From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
Any record of him being on the case when his government gave this bloke citizenship?
‘ As I understand it, the Johnson government had no discretion about granting him citizenship. He was entitled as of right by descent because his mother happened to have been born here’
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
Any record of him being on the case when his government gave this bloke citizenship?
‘ As I understand it, the Johnson government had no discretion about granting him citizenship. He was entitled as of right by descent because his mother happened to have been born here’
Any record of him being on the case when his government gave this bloke citizenship?
Cleverly has his greasy Foreign Office mits all over this nutter's case. Every new scandal shows his unfitness to be LOTO. Jenrick will be very confident he has clean hands, or he wouldn't have intervened.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
He did acknowledge the New Model Army, and emphasised General Monck.
(Aside: Monck was Cromwell's General who did much to ease the handover to Charles II.)
He told a handover story, which I was not able to confirm from other sources, of the Army drawn-up near London, symbolically expressing obedience to the King by putting their weapons on the ground and taking one step back. Then, on a new command, they stepped forward again, and repossessed the same weapons. but with the new sovereign at their head.
To me that also felt liek a semi-myth designed to embed the Army's self-understanding. I could not find any records of a single occasion of such a clear handover.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
This sort of bollocks decision by the tribunal plays into the hands of those who believe the Human rights act needs reviewing.
The decision isn't just bollocks its effing ludicrous.
I can't read the article but it seems the premise is that unless conditions are essentially perfect in all regards, with no grounds for appeal, you don't get deported.
The system working as intended then.
Politicians spoute shite about stopping this. They could. They never do.
If I was PM, I'd read Private Eye every fortnight, drag the appropriate ministers and civil servants in, and tell them to f***ing sort it out
Have you read Rory Stewart’s autobiography?
Or wondered why Starmer complains things can’t get done?
Overcoming systemic culture is hard. It requires knowledge, time and a certain kind of polite savagery.
Doesn't it really require a knowledge of behaviourism - ie find out what has motivated/motivates humans to make this mess, work out what will motivate them to fix it, and produce the desired political outcomes, and put those systems in place.
For a start, there can and should be a permanent system in place that makes civil service and political remuneration dependent on individual and departmental performance, but also on positive markers in the economy.
What if every civil servant was going to get less money in their pay packet and pension pot if GDP per capita went down? How would that affect the efficiency of the immigration system and levels of deportations? How would it affect things like the Chagos giveaway?
Going by how that panned out in the City it would lead to a massive fabricated GDP bubble followed by a crash that depresses the real economy for 25 years.
How does one fabricate a GDP per capita bubble every year, forever?
Well exactly. You can't. The crash will duly come.
Then why game it? Bank employees can pocket their bonuses and move on. Civil Service employees spend much of their careers in the Civil Service. There would be zero incentive for them to blow something up to make a fast buck.
Any record of him being on the case when his government gave this bloke citizenship?
Cleverly has his greasy Foreign Office mits all over this nutter's case. Every new scandal shows his unfitness to be LOTO. Jenrick will be very confident he has clean hands, or he wouldn't have intervened.
For a moment I thought 'this nutter' referred to Jenrick...
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Yet many people,do that about Nigel Farage’s comments as a child to other children 🤷♂️
Any record of him being on the case when his government gave this bloke citizenship?
Cleverly has his greasy Foreign Office mits all over this nutter's case. Every new scandal shows his unfitness to be LOTO. Jenrick will be very confident he has clean hands, or he wouldn't have intervened.
For a moment I thought 'this nutter' referred to Jenrick...
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Yet many people,do that about Nigel Farage’s comments as a child to other children 🤷♂️
I don’t think people have come to snap judgements about Farage. We’ve forged them over many years!
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
In practice, most European armies comprised soldiers of fortune, from about 1400 to the mid 17th century. And, they were often multi-national and multi-religious. Despite being Catholics, the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs had thousands of German Protestants in their ranks, and France had both Protestant and Catholic Swiss. And, long after this period, it was considered entirely legitimate to serve in a foreign army, even against your own countrymen. Heinrich von Brandt started as a Prussian officer, then served the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, then in the French army, before finishing his career as a Prussian general.
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Yet many people,do that about Nigel Farage’s comments as a child to other children 🤷♂️
I don’t think people have come to snap judgements about Farage. We’ve forged them over many years!
So, effectively, the stuff about his comments as a child to other children was really being reinforced by people who already had decided they don’t like him. Got it.
No different to nationalists attacking Mhairi Black for her banter posts ln soccer.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
Fair comment.
I'm not calling it yet.
