Could someone in her party send her the link? Or tell her about the Drew Review and Operation Stovewood by the NCA. Or the Jay report or what Dame Louise Casey has done?
Or remind her of what her fellow Cabinet Minister, Suellla Braverman, the Home Secretary to do in May 2023 when the final IICSA Report came out?
This is bandwagon jumping of the most tawdry kind instead of action - which she could have been asking for when she was an actual Cabinet Minister.
What magnificent results have these reports and enquiries produced?
The Drew Review was used to improve the approach of South Yorkshire Police.
Operation Stovewood: run by the NCA is the largest criminal enforcement investigation into non-family CSE. It has identified 1100 victims, has 50 investigations outstanding and has led to 36 convictions.
The Jay Report was used to improve services within Rotherham Council which was put into special measures. The council leader and head of children's services left.
It is something. By no means enough, of course.
But what actual use will yet another inquiry costing millions, reporting in a decade or so and telling us stuff we already know be? Because my suspicion is that this is not really about joining dots or understanding the manifold causes of male sexual violence - let alone taking effective action against it - but political point-scoring and a disguised fight about immigration, in which the needs of the victims - girls mostly - will largely be ignored.
We definitely dont need an enquiry....what we need is a police investigation and where people whether policeman, councillors or local government people or priests etc have covered up sexual abuse of young people then they need to be tried in a court of law for at least perversion of justice.
Enough of enquiries as we have seen with the PO one it is a way of letting the people responsible off
Here's the thing.
The bar for criminal prosecution is a high one, and (with few relatively few exceptions) requires mens rea - i.e. a guilty mind.
Inaction - even when it has terrible consequences - is very rarely a criminal offence.
Now there may be individuals in the care service or the council in Rotherham and Rochdale whose behaviour stepped over the line. But those people are inevitably low level, and were almost certainly carrying out the wishes of their bosses.
So you have a fundamental problem: the instructions (i.e. to care about "community relations" above all else) came from people without specific knowledge, and who therefore almost certainly have a defence. While those who behaviour stepped over the line are junior, and who were "just following orders".
There is an easier case to be made for criminal behaviour and charges to be brought in the Post Office case, because a large number of the legal profession chose to deliberately withhold evidence from the defence in court cases, to the extent that it would come under the heading of perverting the course of justice.
I was in particular minded of the one who destroyed all the records for the investigator for the Jay report and was quite happy and smug to tell the investigator so....if that is not perversion of the course of justice I don't know what is
I think the Jay Report was set up under the auspices of the Inquiries Act of 2005, and you would therefore struggle to make a case that it was a criminal proceeding. Now we can argue that the law should be changed so that public enquiries have the same legal weight as criminal trials, and that destroying evidence germane to them is an offence. But as stands, I think it falls short.
You keep pleading that you don't flag posts yet you have now admitted to flagging a post that was simply a post you disagreed with. It was not a post worthy of a flag. And if you are going to defend yourself by claiming the poster was nasty to Leon, have you ever seen any of Leon's posts after he's had an early start at Happy Hour?
The quotes are all ballsed.... G is not to blame.
Thanks @MightyAlex and @Mexicanpete owes me an apology as I have not nor would I at anytime flag anyone
Nothing to do with Mighty Alex, he has just put me right that the quotes are all over the place and although the flag was attributed to you, it wasn't you. I have already apologised but am happy to do so again.
I do not like any poster seeking the banning of another or indeed others
This site is moderated appropriately and mindful of legalities
If you so dislike a post or poster just move on to the next post
As the site has survived for so long the moderators must be on to something. My perception is the disagreements are becoming more visceral and the posters noticeably angrier. I'm not sure the moderators will want to, but, IMO to coddle posters who just rage at others is to allow the forum to devolve and then majority will leave.
To be fair to the site I've not noticed posters being angrier than usual or angrier than elsewhere. It's still a site where an uncommitted middle exists who back people up against unbalanced attacks.
(I messed up the quotes in that post - it was from Nick Palmer rather than Alex)
Think a bodged it back. It could just be my perception of today's thread skewing memories, seemed pretty convivial for new years.
Have to say I'm really enjoying Elon Musk trolling the Labour government and ministers. It's very enjoyable seeing the boot on the other foot after 14 years of Labour surrogates in the BBC, charities and think tanks attacking the Tory government under the guise of neutrality. Hope he keepis it up and uses the giant bully pulpit of Twitter to constantly hurt Labour and Starmer.
Are you also enjoying Musk's recent membership of the Tommy Robinson fan club?
I'm not really that fussed, as long as it hurts Labour and contributes their demise. The party that covers up rape gangs because they need their votes, seems like a solid brand for them.
Shame on you Max.
Tommy Robinson very nearly derailed one criminal trial of some of the rapists with his antics. Thus showing that he couldn't give a stuff about the victims because if that trial had been derailed they would either have seen the rapists go free or have to go through the whole ghastly experience of giving evidence all over again.
He doesn't give two hoots about children who are sexually abused. He uses it as away of grifting money from deluded supporters and attacking Muslims and people from Pakistan. He's a tawdry racist and Musk supporting him without bothering to research the reality of the man speaks very ill of him.
And yet if it were up to the likes of @bondegezou the whole thing would never have come to light and all of the people trying to whistleblow would have been shut down and threatened. The rape gangs would still be out there continuing with tacit support from the police and Labour councils to avoid "community tensions". It's the establishment that covered it up and is trying it's hardest to keep the story out of the media to protect themselves for all of the failures. So if Musk is ruffling their feathers then more power to him. Every single person who was involved in covering up the rape gangs or thought that the cover up was "justified" in the name of "community relations" should not only be nowhere near any kind of power, they should be in jail for a very, very long time.
Labour is protecting their own councillors and voters by covering it up and if Musk makes some of their lives more difficult or difficult enough that they top themselves then that's a good outcome. They oversaw the rape and coverup of thousands of girls being raped because the rapists were Muslim and they didn't want to upset Muslim voters. In any other country all of those people responsible would be hounded to suicide, here we just tut at the people trying to get them put in prison.
If you are going to make unpleasant accusations, what about you try to explain yourself, Max? In what way would the likes of me have stopped this coming to light? What makes you think that I would cover up horrendous illegal activity like this? How am I responsible for any of this or anything like this?
Because it was people like you who covered it up. Can you honestly, really honestly, look back and say that you would have been a whistle blower had you seen what was going on? This is your ilk that has covered it up in the name of "community relations" and they looked the other way or in some cases prosecuted parents who wanted their children out of the hands of these rapists. I don't believe, from the posts you have written on here, that you would have been a whistle blower. In fact I believe you would have been an active participant in the cover up and justified it as being a "lesser evil" than "racists" targeting Muslims who perpetrated this evil.
Who knows what other people would do, but you're leveling a pretty harsh accusation.
