd be amazed if he hasn't got one. If not in No10 isn't there a Tory deputy chair who knows his Bermondsey from his bubble and squeak?
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
Not going to plan, it seems.
Maybe Gary Lineker is the new Joanna Lumley?
He wants Boris Johnson to build a bridge across the Channel?
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
What the Conservatives need to address is the corrosion in aspiration and the inability of those between 25-45 to accumulate wealth.
It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.
Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
Yes, this is the existential problem for the Conservative Party. Their voting base is the already wealthy, who are increasingly old.
I like Sunak, but the thing that made me switch over to labour was based on the unfairness that pensioners can get a 10% increase in the state pension, but public sector workers are having to go on strike to get 3-5%. I work with a lot of people in the public sector who are exposed to huge risks, work for 60-70 hours a week, and they just get this. It is morally indefensible.
I have been lucky due to inheritance and house price inflation to the point where I have some degree of wealth and financial security, but I can see that this is essentially impossible to attain for large numbers of people in their 20's, 30's and 40's, who work as hard, or harder than I have done, but they are destined not to have what I have.
I just think that this is leading to a potentially catastrophic breakdown in the social contract. It needs to be addressed by taxing wealth, building more housing, wiping out student loan debt, and increasing pay and conditions - all of which are things that the Conservative party are opposed to, because of pressure from their elderly voting base.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
I'm glad that this version of events is giving you some comfort. I'm not going to argue with it for that reason.
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.
Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.
How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title
Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
I think this is exactly right. The debate about ‘welcome migrants’ signs earlier focused on numbers arriving but I think the way in which people arrive also shows how welcoming we are.
‘Stop the boats’ would be much more palatable as a slogan if safe and legal routes allowed us to take our fair share.
Obviously what counts as our fair share and how we stop the boats is still controversial, but I think the difficulties for people coming here the ‘right’ way are unconscionable (I know, I’ve gone through the admin).
As far as I can see, the vast majority of those arriving on boats are relatively unskilled economic migrants from safe countries such as Albania, arriving from a safe country such as France by irregular means.
The vast majority of them don’t claim asylum, but land on a beach and disappear into the black economy. The asylum seekers are those who get caught.
When you see the hoops that need to be jumped through for migration through the legal route, you see that those who pay criminals thousands to jump the queue are doing it the best way - which massively undermines confidence in the system.
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
Not going to plan, it seems.
Maybe Gary Lineker is the new Joanna Lumley?
He wants Boris Johnson to build a bridge across the Channel?
I'm thinking more of the dying days of NuLabour and the Gurkhas...
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised. I await your visceral response😀
Hmm. Earlier on you advised me to chill (and that mediation, veganism and being tee-total were key to this) and now you've posted something - in response to a totally different poster - that's deeply personal ending up with saying you approach despising me.
Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
Nah, I'm fine, just trying to help you 🙂
My view is that veganism is religious - as your posts that couple it with that sort of demonstrate - and those I know who are vegan are no happier or calmer than those who are not, and sometimes less so. Most give it up eventually.
Like the abstinence movement of the early 20th Century, in opposition to very heavy drinking amongst the working population in the late 19th Century and the social ills that was seen to cause, we now have an abstinence movement in the early 21st Century in opposition to overly heavy meat consumption and the social ills that is seen to cause.
Neither proved to be popular for long. The answer is balance and moderation.
I don't like religions being pushed on me so tend to react.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Guiness 00 is my go to beer now. At push, Corona 00 is drinkable, and the Brewdog IPAs are good, but sadly not vegan so not for me. My wife swears Tanqueray 00 gin is good....sadly 0 alcohol spirits are nowhere near drinkable yet.
Personally I've never found anything better than Becks blue, which also has the advantage of being cheap.
What do you use it for?
Any purpose has to be better than drinking it.
Do they still have photos of Sandra from Largs on cans of Tennants? Fantastic marketing as the contents were undrinkable.
Sandra’s piss is more drinkable than Tennents lager (allegedly). I’m not prepared to drink Tennents to find out.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
What a bummer. So much for the supposed right to a family life. British citizens should be able to bring their spouses from anywhere to live with them in Britain, subject only to confidence that the marriage is genuine. Is there nothing similar to the Surinder Singh loophole (via e.g. RoI) any more?
Quite amazingly, if I were (for example) Polish and had a Ukranian wife, we would have have the right to live together in the UK, under EU law, when the UK was in the EU. But becuase I’m a UK citizen, that’s not the case.
It wasn’t that long ago, that being married to a UK citizen entitled you to a passport.
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.
Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.
How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title
Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother
Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.
Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
No, without a Prince of Wales, Wales has none of its own representation with the United Kingdom which was formed by uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Indeed 66% of Welsh voters wanted William to be Prince of Wales
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
No, without a Prince of Wales, Wales has none of its own representation with the United Kingdom which was formed by uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Indeed 66% of Welsh voters wanted William to be Prince of Wales
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Am sorry to hear of your circumstances, for you & yours.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
Don’t worry, we’re quite happy living somewhere where it’s currently 80ºF at midnight, rather than 30ºF and snowing.
Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.
If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.
But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
Either way Sandpit, it is an absurdly dysfunctional system. If it were up to me you would have every right to come and go as you please with your spouse, without petty interference from jobsworth officials.
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.
Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.
How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title
Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother
Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.
Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.
A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.
Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.
The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.
The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.
However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports
Dare I say that we’ve witnessed peak SNP? Klaxon on standby.
A thread tomorrow does discuss that.
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
Oh, not mentioning Meibion Glyndŵr then?
I do plan to mention them in an upcoming thread.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
Now that's an interesting assertion. Will look forward to seeing your argument.
I was thinking about publishing it this weekend but it included a section about the failure to make the Earl of Wessex the Duke of Edinburgh something to do with not wanting to antagonise Scot Nats but the King buggered up my thread this week.
Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.
How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title
Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother
Simply had not occurred to me and undoubvtedly to a lot of other Scots. It's irrelevant one way or another. Could be happening on Tristan da Cunha for all the relevance it has.
Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
I was intrigued by the suggestion from Alex Salmond and Ash Regan which is going to bring the Royals into the independence debate.
A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.
Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.
The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.
The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.
However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports
Slightly surprised it's being taken that seriously by anyone. It's a monastic cesspit lid from local stone as shown by petrological work, not the Lia Fail of mediaeval desciption.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised. I await your visceral response😀
Hmm. Earlier on you advised me to chill (and that mediation, veganism and being tee-total were key to this) and now you've posted something - in response to a totally different poster - that's deeply personal ending up with saying you approach despising me.
Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
Nah, I'm fine, just trying to help you 🙂
My view is that veganism is religious - as your posts that couple it with that sort of demonstrate - and those I know who are vegan are no happier or calmer than those who are not, and sometimes less so. Most give it up eventually.
Like the abstinence movement of the early 20th Century, in opposition to very heavy drinking amongst the working population in the late 19th Century and the social ills that was seen to cause, we now have an abstinence movement in the early 21st Century in opposition to overly heavy meat consumption and the social ills that is seen to cause.
Neither proved to be popular for long. The answer is balance and moderation.
I don't like religions being pushed on me so tend to react.
Most vegans see the conditions animals are kept in - the specifics and the fact that they are exploited as objects - as ills in themselves. Veganism grew out of humanitarianism. Flesheaters take the view "I like eating flesh, me".
I keep returning to this simple truth, in Thursday's @thetimes by sports writer Martin Samuel:
"If your new immigration strategy is so artfully constructed it needs protecting from a tweet by the bloke who presents Match of the Day, it might not be as clever as you think."
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
They should be but they don't seem interested.
The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
It’s why Sunak needs to find a working-class advisor.
Remember how much crap Cameron went through, for keeping Andy Coulson? That was because he was invaluable to the PM, as the voice of the working classes.
The Tories could actually still win the next election, if they can appeal to that particular demographic. Johnson could do it by himself, Rishi Rich can’t.
Hence why he made Lee Anderson the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party
Up to a point.
Anderson speaks for a certain sort of working-class salt-of-the-Earth patriotic Tory, sure. But he doesn't entirely help with the big split in voting, which is age. He's 56, which puts him on the blue side of all those age divides, like having been able to buy a house when the deposit was four figures. Now of an age where he probably doesn't really need to work any more. The social reforms of the Blair-Cameron era were pushing things quite far enough, thank you.
Anderson helps shore up one flank of the 2019 coalition. But he does nothing (possibly makes things worse) for the other, which is where more voters are.
Comments
I find it easier to drink non-alcoholic with food than on its own.
@MetroUK
Prince Andrew is reportedly considering giving a new tell-all television interview to win back public support.
https://drydrinker.com/collections/no-and-low-alcohol-cider
Edit: not so much the Old Mout, but it's personal.
To mitigate any adverse impacts of your serious infraction(s) please sign the appended pledge, that you will absolutely eschew use of your van, in aiding and abetting illegal boat people, as defined by statutes, regulations, press releases, media leaks, etc., etc.
I remember my class in primary school in Oldham being severely reprimanded for booing at the mention of Churchill.
I envied my classmates in clogs. They could make sparks by sliding on the cobbles.
Those were the days!