He's had support from people including IDS, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
I do not think this is as simple as Jenrick is trying to make it.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I'm being contrarian for the sake of it, but it's pretty clear from context (someone arguing that Palestinians weren't ethnically cleaned because some of them are left in Israel) that he is deploying sarcasm in that tweet, not Holocaust denial.
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Passing from a FO responsibility to Home office one might not be so great for him. Cooper on your case is a toothless folktale, Mahmood on your case might just be a jewel in her crown and a dungeon ahead.
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Yet many people,do that about Nigel Farage’s comments as a child to other children 🤷♂️
Lots of people come to snap judgements about all sorts of things, and often make themselves look like complete twerps as a result.
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Yet many people,do that about Nigel Farage’s comments as a child to other children 🤷♂️
Lots of people come to snap judgements about all sorts of things, and often make themselves look like complete twerps as a result.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
Fair comment.
I'm not calling it yet.
He's had support from people including IDS, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
I do not think this is as simple as Jenrick is trying to make it.
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
As an ex-Conservative member (I joined because of the policies around levelling-up and the potential for a reduced NS divide; I got out when it became clear at around the time of Sunak shafting Manchester that it was marketing BS).
I think in a way Kemi has similar positioning problems to Starmer. She is letting her party be defined by following Farage/Reform, rather than be itself (whatever that would be). So we have the vision of a party led by a black woman running policies anchored by conscious xenophobia.
To fight Farage it is necessary to be fighting on your own wicket, with your own identity.
At present I do not see anything of a Conservative identity. To me the Cons still need to look at themselves in the mirror to understand what happened at the 2024 General Election.
But instead we have an endless parade of insubstantial tactical yapping. This weekend's response to the start of a gap year scheme for the armed forces is a recent example.
Being the only party against the two child cap, and being seen more generally as the ones who reward work over benefits, rightly or wrongly, is their attempted USP
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
Egyptian politics, and those of the wider Arab spring are also very complicated. The new leaders set up when the regimes were toppled were not necessarily an improvement - it would be difficult to see Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi as an improvement on Hosni Mubarak. He was quickly removed by mass protests and the army took control again. So what this guy was an agitator for wasn't necessarily particularly beneficial in the context of Egypt.
The same applies for most of the West's allies in the Arab Spring. They were and are terrorist-adjacent or flat out terrorists. Quite happy to have them toppling regimes, but wouldn't want them living next door. Unless you're Keir Starmer.
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
As an ex-Conservative member (I joined because of the policies around levelling-up and the potential for a reduced NS divide; I got out when it became clear at around the time of Sunak shafting Manchester that it was marketing BS).
I think in a way Kemi has similar positioning problems to Starmer. She is letting her party be defined by following Farage/Reform, rather than be itself (whatever that would be). So we have the vision of a party led by a black woman running policies anchored by conscious xenophobia.
To fight Farage it is necessary to be fighting on your own wicket, with your own identity.
At present I do not see anything of a Conservative identity. To me the Cons still need to look at themselves in the mirror to understand what happened at the 2024 General Election.
But instead we have an endless parade of insubstantial tactical yapping. This weekend's response to the start of a gap year scheme for the armed forces is a recent example.
Being the only party against the two child cap, and being seen more generally as the ones who reward work over benefits, rightly or wrongly, is their attempted USP
Well, they want to reward work in the private sector, but not in the public sector.
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
Background: his mother is British.
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
Fair comment.
I'm not calling it yet.
He's had support from people including IDS, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
I do not think this is as simple as Jenrick is trying to make it.
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
Not so much if you were a landsman sent on board to empty the prisons or poorhouses. Some of them just went and died of despair and shock, like some concentration camp prisoners. Though that was more the local JPs and mayors trying to palm a quick one off on the RN, which really disliked them - except for smugglers which were very, very welcome.
A period of profound silence from Liz Truss would be most welcome.
Alas, she appears untroubled by self-reflection. Or awareness.
It;s an interesting point - we have plenty of ex-Prime Ministers around currently - Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak to name but eight.
Some continue to court the limelight constantly - Johnson and Truss. Others prefer the occasional intervention (not often well received) while, as you say, the correct response, once you've published your memoirs and your self-justification for all your mistakes and triumphs, is to retreat into obscurity.
Does Johnson really court the limelight? Most of what I’ve seen him do recently is fairly reactive
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
Why should they spell out their strategy?
In my view they are steering clear of immigration (although have “done enough” to appeal to those who see it as a concern). Now they are focusing on economics / tax / competence / etc - traditional conservative strengths that play to them not to Reform.