Yes, I realise it's a harsh accusation but he's also the guy who attempts to shut down all discussion of the lab leak,
(snip)
Rubbish. He did not ''attempt to shut down all discussion of the lab leak". He had a different view on it that you and Leon, and argued his view just as passionately as you two did.
No I mean from at the time of the pandemic when he was shutting down the discussion as "racist" and "listen to the experts and stfu" after that dodgy letter in the Lancet.
I honestly cannot remember that, but it was crazy times. However: are you sure you are not shutting down debate now with your absolute 100% certainty that it was them evil Chinese in their lab?
Not shutting it down, I just think that people who are adamant it wasn't a lab leak are part of the establishment who would be quite happy to cover things up. I've always said I'm open to the idea of it not being a lab leak, I just don't see these outlandish "a bat kissed a pangolin and then a Chinese guy had sex with the pangolin" ideas as realistic.
I believe I've seen him write posts where he says it could be a lab leak, but he thinks, on the balance of probabilities, it was a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I daresay he'll correct me if I'm wrong.
The problem is people like Leon, who are so incredibly adamant, in their 'expert' view, that it was a lab leak, that anyone who argues it may not have been sound entrenched the other way.
My own somewhat controversial view: we'll probably never know for sure where it originated, and it does not matter much. It could have come from either the wet market or lab; so in future we need to try to ensure that it cannot occur in either again. Close the wet markets and similar, and tighten restrictions and procedures at labs.
I recently had a walk around a wet market and frankly we're lucky we haven't something much worse than Covid out of one. Perhaps a sensible first step would not be to have any wet markets close to pathogen labs...
I always thought that the lab leak was most likely to have occurred via illicit sales of animals from the lab to the wet market, so that both were involved in the origin of the virus.
Unfortunately, China's preoccupation with saving face means that we will never have the rigorous investigation into the origins of the virus that we would expect to have in a democratic country.
Why on Earth would a top scientific research lab break the most basic rules to sell animals to a wet market for piddling amounts of money?
The lab itself wouldn't be doing it, but low paid junior staff in the lab might do so.
And nothing bad happened, right up to the one incident where something bad happened.
That's the same calculation that is behind every unnatural disaster.
Indeed.
That @bondegezou can't comprehend why people might engage in such corruption, which is rampant in parts of the world, rather puts into question his entire judgment on the probabilities on this subject.
When you're ruling out something that is common as "why would it happen" then the rest of your logic utterly falls apart.
Please provide evidence that lab civet theft is common.
Of course there is corruption in the world, but try to come up with some sort of vaguely plausible or evidence-based corruption. To the best of our knowledge, there were no viruses in the Wuhan Institute that could be ancestral to SARS-CoV-2. There were no animal tests going on of anything that could be ancestral to SARS-CoV-2. The Institute and the wet market are on opposite sides of the city, so even if anything infected got out, you have to explain how it gets to the other side of the city without infecting anything along the way.
We know the wet market sources animals from the wild. We know wild animals sometimes carry bugs we’ve not encountered before. So, what is more likely? Some hare-brained animal theft scheme from the hardest place to nick animals in the city, or a wild animal with a cough?
OK, jumping into Leon mode here, he has called out your comments on the location of the lab (other side of the city) as a proven lie. You didn't reply to his rebuttal then - are you insisting that the lab was on the other side of the city?
I don’t generally waste time rebutting Leon’s ravings. I’d be here all day.
However, as you have asked politely, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab people generally people put forth as a putative source, is on the other side of the city to the wet market.
There is another research building near the wet market that some lab theory enthusiasts leapt on as a solution to this problem to their theory. I try not to spend too much time considering what is in Leon’s mind, but I think that’s the place he was talking about. The only problem is that all the other parts of the theory then don’t work. That place wasn’t doing coronavirus research.
Just passing by. Checked your endless screed of effete fibs. Max has identified you correctly as a liar, a fraud and a pathetic shill. I didn't feel a need to add to it
However this one lie, that you just made, stood out as so utterly blatant I had to step in
"That place [the Wuhan CDC] wasn’t doing coronavirus research"
It was
"At least two institutions in Wuhan work on coronaviruses: the Wuhan CDC and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The WIV houses several laboratory complexes"
The Wuhan CDC kept bats, it was part of the overall work on coronaviruses, and it was 300 yards from the market, and it functioned at a BSL-2 safety level, regarded as "Wild West" by Jeremy Farrar, then of the Wellcome Institute
This is a paper that strrves to prove Zoonosis in 2021. But they admit the truth, unlike you
And now I shall step out again. Busy times! Happy New Year to all PBers
hahahah you flagged it
I flagged it. You're being an antagonistic prig. The site is becoming virulent and most of the nasties need to stop or leave.
I do not like any poster seeking the banning of another or indeed others
This site is moderated appropriately and mindful of legalities
If you so dislike a post or poster just move on to the next post
As the site has survived for so long the moderators must be on to something. My perception is the disagreements are becoming more visceral and the posters noticeably angrier. I'm not sure the moderators will want to, but, IMO to coddle posters who just rage at others is to allow the forum to devolve and then majority will leave.
I agree the site is getting quite visceral and it may well prove an issue going forward, as I just cannot see things getting better with Musk and Trump in the US
You keep pleading that you don't flag posts yet you have now admitted to flagging a post that was simply a post you disagreed with. It was not a post worthy of a flag. And if you are going to defend yourself by claiming the poster was nasty to Leon, have you ever seen any of Leon's posts after he's had an early start at Happy Hour?
Could someone in her party send her the link? Or tell her about the Drew Review and Operation Stovewood by the NCA. Or the Jay report or what Dame Louise Casey has done?
Or remind her of what her fellow Cabinet Minister, Suellla Braverman, the Home Secretary to do in May 2023 when the final IICSA Report came out?
This is bandwagon jumping of the most tawdry kind instead of action - which she could have been asking for when she was an actual Cabinet Minister.
What magnificent results have these reports and enquiries produced?
The Drew Review was used to improve the approach of South Yorkshire Police.
Operation Stovewood: run by the NCA is the largest criminal enforcement investigation into non-family CSE. It has identified 1100 victims, has 50 investigations outstanding and has led to 36 convictions.
The Jay Report was used to improve services within Rotherham Council which was put into special measures. The council leader and head of children's services left.
It is something. By no means enough, of course.
But what actual use will yet another inquiry costing millions, reporting in a decade or so and telling us stuff we already know be? Because my suspicion is that this is not really about joining dots or understanding the manifold causes of male sexual violence - let alone taking effective action against it - but political point-scoring and a disguised fight about immigration, in which the needs of the victims - girls mostly - will largely be ignored.
We definitely dont need an enquiry....what we need is a police investigation and where people whether policeman, councillors or local government people or priests etc have covered up sexual abuse of young people then they need to be tried in a court of law for at least perversion of justice.
Enough of enquiries as we have seen with the PO one it is a way of letting the people responsible off
Here's the thing.