Now I'm a well off Cambridge graduate living in Barnes, local organiser for the LibDems.
The Conservative focus is too much on rentierism.
It's not just in the Conservative Party. I genuinely see a total dearth of thinking on all sides of the house.
Strangely, there were some interesting thinkers in the Coalition government from the LD side - Laws, Davey, Webb & Browne - on top of Gove, Hague and Osborne, who were the most serious thinkers on the Conservative benches.
I genuinely don’t know, but the NAO should be working hard to recoup money paid to suppliers who didn’t deliver what was contracted.
Of course, you're absolutely right since you only ever log on to post to spread some.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000727
And, faith, he'll prent it.
Have you tried contacting your MP?
This is the kind of thing, where sometimes they may be able to help. (Emphasis on conditional, but something.)
As a non idealogical Remainer, I find the lack of self knowledge on both sides interesting. For quite a few people here, no matter what else, which side you were on is a lifelong label of good or bad.
Get a skill
Get a job
Get a pension
Get a house
So better technical education, higher pay, tax incentives on saving, affordable housing.
SNP: 40% (-3)
Labour: 32% (+2)
Conservatives: 18% (+1)
Lib Dems: 6% (-)
Greens: 2%
Alba: 1%
Others: 2%
8-10 March, changes with 15-17
Lots of people work for me too and also hold me in high regard.
Of course, there's always one you don't get on with. That's people, unfortunately.
Do you know Pimps Of Joytime?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o34lLIQfX6Q
Any purpose has to be better than drinking it.
Perhaps the problem for the Conservatives, apart from the general hubris which tends to overcome parties after long periods in office, is they haven't realised or come to terms with the post-pandemic world and its culture.
Talking about "aspiration" and "wealth creation" (nothing new, it was the same in the 1980s) makes a lot of assumptions about the value people place on those things. I'd argue (and the public reaction to the Truss/Kwarteng proposals seemed to support this) there has been a shift away from Guizot-style individualism back to notions of collective responsibility and community.
It's not quite "the individual is dead, long live the community" but notions of fairness and making sure the poorest are adequately fed and housed over and above individualistic wealth accumulation seem to be back in vogue.
I'd contend it would be fertile ground for One Nation Conservatism but that ground has been forfeited by the Conservatives and is being occupied by Labour who often do well masquerading as One Nation Tories.
Maybe your regime ain't quite so effective as you make it out to be?
Oh, and I’d have to pay income tax at 40% in the UK, which I don’t have to when living in Dubai.
If we really wanted to move to the UK we could, but there would be about £5k in legal fees and she wouldn’t be able to work for two years while the paperwork got sorted.
But someone who arrives on a boat gets a free lawyer who can make unlimited appeals, free accommodation in an hotel, and seemingly an inability to ever actually be deported.
Become a smuggler.
If caught, the possession of restored, working Deltics will mean the jury will leave the box. To carry you in triumph through the town. After nullification on your behalf.
Shuttering a load of startups all at once, irrespective of their actual prospects, could be hugely damaging.
They should just double the cap and include both foreign earnings and spousal earnings. And require a relationship of two years, even for married couples.
You seem to derive all your identity and self-worth from people you've never met, and in opposition to those you vehemently disagree with who you've also never met.
I've told you before that has real world consequences to real people - not least of all yourself.
Would see Labour gain 13 SNP seats and the Conservatives hold 4 of their 6 Scottish seats
NEW: No. 10 seem to be concerned that Gary Lineker has overtaken their new immigration policy.
In a statement, Rishi Sunak says “Lineker is a great presenter” but “it’s important to maintain perspective” and refocus energy on “stopping the boats”
Not going to plan, it seems.
https://sifted.eu/articles/europe-svb-founder-confusion-news/
Although at the last County election I voted for the (winning) Green.
I find the Run Wild IPA to be decent.
https://twitter.com/runningline1/status/1634287617058525216?s=46
It contains two very subtle puns and a not very incendiary comparison of the SNP to the IRA in the first draft.
It’s a bit electro-hoe-down.
Not sure I did your previous one.
He might whip a book out, to launch around the time of the coronation. I doubt he gives a toss for "public support" of any other kind. He put Woking on the map, previously known mostly for its crematorium and being a stop on the train line.
Do you like Woking?
Tbh I've never woked.
‘Stop the boats’ would be much more palatable as a slogan if safe and legal routes allowed us to take our fair share.
Obviously what counts as our fair share and how we stop the boats is still controversial, but I think the difficulties for people coming here the ‘right’ way are unconscionable (I know, I’ve gone through the admin).
Burns ';On The Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland'
tr: There's a fellow amongst you taking notes
And forsooth he'll print it.