That seems to be the right strategy. And it doesn’t involve saying “we are anti-Reform” or “we are mini-Reform”
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
The best of books.
His final volume of the trilogy on the history of the Royal Navy is on my reading list for 2026. Sadly Father Chritmas seems to have sent my copy elsewhere despite strong hints.
From what I can gather, this man was not a British National until about five years ago, when he applied while in an Egyptian jail. This is the kind of Human Rights Lawyer nonsense that contributes to Sir Keir's unpopularity. There is talk that El-Fattah has never even been to the UK, although that is surely too far fetched. He had been calling for all kinds of terrible stuff to happen to Zionists etc before he was jailed though, why is Sir Keir (along with Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, generic Labour puppet MPs) so eager to tell everyone how happy he is about this? Government's "top priority?"
I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.
I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.
Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.
Lots of labour politicians have been positing about this. Waxing lyrical in joyous terms about this man.
His history of anti semitic tweets has been more of a problem to the Jewish community than Labour MPs.
Not just antisemitism but calls for violence. For terror. It's staggering.
You’re right. It is utterly breathtaking.
I can only assume they are still in the mindset that this plays well with certain communities and no-one else will notice.
Well that was my first thought and a few Jewish people,I follow on social media are quite upset about it.
A small price to pay for Labour, I guess, if it gains other voters ?
It does seem odd. However a few Jewish people will always be upset about everything. One day I hope that we can sit them all down and ask them to stop fidgeting - it's all fine. Not yet though.
It is probably unreasonable for them to be upset at the U.K. welcoming with open arms, with the govt and cabinet ministers posting triumphantly about it, a raging anti semite who has avidly supported violence, including killing, against opponents in past posts as per the screenshot tweets in the thread under the Yvetter Cooper tweet. Bondi was only a fortnight ago. They need to suck it up.
I’m sure he’s a different man now.
In what way is he a 'raging anti semite'? I think you should supply some evidence as he's now in a position to sue you
There are no set of rules you can live by in this Country, it just depends on what Sir Keir Starmer is thinking on a particular day, It's not that the Country is Ungovernable, it's that the Government is unable to effectively Govern
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
He is criticising them in that very comment. He simply isn't blaming them.
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
He is criticising them in that very comment. He simply isn't blaming them.
There’s a load of contortions going on with people justifying him.
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
Yeah, he doesn't sound like the kind of chap to invite for dinner with one's mother. But even Grok is saying he's an opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood, while people are leaping to all sorts of assumptions about him being an activist for them.
Britain used to be quite proud of being a haven for democracy campaigners persecuted by other countries. People being people I'm sure that some of those past democracy campaigners had a few unpleasant opinions.
I don't know. Maybe I'm making all the wrong assumptions. Perhaps people who know more about the Egyptian Arab Spring protests would have considerably less respect for him than for many other people involved in those protests, and he's more on balance a rum cove.
Oh dear. The Tories are up to their necks in it too. He actually linked to his twitter feed, so there can be no excuse of ignorance about his social media output.
Meanwhile American Twitter is just waking up to this story…
Well, I’m sure American Twitter will shed much light on the story with their considered and thoughtful views. Thank heavens we live in an age of such enlightenment as American Twitter brings to us.
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
That’s a great book, as is the Wooden World.
The Hornblower novels gave me the idea, as a boy, that the RN was essentially a floating concentration camp, for the ratings. These books were useful correctives.
Merchant shipowners always sought to cut costs to the bone, by employing as few seamen as possible, whereas the RN always wanted lots of men to fight, so the workload on the latter, was always much lighter than on the former.
There was always the risk of death or injury in battle, but RN ships were less likely to founder than merchantmen.
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I've got bad news for you
1) If you are "of interest" to the police, they will build a profile of you, based on your social media. 2) The actual work is done by external contractors. 3) Such as Palantir 4) So you are assessed as being/not being an extremist by Peter Thiel
You WILL be ProtectServed, Citizen. You Have 10 Seconds To Comply
Oh dear. The Tories are up to their necks in it too. He actually linked to his twitter feed, so there can be no excuse of ignorance about his social media output.
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
Yeah, he doesn't sound like the kind of chap to invite for dinner with one's mother. But even Grok is saying he's an opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood, while people are leaping to all sorts of assumptions about him being an activist for them.
Britain used to be quite proud of being a haven for democracy campaigners persecuted by other countries. People being people I'm sure that some of those past democracy campaigners had a few unpleasant opinions.
I don't know. Maybe I'm making all the wrong assumptions. Perhaps people who know more about the Egyptian Arab Spring protests would have considerably less respect for him than for many other people involved in those protests, and he's more on balance a rum cove.