The bar for criminal prosecution is a high one, and (with few relatively few exceptions) requires mens rea - i.e. a guilty mind.
Inaction - even when it has terrible consequences - is very rarely a criminal offence.
Now there may be individuals in the care service or the council in Rotherham and Rochdale whose behaviour stepped over the line. But those people are inevitably low level, and were almost certainly carrying out the wishes of their bosses.
So you have a fundamental problem: the instructions (i.e. to care about "community relations" above all else) came from people without specific knowledge, and who therefore almost certainly have a defence. While those who behaviour stepped over the line are junior, and who were "just following orders".
There is an easier case to be made for criminal behaviour and charges to be brought in the Post Office case, because a large number of the legal profession chose to deliberately withhold evidence from the defence in court cases, to the extent that it would come under the heading of perverting the course of justice.
I was in particular minded of the one who destroyed all the records for the investigator for the Jay report and was quite happy and smug to tell the investigator so....if that is not perversion of the course of justice I don't know what is
I think the Jay Report was set up under the auspices of the Inquiries Act of 2005, and you would therefore struggle to make a case that it was a criminal proceeding. Now we can argue that the law should be changed so that public enquiries have the same legal weight as criminal trials, and that destroying evidence germane to them is an offence. But as stands, I think it falls short.
IIRC the smug person in question said that the destruction of records meant that prosecutions or disciplinary action was now impossible.
You keep pleading that you don't flag posts yet you have now admitted to flagging a post that was simply a post you disagreed with. It was not a post worthy of a flag. And if you are going to defend yourself by claiming the poster was nasty to Leon, have you ever seen any of Leon's posts after he's had an early start at Happy Hour?
The quotes are all ballsed.... G is not to blame.
Thanks @MightyAlex and @Mexicanpete owes me an apology as I have not nor would I at anytime flag anyone
Nothing to do with Mighty Alex, he has just put me right that the quotes are all over the place and although the flag was attributed to you, it wasn't you. I have already apologised but am happy to do so again.
In the least surprising news of 2025, Sara Sharif's murderer has been attacked in prison. One is not sympathetic but the state ought to keep inmates safe, which means safe from each other.
By coincidence, Rory Stewart spoke of having seen this of key in the start/end of year The Rest is Politics (spoilers: Labour should stop offending groups with civil service-suggested policies; Ed Davey should find a serious purpose for the LibDems (is a return for the newly jobless Nick Clegg on the cards?); Kemi should own and move on from the previous government's actions). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwBO8nrzCt8
Somehow I suspect the Tories aren't likely to take advice from Campbell that they should spend more time taking ownership and apologising for the current state of the country :-)
I hadn't seen the news that Clegg had lost his highly remunerated position running the corporate whitewash for a company that has monetised teen suicide and hate speech, to name a few of its many sins.
Financial Times @FT Meta global affairs chief Nick Clegg to be replaced by Republican Joel Kaplan
Have to say I'm really enjoying Elon Musk trolling the Labour government and ministers. It's very enjoyable seeing the boot on the other foot after 14 years of Labour surrogates in the BBC, charities and think tanks attacking the Tory government under the guise of neutrality. Hope he keepis it up and uses the giant bully pulpit of Twitter to constantly hurt Labour and Starmer.
Are you also enjoying Musk's recent membership of the Tommy Robinson fan club?
I'm not really that fussed, as long as it hurts Labour and contributes their demise. The party that covers up rape gangs because they need their votes, seems like a solid brand for them.
Shame on you Max.
Tommy Robinson very nearly derailed one criminal trial of some of the rapists with his antics. Thus showing that he couldn't give a stuff about the victims because if that trial had been derailed they would either have seen the rapists go free or have to go through the whole ghastly experience of giving evidence all over again.
He doesn't give two hoots about children who are sexually abused. He uses it as away of grifting money from deluded supporters and attacking Muslims and people from Pakistan. He's a tawdry racist and Musk supporting him without bothering to research the reality of the man speaks very ill of him.
And yet if it were up to the likes of @bondegezou the whole thing would never have come to light and all of the people trying to whistleblow would have been shut down and threatened. The rape gangs would still be out there continuing with tacit support from the police and Labour councils to avoid "community tensions". It's the establishment that covered it up and is trying it's hardest to keep the story out of the media to protect themselves for all of the failures. So if Musk is ruffling their feathers then more power to him. Every single person who was involved in covering up the rape gangs or thought that the cover up was "justified" in the name of "community relations" should not only be nowhere near any kind of power, they should be in jail for a very, very long time.
Labour is protecting their own councillors and voters by covering it up and if Musk makes some of their lives more difficult or difficult enough that they top themselves then that's a good outcome. They oversaw the rape and coverup of thousands of girls being raped because the rapists were Muslim and they didn't want to upset Muslim voters. In any other country all of those people responsible would be hounded to suicide, here we just tut at the people trying to get them put in prison.
If you are going to make unpleasant accusations, what about you try to explain yourself, Max? In what way would the likes of me have stopped this coming to light? What makes you think that I would cover up horrendous illegal activity like this? How am I responsible for any of this or anything like this?
Because it was people like you who covered it up. Can you honestly, really honestly, look back and say that you would have been a whistle blower had you seen what was going on? This is your ilk that has covered it up in the name of "community relations" and they looked the other way or in some cases prosecuted parents who wanted their children out of the hands of these rapists. I don't believe, from the posts you have written on here, that you would have been a whistle blower. In fact I believe you would have been an active participant in the cover up and justified it as being a "lesser evil" than "racists" targeting Muslims who perpetrated this evil.
Who knows what other people would do, but you're leveling a pretty harsh accusation.
Yes, I realise it's a harsh accusation but he's also the guy who attempts to shut down all discussion of the lab leak,
(snip)
Rubbish. He did not ''attempt to shut down all discussion of the lab leak". He had a different view on it that you and Leon, and argued his view just as passionately as you two did.
No I mean from at the time of the pandemic when he was shutting down the discussion as "racist" and "listen to the experts and stfu" after that dodgy letter in the Lancet.
I honestly cannot remember that, but it was crazy times. However: are you sure you are not shutting down debate now with your absolute 100% certainty that it was them evil Chinese in their lab?
Not shutting it down, I just think that people who are adamant it wasn't a lab leak are part of the establishment who would be quite happy to cover things up. I've always said I'm open to the idea of it not being a lab leak, I just don't see these outlandish "a bat kissed a pangolin and then a Chinese guy had sex with the pangolin" ideas as realistic.
I believe I've seen him write posts where he says it could be a lab leak, but he thinks, on the balance of probabilities, it was a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I daresay he'll correct me if I'm wrong.
The problem is people like Leon, who are so incredibly adamant, in their 'expert' view, that it was a lab leak, that anyone who argues it may not have been sound entrenched the other way.