Remember how much crap Cameron went through, for keeping Andy Coulson? That was because he was invaluable to the PM, as the voice of the working classes.
The Tories could actually still win the next election, if they can appeal to that particular demographic. Johnson could do it by himself, Rishi Rich can’t.
In short is the Royal Family's failure to carry out an investiture for the new Prince of Wales an acceptance that foisting a Prince of Wales on the Welsh stokes Welsh nationalism and violence.
Further proof that the monarchy isn't as popular as its supporters think it is.
I'd love to see them live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SilKN-UDqoY
Black swan or damp squib ? Only you, the jury of PB, decides.
Edit: as HYUFD points out, there's Lee Anderson.
I like Sunak, but the thing that made me switch over to labour was based on the unfairness that pensioners can get a 10% increase in the state pension, but public sector workers are having to go on strike to get 3-5%. I work with a lot of people in the public sector who are exposed to huge risks, work for 60-70 hours a week, and they just get this. It is morally indefensible.
I have been lucky due to inheritance and house price inflation to the point where I have some degree of wealth and financial security, but I can see that this is essentially impossible to attain for large numbers of people in their 20's, 30's and 40's, who work as hard, or harder than I have done, but they are destined not to have what I have.
I just think that this is leading to a potentially catastrophic breakdown in the social contract. It needs to be addressed by taxing wealth, building more housing, wiping out student loan debt, and increasing pay and conditions - all of which are things that the Conservative party are opposed to, because of pressure from their elderly voting base.
Edit - The Telegraph have an interesting take.
How the fall of Nicola Sturgeon played a part in whether Prince Edward was given the Duke of Edinburgh title
Amid plenty of wrangling behind the scenes, the King fulfils his late father’s wishes by conferring the title to his younger brother
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/03/10/prince-edward-new-duke-edinburgh-title-palace-process/
The vast majority of them don’t claim asylum, but land on a beach and disappear into the black economy. The asylum seekers are those who get caught.
When you see the hoops that need to be jumped through for migration through the legal route, you see that those who pay criminals thousands to jump the queue are doing it the best way - which massively undermines confidence in the system.
This evening: SNP 40% = fantastic poll
Go figure. BritNats are weird.
Like the abstinence movement of the early 20th Century, in opposition to very heavy drinking amongst the working population in the late 19th Century and the social ills that was seen to cause, we now have an abstinence movement in the early 21st Century in opposition to overly heavy meat consumption and the social ills that is seen to cause.
Neither proved to be popular for long. The answer is balance and moderation.
I don't like religions being pushed on me so tend to react.
It wasn’t that long ago, that being married to a UK citizen entitled you to a passport.
Plus it's not much of a compliment to hjave someone called the D of E when you look at the folk in York or Sussex who are still lumbered with Dukes.
Indeed 66% of Welsh voters wanted William to be Prince of Wales
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-09-26/majority-in-favour-of-prince-of-wales-title-for-william-but-not-an-investiture
So nice to know that for some people only royals count. Nobody else at all, leastd of all elected representatives.
A candidate to become the next SNP leader has backed Alex Salmond’s plan for Scotland to refuse to hand over the Stone of Scone for the coronation of King Charles.
Ash Regan, who polls suggest is the outsider in the three-person race, vowed to try to block the transfer of the historic relic to London if she becomes First Minister as Scotland was its “rightful place”.
The stone, which monarchs of Scotland were once crowned upon, was seized and taken south by Edward I, known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.
The stone will be sent temporarily to London so that it can be used in the coronation in May in line with centuries of tradition, before being sent back north.
However, Mr Salmond has said the stone should be withheld in protest at Scotland being denied another independence referendum, a stance Ms Regan said she supports
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/05/ash-regan-backs-alex-salmond-refusal-stone-destiny-kings-coronation/
If ever there was a case for multiple voting ….
@sturdyAlex
I keep returning to this simple truth, in Thursday's @thetimes by sports writer Martin Samuel:
"If your new immigration strategy is so artfully constructed it needs protecting from a tweet by the bloke who presents Match of the Day, it might not be as clever as you think."
It's your call, but personally I'd be sorry to see you go.
Anderson speaks for a certain sort of working-class salt-of-the-Earth patriotic Tory, sure. But he doesn't entirely help with the big split in voting, which is age. He's 56, which puts him on the blue side of all those age divides, like having been able to buy a house when the deposit was four figures. Now of an age where he probably doesn't really need to work any more. The social reforms of the Blair-Cameron era were pushing things quite far enough, thank you.
Anderson helps shore up one flank of the 2019 coalition. But he does nothing (possibly makes things worse) for the other, which is where more voters are.