The "gap year" recruitment idea for the armed forces is interesting - my gap year wasn't spent in far flung destinations but working for Mecca Bookmakers so glamourous, it wasn't. I suspect it would look good on the CV and better than saying I went to Thailand or Australia or even Mecca Bookmakers in Panton Street.
They have a similar program in Australia and it works well. However, it's very expensive to do it properly as these people need a lot of supervision and they can only be used in a very limited number of roles. The UK MoD will probably just use them as cheap labour to do photocopying or something.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea, not so much with what they can do on a day to day basis (maybe be used for guard, sentry duty to free up other soldiers?) but more on the basis of building up a large number over time of people who have already learned the basics of shooting and infantry tactics so if there is a situation in the future where the country had to mobilise a lot of people will need refreshers rather than training from scratch which is surely a good thing?
You aren’t going to have millions of Marines in cold storage but the military would have lists of people with various levels of training and, hopefully, identified skill sets where they can be fast-tracked in an emergency.
Also it might get people to try it as only a short period who then find that it’s the life for them and they commit which would help the recruitment situation.
At the time earlier this year when our media were obsessing about "BUT CONSCRIPTION !!!", the best response I heard was from a military commentator, retired, along the lines of:
"The British Army has been professional since 1660 (about right but slightly debatable), and have had conscription twice - in two World Wars. Conscription is not effective, with low skilled people in for short periods, and we would need many more professionals just to run it. The army would hate it, and it won't happen. "
There's a bit of "understanding ourselves by creating a foundational justifying myth" there (Gotcha ! trickery and the King's Shilling?), but it says a lot. It's a tougher call for the Navy, with conscription via Press Gangs. We won't get formal conscription until the professional army has been decimated.
So imo we will have alternatives which build reserves, and less deeply skilled staff suitable for less intense duties (Finnish model?), and to build relationships with the public. That will be by building out from traditional models, and has been underway for some time with Cadets. To me this new initiative is another step in that direction.
I may be wrong - and of course the Second World War is still technically in progress - but I think the shooting ended in 1945, while conscription continued until 1960.
Yes - but that was linked to WW2 and the unwinding of Empire.
Korea, too.
Interesting that the chap didn't want to give any credit to (a) the mediaeval mercenaries (White Company etc) and (b) the New Model Army for their professionalism. Or to mention the conscription that took place at other times, e.g. the Napoleonic Wars (albeit for home defence).
He also carefully omits the Raff and the RN, the latter rather famous for its greater professionalism and, at times, much more savage conscription system than the Army. I mean, the Admiralty actually insisted on examining its trainee officers.
But that doesn't alter the basic point that the Army hated conscription - got in the way of the Regimental sports etc., having to train a new lot every year.
Ah, the much loved press gang.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST All others must pay cash.
NAM Rogers in his fascinating work "The Command of the Ocean" has quite a bit on impressment. He says it was fairly well tolerated by seamen, as conditions and food were generally better than in the merchant fleet, so being pressed was considered a bit of an occupational hazard.
That’s a great book, as is the Wooden World.
The Hornblower novels gave me the idea, as a boy, that the RN was essentially a floating concentration camp, for the ratings. These books were useful correctives.
Merchant shipowners always sought to cut costs to the bone, by employing as few seamen as possible, whereas the RN always wanted lots of men to fight, so the workload on the latter, was always much lighter than on the former.
There was always the risk of death or injury in battle, but RN ships were less likely to founder than merchantmen.
Though during a crunch period in the Napoleonic Wars, conditions deteriorated, especially time on shore. Some of the ships on blockade only went into port when about to fall apart.
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
'dirty homosexual' seems mildly homophobic to me, but maybe he was being ironic
Oh dear. The Tories are up to their necks in it too. He actually linked to his twitter feed, so there can be no excuse of ignorance about his social media output.
We will continue to work tirelessly for his release.
Might help Cleverly to get some Labour and LD tactical votes though in Tory held seats if Kemi is replaced as leader before the next general election. A vote for Cleverly is clearly a vote against Farage not to put Farage in government.
Jenrick though clearly pitching against Starmer and Cleverly and showing more leg to Reform voters by being an even more articulate version of Farage and saying the release of this man is a disaster
Oh dear. The Tories are up to their necks in it too. He actually linked to his twitter feed, so there can be no excuse of ignorance about his social media output.
Isn’t that a criticism of homophobia? He appears to be, without broader context it’s hard to tell, implying that you shouldn’t criticise homosexuality because God made them.