My own somewhat controversial view: we'll probably never know for sure where it originated, and it does not matter much. It could have come from either the wet market or lab; so in future we need to try to ensure that it cannot occur in either again. Close the wet markets and similar, and tighten restrictions and procedures at labs.
I recently had a walk around a wet market and frankly we're lucky we haven't something much worse than Covid out of one. Perhaps a sensible first step would not be to have any wet markets close to pathogen labs...
I always thought that the lab leak was most likely to have occurred via illicit sales of animals from the lab to the wet market, so that both were involved in the origin of the virus.
Unfortunately, China's preoccupation with saving face means that we will never have the rigorous investigation into the origins of the virus that we would expect to have in a democratic country.
Why on Earth would a top scientific research lab break the most basic rules to sell animals to a wet market for piddling amounts of money?
The lab itself wouldn't be doing it, but low paid junior staff in the lab might do so.
And nothing bad happened, right up to the one incident where something bad happened.
That's the same calculation that is behind every unnatural disaster.
Indeed.
That @bondegezou can't comprehend why people might engage in such corruption, which is rampant in parts of the world, rather puts into question his entire judgment on the probabilities on this subject.
When you're ruling out something that is common as "why would it happen" then the rest of your logic utterly falls apart.
Please provide evidence that lab civet theft is common.
Of course there is corruption in the world, but try to come up with some sort of vaguely plausible or evidence-based corruption. To the best of our knowledge, there were no viruses in the Wuhan Institute that could be ancestral to SARS-CoV-2. There were no animal tests going on of anything that could be ancestral to SARS-CoV-2. The Institute and the wet market are on opposite sides of the city, so even if anything infected got out, you have to explain how it gets to the other side of the city without infecting anything along the way.
We know the wet market sources animals from the wild. We know wild animals sometimes carry bugs we’ve not encountered before. So, what is more likely? Some hare-brained animal theft scheme from the hardest place to nick animals in the city, or a wild animal with a cough?
OK, jumping into Leon mode here, he has called out your comments on the location of the lab (other side of the city) as a proven lie. You didn't reply to his rebuttal then - are you insisting that the lab was on the other side of the city?
I don’t generally waste time rebutting Leon’s ravings. I’d be here all day.
However, as you have asked politely, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab people generally people put forth as a putative source, is on the other side of the city to the wet market.
There is another research building near the wet market that some lab theory enthusiasts leapt on as a solution to this problem to their theory. I try not to spend too much time considering what is in Leon’s mind, but I think that’s the place he was talking about. The only problem is that all the other parts of the theory then don’t work. That place wasn’t doing coronavirus research.
Just passing by. Checked your endless screed of effete fibs. Max has identified you correctly as a liar, a fraud and a pathetic shill. I didn't feel a need to add to it
However this one lie, that you just made, stood out as so utterly blatant I had to step in
"That place [the Wuhan CDC] wasn’t doing coronavirus research"
It was
"At least two institutions in Wuhan work on coronaviruses: the Wuhan CDC and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The WIV houses several laboratory complexes"
The Wuhan CDC kept bats, it was part of the overall work on coronaviruses, and it was 300 yards from the market, and it functioned at a BSL-2 safety level, regarded as "Wild West" by Jeremy Farrar, then of the Wellcome Institute
This is a paper that strrves to prove Zoonosis in 2021. But they admit the truth, unlike you
And now I shall step out again. Busy times! Happy New Year to all PBers
hahahah you flagged it
I flagged it. You're being an antagonistic prig. The site is becoming virulent and most of the nasties need to stop or leave.
I do not like any poster seeking the banning of another or indeed others
This site is moderated appropriately and mindful of legalities
If you so dislike a post or poster just move on to the next post
As the site has survived for so long the moderators must be on to something. My perception is the disagreements are becoming more visceral and the posters noticeably angrier. I'm not sure the moderators will want to, but, IMO to coddle posters who just rage at others is to allow the forum to devolve and then majority will leave.
I can remember it being occasionally pretty angry in 2010. So no change really.
Does he want to start a war with the British people?
I hate to stick up for Sir Queue Skipper, but who waits 3 hours to trundle down a hill in a wicker basket?
its more than a trundle, I have done it a couple of times, and never had to queue.
Its often done as part of a package, a bit like the fastpass at Disney, but I just took a taxi.
Madeira is a lovely place, and their Carnival is the best in europe. It helps if you like walking, as there are fantastic views
My wife and I have done it and cannot remember having to queue for it
It is good fun
Yes we did it too last Spring and did queue but not for too long, Starmer just put his kids on it anyway and got driven down the hill by car
Yv Madeira has one big problem. The Airport. You need strong nerves on a windy day.. sometimes you end up being landed in Portugal and waiting for calmer days....
To the best of my knowledge Funchal has never seen a major prang, in spite of the cliff six inches from your wing-tip. Unlike the more commodious Tenerife which is the current world record holder (583). I doubt that will ever be beaten, but if it were my money would be on San Francisco, with two pairs of active runways at right-angles to each other. The more you think about foreign airports the more you dream about a staycation.
Here's a link to the notorious Funchal Airport Disaster of 1977.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Does he want to start a war with the British people?
I hate to stick up for Sir Queue Skipper, but who waits 3 hours to trundle down a hill in a wicker basket?
its more than a trundle, I have done it a couple of times, and never had to queue.
Its often done as part of a package, a bit like the fastpass at Disney, but I just took a taxi.
Madeira is a lovely place, and their Carnival is the best in europe. It helps if you like walking, as there are fantastic views
My wife and I have done it and cannot remember having to queue for it
It is good fun
Yes we did it too last Spring and did queue but not for too long, Starmer just put his kids on it anyway and got driven down the hill by car
Yv Madeira has one big problem. The Airport. You need strong nerves on a windy day.. sometimes you end up being landed in Portugal and waiting for calmer days....
To the best of my knowledge Funchal has never seen a major prang, in spite of the cliff six inches from your wing-tip. Unlike the more commodious Tenerife which is the current world record holder (583). I doubt that will ever be beaten, but if it were my money would be on San Francisco, with two pairs of active runways at right-angles to each other. The more you think about foreign airports the more you dream about a staycation.
Plus SF's two main (parallel) runways are too close to each other, fog is not uncommon, and it's pretty high traffic.
If you listen to ATC near miss recirdings on youtube it's not hard to think that US ATC is often overloaded and prone to sloppy nonstandard practices compared to international norms, but that could very easily be sampling bias of course.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Let us know if you bump into Rory Stewart while you're there :-)
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Let us know if you bump into Rory Stewart while you're there :-)
Will do. But I won't have my phone. Amazing how much trepidation there is around that... We didn't have a phone till I was Seven. Was in my forties when I got a mobile. FOMO.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I think it too early to guess at odds -- seriously -- for the 2028 presidential election. But if you have fun doing it, go ahead.
As I understand it, most of Britain doesn't get enough snow for many of you to use a traditional American humble brag: "And we had to walk miles through the snow to get to school. Uphill both ways."
(He is, I think, one of the best examples of this oddity in American politics: One can be called a "progressive" for advocating ideas and technologies that are old, old, old.)
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Not in the Flatlands is it?
No. Almost Scotland.
Ah, OK.
I just had a Google and was slightly surprised just how many Buddhist centres there are. The Eskdalemuir one is probably the best known (?) but there seem to be quite a few now.
We have one locally in the middle of a bog - they do group retreats but I think the silent ones tend to be solitary.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Let us know if you bump into Rory Stewart while you're there :-)
All the best.
A week is quite a big chunk if it is your first. Are you fasting too?
I'd say take a book for the in between times, one that has enough content that needs to steep. And things for focus.
Do let us know how it goes, and the challenges you find.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Not in the Flatlands is it?
No. Almost Scotland.
Ah, OK.
I just had a Google and was slightly surprised just how many Buddhist centres there are. The Eskdalemuir one is probably the best known (?) but there seem to be quite a few now.
We have one locally in the middle of a bog - they do group retreats but I think the silent ones tend to be solitary.
Hope it goes well!
Thanks. It's not actually in a Buddhist centre. We're taking over a country house. But yes. There are loads. All slightly different.
I think it too early to guess at odds -- seriously -- for the 2028 presidential election. But if you have fun doing it, go ahead.
As I understand it, most of Britain doesn't get enough snow for many of you to use a traditional American humble brag: "And we had to walk miles through the snow to get to school. Uphill both ways."
(He is, I think, one of the best examples of this oddity in American politics: One can be called a "progressive" for advocating ideas and technologies that are old, old, old.)
On 1 January 2025, Bulgaria and Romania fully become part of Schengen, strengthening the Schengen area that will also be celebrating its 40th anniversary.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I’m most of the way through and I agree. Redmayne is excellent, and the series achieves what the book does in having you rooting for both the Jackal and his hunter at the same time.
A propos of nowt, I'm going on a week's silent retreat tomorrow. 4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half). I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
Let us know if you bump into Rory Stewart while you're there :-)
All the best.
A week is quite a big chunk if it is your first. Are you fasting too?
I'd say take a book for the in between times, one that has enough content that needs to steep. And things for focus.
Do let us know how it goes, and the challenges you find.
It kinda is but it isn't. Been on retreats before, but never silent. We always spent most of the rest of the time verbally "processing". But this time we can't. Eeek! Cheers for your kind thoughts.
PS. I'm only fasting in the sense of being vegan for the week. Three meals a day is treble for me!
Speaker Mike Johnson had appeared to be on a glide path to keeping his post, but he has to persuade nearly every Republican in the House to back him again when they vote on Friday. He has already lost one, and other hard-right conservatives have declined to say how they will vote.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I’m most of the way through and I agree. Redmayne is excellent, and the series achieves what the book does in having you rooting for both the Jackal and his hunter at the same time.
On the flip side give Black Doves a big swerve. We got through episode two this afternoon and it's just ridiculous. Completely unbelievable all the way through and does all of the standard Netflix tropes of having a female lead that is a complete girl boss, half the characters are gay/lesbian, there's action scenes that are completely ridiculous and veer into the "is this a spoof series?" territory which my wife had to Google to make sure it wasn't.
"Choosing a new speaker is the first order of business in the House after the new Congress convenes. It happens even before newly elected representatives are sworn in, and must be resolved before anything else is addressed."
NY Times
Eh?
There's a vote before the lawmakers are sworn in? Only in America.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
If you want an American election to bet on now, there is the election of the Speaker of the House tomorrow: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/02/mike-johnson-house-speaker-vote-lose/ "House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) appears to be in some trouble heading into Friday’s speaker election, given his compromises with Democrats on things such as funding the government and Ukraine’s war defense. And he faces this peril despite recently getting the backing of Trump. That raises the possibility that Trump could fail in another early effort to bend his party to his will."
(I agree with Aaron Blake's analysis, and note that he does not make a prediction. However, I do think he might agree with me that Johnson is unlikely to win on the first ballot.)
As the site has survived for so long the moderators must be on to something. My perception is the disagreements are becoming more visceral and the posters noticeably angrier. I'm not sure the moderators will want to, but, IMO to coddle posters who just rage at others is to allow the forum to devolve and then majority will leave.
The change is because before the election there was fairly wide agreement that the government was crap and most right/centre right people accepted it, now with Labour in power the government is just as bad if not worse and those on the left don't want to admit it when we on the right point it out. They're in a constant state of denial about how shit Labour are and the lack of acceptance around it has made PB more combative and it will remain that way until they accept it.
Truthfully the Conservatives had 14 years to alienate most people, you can't expect the incumbents to have irritated enough PBers for a consensus to form. I do think this is a very centrist government so extreme ire for a year or so won't be taken too seriously here.
Maybe the external social media environment is adding to the rage. We all live in our algorithmic worlds and its a little too easy to see open disagreement as a threat to a carefully constructed ideology.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I initially thought he'd be a 007 candidate too, but I think he's too slight and his body language is off. Compare his watermelon scene to Edward Fox's
Redmayne, despite his age (42) still has the body language of a younger man with bits flapping. Fox was 36 when he filmed the original but his body language was mature: stiffer and more precise, a vice to Redmayne's reed. Although I think Redmayne has the potential to be a better Bond than Aaron-Taylor Johnson, he will really have to put more muscle on and work on his body movement.
If you want an American election to bet on now, there is the election of the Speaker of the House tomorrow: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/02/mike-johnson-house-speaker-vote-lose/ "House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) appears to be in some trouble heading into Friday’s speaker election, given his compromises with Democrats on things such as funding the government and Ukraine’s war defense. And he faces this peril despite recently getting the backing of Trump. That raises the possibility that Trump could fail in another early effort to bend his party to his will."
(I agree with Aaron Blake's analysis, and note that he does not make a prediction. However, I do think he might agree with me that Johnson is unlikely to win on the first ballot.)
Victoria Spartz may have quit the Republican party, but I suspect she'll still back Johnson for Speaker, given his support of aid to Ukraine, so the maths may be a little more in his favour than they appear.
More of an issue for the Republicans would be if Elise Stefanik's Congressional District were to fall in the upcoming Special Election. If that were to happen, then the House would be something like 218-1-216.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
"Starmer is back in the headlines for turning up at a toboggan run and being ushered past a queue of holidaymakers who had been waiting for a reported three hours. While their teenage kids took the ride, Starmer was then driven down the hill to meet them at the end. According to observers, a crescendo of ‘boos’ went up, along with cries of “get to the back of the queue!” The Prime Minister’s spokesman claimed that the decision to usher the PM past the queue was made by Madeira police."
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
In the least surprising news of 2025, Sara Sharif's murderer has been attacked in prison. One is not sympathetic but the state ought to keep inmates safe, which means safe from each other.
By coincidence, Rory Stewart spoke of having seen this of key in the start/end of year The Rest is Politics (spoilers: Labour should stop offending groups with civil service-suggested policies; Ed Davey should find a serious purpose for the LibDems (is a return for the newly jobless Nick Clegg on the cards?); Kemi should own and move on from the previous government's actions). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwBO8nrzCt8
Somehow I suspect the Tories aren't likely to take advice from Campbell that they should spend more time taking ownership and apologising for the current state of the country :-)
I hadn't seen the news that Clegg had lost his highly remunerated position running the corporate whitewash for a company that has monetised teen suicide and hate speech, to name a few of its many sins.
Victim of Zuckerberg’s rather amusing and increasingly desparate attempts to kiss Donald Trump’s arse for the past couple of months, as everyone around Trump tells him to avoid the two-faced Facebook boss like the plague.
A researcher who worked for the UK government tried to whistleblow about the grooming gangs but was sent to diversity training course instead
You cannot make this stuff up. We are beyond parody and satire
Yes, if you ignore “Tommy”, who many Americans don’t seem to realise is about about as popular in Britian as David Duke is over there, the wider abuse story gaining international traction is potentially going to be a problem for the government.
It adds to the stories from the summer about freedom of speech issues and exemplary sentences given out for internet posts. The coverup stories sound horrific, imagine going to find your underage daughter who was being abused, and ending up being the one arrested as the abusers were ignored by authorities.
Does he want to start a war with the British people?
I hate to stick up for Sir Queue Skipper, but who waits 3 hours to trundle down a hill in a wicker basket?
its more than a trundle, I have done it a couple of times, and never had to queue.
Its often done as part of a package, a bit like the fastpass at Disney, but I just took a taxi.
Madeira is a lovely place, and their Carnival is the best in europe. It helps if you like walking, as there are fantastic views
My wife and I have done it and cannot remember having to queue for it
It is good fun
Yes we did it too last Spring and did queue but not for too long, Starmer just put his kids on it anyway and got driven down the hill by car
Yv Madeira has one big problem. The Airport. You need strong nerves on a windy day.. sometimes you end up being landed in Portugal and waiting for calmer days....
Better by sea
A friend set off in his yacht to spend winter in the Caribbean. Got as far as Funchal and decided it was plenty good enough. Whether this reflects the superiority of Madeira over Antigua, or just the extra distance involved, I couldn't say.
Given WSC’s fondness for the place, I’d have thought every Conservative would wish to go to Madeira and enjoy afternoon tea at Reid’s.
The main evening news here was led by the death of Dame Tariana Turia who left Labour in 2004 and founded the Māori Party which she led for a decade. In 2008 her party backed Key’s National Government and she got a Ministerial post in 2010.
She was an interesting character whose political journey over a 20 year period is fascinating.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
So in simple PLAIN ENGLISH that even the Reform boneheads and Kemi can understand the situation is this.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Given how many decades this has been on the too-difficult list, the right way forward is probably something like a short Royal Commission, with cross-party agreement to implement whatever is proposed.
Alternatively, a government with a large majority should be able to burn a fair amount of political capital in implementing the scheme of their choice - except that they’ve already burned an enormous amount of that on fiddling around with winter fuel allowances, VAT on tuition fees, land tax on farms etc, that they don’t have as much as a government six months in with a three-figure majority should have.
So Streeting, who claimed during the election to have a plan for social care (like so many others), will now be kicking the whole matter into some very long grass, with a commission that won’t finally report until 2028 with any implementation now falling into the next parliament?
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
So in simple PLAIN ENGLISH that even the Reform boneheads and Kemi can understand the situation is this.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Good morning
The problem is no.matter how much you 'shout' about Musk he is not going away and it is likely to accelerate post Trump's inauguration
The big question in politics today is just how public opinion views Musks interventions, and how much it affects Farage and Reform
As far as Kemi is concerned she has to distance herself from Farage, but also focus on attacking this highly unpopular Labour government that saw 20 of its councillors defect yesterday in disgust at the leadership of Labour
So Streeting, who claimed during the election to have a plan for social care (like so many others), will now be kicking the whole matter into some very long grass, with a commission that won’t finally report until 2028 with any implementation now falling into the next parliament?
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
So in simple PLAIN ENGLISH that even the Reform boneheads and Kemi can understand the situation is this.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Good morning
The problem is no.matter how much you 'shout' about Musk he is not going away and it is likely to accelerate post Trump's inauguration
The big question in politics today is just how public opinion views Musks interventions, and how much it affects Farage and Reform
As far as Kemi is concerned she has to distance herself from Farage, but also focus on attacking this highly unpopular Labour government that saw 20 of its councillors defect yesterday in disgust at the leadership of Labour
I wonder if we'll see more council deflections if Labour councillors fear a blood bath. Going independent is a very big step - they must really not fancy their chances under Starmer.
"Choosing a new speaker is the first order of business in the House after the new Congress convenes. It happens even before newly elected representatives are sworn in, and must be resolved before anything else is addressed."
NY Times
Eh?
There's a vote before the lawmakers are sworn in? Only in America.
So Streeting, who claimed during the election to have a plan for social care (like so many others), will now be kicking the whole matter into some very long grass, with a commission that won’t finally report until 2028 with any implementation now falling into the next parliament?
It's never going to happen
It really highlights that Labour came in to power with no plan whatsoever, Lots of slogans but nothing to back them up.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
So in simple PLAIN ENGLISH that even the Reform boneheads and Kemi can understand the situation is this.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Good morning
The problem is no.matter how much you 'shout' about Musk he is not going away and it is likely to accelerate post Trump's inauguration
The big question in politics today is just how public opinion views Musks interventions, and how much it affects Farage and Reform
As far as Kemi is concerned she has to distance herself from Farage, but also focus on attacking this highly unpopular Labour government that saw 20 of its councillors defect yesterday in disgust at the leadership of Labour
I wonder if we'll see more council deflections if Labour councillors fear a blood bath. Going independent is a very big step - they must really not fancy their chances under Starmer.
The revolt is on the left, not on the right. The Broxtowe Independents want more spending not less. Similar the eye-rolling at Streetings antics.
We all know that Rome wasn't built in a day, but you can't win an election promising change then change next to nothing. Starmer is hobbled by his own innate conservatism and wooden style.
I am certain he will step down before 2029. My hunch is Rayner next PM. Watching her debate Badenoch or Farage would be epic.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Surely all she has to do is to call an enquiry into why the recommendations from the previous enquiry were not followed.
It's a test case for her, as to whether she is a serious politician or not.
Will she double down on oppositionalism, or we she work across party to address questions which she and her fellow ministers, and others from her party before her, failed to address.
Imo it probably *requires* a cross-party response.
If Kemi and the Conservatives are the party of the pensioners, as they seem to think, then she needs to address the issue of social care.
If Kemi wants a more rapid response, then let her put forward her proposals. Shit-slinging won't cut it.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I initially thought he'd be a 007 candidate too, but I think he's too slight and his body language is off. Compare his watermelon scene to Edward Fox's
Redmayne, despite his age (42) still has the body language of a younger man with bits flapping. Fox was 36 when he filmed the original but his body language was mature: stiffer and more precise, a vice to Redmayne's reed. Although I think Redmayne has the potential to be a better Bond than Aaron-Taylor Johnson, he will really have to put more muscle on and work on his body movement.
He’ll also have to work on not looking like he’s about to burst into tears.
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Well, just because the Tories did the wrong thing for 14 years doesn't mean they can't do the right thing now.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
It's not that there 'shouldn't be one' - it's that we've already had several, whose recommendations are yet to be fully implemented. And inquiries, done properly can take an absolute age and cost tens, in one case hundreds of millions of pounds.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
So in simple PLAIN ENGLISH that even the Reform boneheads and Kemi can understand the situation is this.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Good morning
The problem is no.matter how much you 'shout' about Musk he is not going away and it is likely to accelerate post Trump's inauguration
The big question in politics today is just how public opinion views Musks interventions, and how much it affects Farage and Reform
As far as Kemi is concerned she has to distance herself from Farage, but also focus on attacking this highly unpopular Labour government that saw 20 of its councillors defect yesterday in disgust at the leadership of Labour
I think the way to address Musk is to apply the law to him. He continues in personal and corporate violation of UK Court Orders in the UK Jurisdiction, just as he is or is on the verge of in other places (EU, Germany), and continues to make untrue, delusional statements attempting to interfere in other country's politics.
Along the way, we also need a tightening up of UK law around political contributions to make it more comprehensive and close down loopholes, primarily to deal with Putin and others and their information and hybrid operations.
It would be advantageous should such also catch Musk and his manipulations.
I think the challenge here will be the Starmer Government's lack of decisiveness, and their caution around Trump's potential random actions.
It remains possible that President Musk will be politically emasculated if Vice President Trump stages some sort of palace putsch to assert the initiative he has lost.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I initially thought he'd be a 007 candidate too, but I think he's too slight and his body language is off. Compare his watermelon scene to Edward Fox's
Redmayne, despite his age (42) still has the body language of a younger man with bits flapping. Fox was 36 when he filmed the original but his body language was mature: stiffer and more precise, a vice to Redmayne's reed. Although I think Redmayne has the potential to be a better Bond than Aaron-Taylor Johnson, he will really have to put more muscle on and work on his body movement.
That's really interesting - thank-you.
Has increasing the run length by a factor of 3-5 made it more flabby, or introduced too much padding?
Very awkward for Badenoch, calling for an inquiry when those who ran the previous inquiries your government commissioned into the same thing are accusing your government of failing to act on their recommendations.
Surely all she has to do is to call an enquiry into why the recommendations from the previous enquiry were not followed.
It's a test case for her, as to whether she is a serious politician or not.
Will she double down on oppositionalism, or we she work across party to address questions which she and her fellow ministers, and others from her party before her, failed to address.
Imo it probably *requires* a cross-party response.
If Kemi and the Conservatives are the party of the pensioners, as they seem to think, then she needs to address the issue of social care.
If Kemi wants a more rapid response, then let her put forward her proposals. Shit-slinging won't cut it.
This is the problem the Tories face. They have a leader who thinks we all just forget what she and her colleagues did. You can't take her or them seriously when they're denouncing the things they themselves have just been doing. The Phillips letter? Awful! The Solloway letter which said the same thing to the same council? How dare you mention that!
Comments
I agree the site is getting quite visceral and it may well prove an issue going forward, as I just cannot see things getting better with Musk and Trump in the US
It is not in my nature to flag anyone
@FT
Meta global affairs chief Nick Clegg to be replaced by Republican Joel Kaplan
https://x.com/FT/status/1874901274744746045
I can remember it being occasionally pretty angry in 2010. So no change really.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/02/ex-chief-prosecutor-rejects-musks-calls-for-new-child-abuse-inquiry
If you listen to ATC near miss recirdings on youtube it's not hard to think that US ATC is often overloaded and prone to sloppy nonstandard practices compared to international norms, but that could very easily be sampling bias of course.
4 1 and a half hour meditations per day. (And an optional extra hour and a half).
I normally don't say much but it'll be an interesting challenge.
But I won't have my phone.
Amazing how much trepidation there is around that...
We didn't have a phone till I was Seven.
Was in my forties when I got a mobile.
FOMO.
https://x.com/Doha104p3/status/1874911669845217606
As I understand it, most of Britain doesn't get enough snow for many of you to use a traditional American humble brag: "And we had to walk miles through the snow to get to school. Uphill both ways."
Apparently, the three-house millionaire will not be running, for which Americans, especially Democrats, can be grateful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
(He is, I think, one of the best examples of this oddity in American politics: One can be called a "progressive" for advocating ideas and technologies that are old, old, old.)
I just had a Google and was slightly surprised just how many Buddhist centres there are. The Eskdalemuir one is probably the best known (?) but there seem to be quite a few now.
We have one locally in the middle of a bog - they do group retreats but I think the silent ones tend to be solitary.
Hope it goes well!
A week is quite a big chunk if it is your first. Are you fasting too?
I'd say take a book for the in between times, one that has enough content that needs to steep. And things for focus.
Do let us know how it goes, and the challenges you find.
It's not actually in a Buddhist centre. We're taking over a country house.
But yes. There are loads. All slightly different.
We have Jeremy Corbyn.
https://commission.europa.eu/news/coming-eu-2025-2024-12-31_en
Been on retreats before, but never silent.
We always spent most of the rest of the time verbally "processing". But this time we can't. Eeek!
Cheers for your kind thoughts.
PS. I'm only fasting in the sense of being vegan for the week. Three meals a day is treble for me!
You just know he really wants to drop into a campaign rally on a jet-pack.
NY Times blog
NY Times
Eh?
There's a vote before the lawmakers are sworn in? Only in America.
An inquiry into what has gone on with these grooming gangs should be beyond party and I'm very surprised that Labour is so adamant there shouldn't be one....
"House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) appears to be in some trouble heading into Friday’s speaker election, given his compromises with Democrats on things such as funding the government and Ukraine’s war defense. And he faces this peril despite recently getting the backing of Trump. That raises the possibility that Trump could fail in another early effort to bend his party to his will."
(I agree with Aaron Blake's analysis, and note that he does not make a prediction. However, I do think he might agree with me that Johnson is unlikely to win on the first ballot.)
Maybe the external social media environment is adding to the rage. We all live in our algorithmic worlds and its a little too easy to see open disagreement as a threat to a carefully constructed ideology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCfwlcvU1KY
Redmayne, despite his age (42) still has the body language of a younger man with bits flapping. Fox was 36 when he filmed the original but his body language was mature: stiffer and more precise, a vice to Redmayne's reed. Although I think Redmayne has the potential to be a better Bond than Aaron-Taylor Johnson, he will really have to put more muscle on and work on his body movement.
More of an issue for the Republicans would be if Elise Stefanik's Congressional District were to fall in the upcoming Special Election. If that were to happen, then the House would be something like 218-1-216.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1874962325335322921
A researcher who worked for the UK government tried to whistleblow about the grooming gangs but was sent to diversity training course instead
You cannot make this stuff up. We are beyond parody and satire
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/starmers-queue-cutting-blunder-shows-he-isnt-very-good-at-politics/
The case of Rotherham and Rochdale shows Muslims exploit and rape underage girls.
yet
The case of Epstein doesn't show that rich and powerful men exploit and rape underage girls.
Despite, one would think, a far higher proportion of rich and powerful men having connections to Jeffrey Epstein, than Muslims to grooming gangs.
The real lesson is that if you give people (rich and powerful men, priests, certain communities) a pass, then they will act up.
This would very much be at the more complex end given if we just count the police forces and councils already criticised in previous inquiries or reports, that's already several. Before we get to other allegations that might be made about failures to tackle abuse to see their merit. It would have to hear from thousands of individuals, and the Maxwellisation process would be something to behold.
If we're doing that then we could be waiting another decade for its conclusions, which may well end up saying the same thing as the ones we've conducted already. And of course like most inquiries, if it doesn't say the explicit thing those loudly calling for it want it to say (and these things usually don't as even when scathing are careful with their words) - it'll be rejected by them as a whitewash.
So if you've already had previous (damning) inquiries and reports which the previous government didn't act on. Then it's on those to explain why the previous policy of local inquiries should be changed, past reports should be thrown in the bin and start up a process that's going to be very long, gruelling with no guarantee it'll give you the answers you want.
If it's because one can point to real flaws in the methodology and conclusions of the past inquiries and reports, fine. If it's "because Elon Musk is mouthing off about it online", it's a chance to bash the government, and you're worried by being outflanked by the far right's ability to say things without having to follow through on consequences, then that's not really serious or useful.
I don't think I've heard Badenoch make the former case, and if so why her views have suddenly changed from previous policy.
It adds to the stories from the summer about freedom of speech issues and exemplary sentences given out for internet posts. The coverup stories sound horrific, imagine going to find your underage daughter who was being abused, and ending up being the one arrested as the abusers were ignored by authorities.
Given WSC’s fondness for the place, I’d have thought every Conservative would wish to go to Madeira and enjoy afternoon tea at Reid’s.
The main evening news here was led by the death of Dame Tariana Turia who left Labour in 2004 and founded the Māori Party which she led for a decade. In 2008 her party backed Key’s National Government and she got a Ministerial post in 2010.
She was an interesting character whose political journey over a 20 year period is fascinating.
These issues were disgusting and widespread but not restricted to Muslim Communities
That various Enquiries were set up, reported, recommendations made and implemented and significant progress in some cases made, but also not fully implemented and loose ends in others.
The Conservative Government 2010 - 2024 (with LD's to 2015) decided in 2022 that REGIONAL investigations and reporting was the way to go. Kemi Badenoch and all then Tory MP's backed this.
SKS as DoPP was respected by the then Tory Government on his departure from DoPP as having made significant progress in dealing with the issue and raising it's profile and implementing change.
In October 2024 the new Junior Minister Jess Phillips routinely decided in answer to a quetion in the HoC and also in terms on Labour Government POlicy to IMPLEMENT and CONTINUE Tory Governments Guidelines as voted on in the HoC
There are / were NO MANIFESTO commitments on this on either side to change the status quo.
EARLIER THIS WEEK GB News attacked the Phillips decision retrospectively!!!!!!
MUSK decided to attack Starmer for his role as DoPP , called for Jess Phillips to be imprisoned and Tommy Robinson to be released.
Kemi Badenoch decided to jump on the bandwagon
MUSK who has associations to Jeffrey Epstein and Gisela Maxwell turns it in to a further attack on our democratically elected Government and it's policies and by definition and fact the policies of the previous Conservative Government of which Badenoch, Philip and others were Members
----
So it you support Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson and want to instigate Riots again and Civil Disobedience that aim is clear - an unadulterated attempt to destroy the elected UK Govenment
If like Badenoch you completely go against your Governments Policy on this, you are complicit in supporting Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson
If like Starmer and Labour you stand up to Musk, Farage , Trump and Tommy Robinson - I suspect that you will be backed and supported to the vast majority of the UK population who wish to deal with THE ISSUE and not the politics and to actually DEFEND UK democracy.
It strikes me sadly that MUSK wants Civil War and Mass disobedience on the streets of the major European and American Cities to foster his own sick and depraived mind.
MUSK must be stopped and those complicit in supporting him must be STOPPED and every Legal means by Police and Judiciary should be mobilised NOW to start that process around the Globe.
He is a massive danger to democratically elected longstanding Western democracies.
Alternatively, a government with a large majority should be able to burn a fair amount of political capital in implementing the scheme of their choice - except that they’ve already burned an enormous amount of that on fiddling around with winter fuel allowances, VAT on tuition fees, land tax on farms etc, that they don’t have as much as a government six months in with a three-figure majority should have.
The problem is no.matter how much you 'shout' about Musk he is not going away and it is likely to accelerate post Trump's inauguration
The big question in politics today is just how public opinion views Musks interventions, and how much it affects Farage and Reform
As far as Kemi is concerned she has to distance herself from Farage, but also focus on attacking this highly unpopular Labour government that saw 20 of its councillors defect yesterday in disgust at the leadership of Labour
So much for 1.5 million houses
NEW THREAD
We all know that Rome wasn't built in a day, but you can't win an election promising change then change next to nothing. Starmer is hobbled by his own innate conservatism and wooden style.
I am certain he will step down before 2029. My hunch is Rayner next PM. Watching her debate Badenoch or Farage would be epic.
Will she double down on oppositionalism, or we she work across party to address questions which she and her fellow ministers, and others from her party before her, failed to address.
Imo it probably *requires* a cross-party response.
If Kemi and the Conservatives are the party of the pensioners, as they seem to think, then she needs to address the issue of social care.
If Kemi wants a more rapid response, then let her put forward her proposals. Shit-slinging won't cut it.
Along the way, we also need a tightening up of UK law around political contributions to make it more comprehensive and close down loopholes, primarily to deal with Putin and others and their information and hybrid operations.
It would be advantageous should such also catch Musk and his manipulations.
I think the challenge here will be the Starmer Government's lack of decisiveness, and their caution around Trump's potential random actions.
It remains possible that President Musk will be politically emasculated if Vice President Trump stages some sort of palace putsch to assert the initiative he has lost.
Has increasing the run length by a factor of 3-5 made it more flabby, or introduced too much padding?