'dirty homosexual' seems mildly homophobic to me, but maybe he was being ironic
I'm sure I've probably written a few things online when frustrated that could be taken out of context and misconstrued. The idea that large numbers of people might come to an instant judgement about me and my entire life on the basis of a few comments made 10-15 years ago is a little bit unnerving.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
I remember the regularly banned old soak, Ishmael, said ‘if someone shows you who they are believe them’
Yeah, he doesn't sound like the kind of chap to invite for dinner with one's mother. But even Grok is saying he's an opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood, while people are leaping to all sorts of assumptions about him being an activist for them.
Britain used to be quite proud of being a haven for democracy campaigners persecuted by other countries. People being people I'm sure that some of those past democracy campaigners had a few unpleasant opinions.
I don't know. Maybe I'm making all the wrong assumptions. Perhaps people who know more about the Egyptian Arab Spring protests would have considerably less respect for him than for many other people involved in those protests, and he's more on balance a rum cove.
Opposing bad people doesn’t make you good.
One of the first people to tackle ISIS was Putin.
I'm not arguing that he's good, but we've had people on this thread leap to the assumption that he was part of the Muslim Brotherhood, or a fellow traveller with them, and that appears not to be the case.
Oh dear. The Tories are up to their necks in it too. He actually linked to his twitter feed, so there can be no excuse of ignorance about his social media output.
We will continue to work tirelessly for his release.
Two things can be true simultaneously:
1) Some people are bellends who say disgusting things on Twitter;
2) They can still be wrongfully imprisoned and deserve to be released.
Lucy Connolly can probably explain this better than I can.
I know you’re not a Stan for her or sticking up for her but if she didn’t want to go inside she shouldn’t have pleaded guilty to an offence which as eek, IIRC, explained her sentence was the lowest for that crime and she got the max reduction.
He's not a team player for the Conservative Party, but he does manage to dog whistle those people he wants to trigger. He's certainly managed it on here this afternoon, so I daresay that works for the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, GB News and voters that get excited by Jenrick's Islam critical tweets. It is an effective, if cynical strategy. Jenrick is the Chopper Harris of Conservative politics.
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
Russia are apparently so weak that some argue they are no threat to Britain and Europe at all, and yet Britain and Europe have been unable - in nearly four years - to provide sufficient support to Ukraine so that they can protect themselves from the threat of a catastrophe that would kill many thousands.
There's something missing there.
I fear that Britain is not at all prepared for the destruction that Russia could inflict upon the country, should they so choose.
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
Russia are apparently so weak that some argue they are no threat to Britain and Europe at all, and yet Britain and Europe have been unable - in nearly four years - to provide sufficient support to Ukraine so that they can protect themselves from the threat of a catastrophe that would kill many thousands.
There's something missing there.
I fear that Britain is not at all prepared for the destruction that Russia could inflict upon the country, should they so choose.
Re your last paragraph I’m sure that was said about Britain at the outset of WW2. I would think it’s very different when you are directly at war as a govt can turn huge parts of the economy and production to war footing which would be unpalatable to the electorate when the war is “far off”.
I remember asking my grandfather if he was growing up expecting to spend the war flying a B-25 bombing Europe and he said that clearly he didn’t, he never thought about it and him and his brothers expected to go to university, become lawyers etc but when it happened it happened and they had a huge mindset change. He was lucky as was one of his brothers but another died being shot down in Libya.
There is only so much preparation people will take when we have been relatively “safe”.
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
Russia are apparently so weak that some argue they are no threat to Britain and Europe at all, and yet Britain and Europe have been unable - in nearly four years - to provide sufficient support to Ukraine so that they can protect themselves from the threat of a catastrophe that would kill many thousands.
There's something missing there.
I fear that Britain is not at all prepared for the destruction that Russia could inflict upon the country, should they so choose.
I wouldn’t trust the current government or the MoD to protect us if they needed to.
Grok has this to say in response to a question as to whether he would be arrested.
"Based on reports, Alaa Abd El-Fattah arrived in the UK on Dec 26, 2025, without arrest. His 2011-2013 tweets, if genuine, include sarcastic remarks (e.g., with smileys) on racism/privilege, which may not meet UK hate speech thresholds under the Public Order Act (requiring intent to stir hatred). Recent arrests targeted incitement during riots. No ongoing probe reported."
I think Grok is contending that it was possibly all banter. Personally I hate banter.
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
What's the cutoff to qualify as an old civilization?
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
What's the cutoff to qualify as an old civilization?
Cleopatra being closer to us than to the building of the Great Pyramid. Egypt was already ancient in the Ancient World.
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
Russia are apparently so weak that some argue they are no threat to Britain and Europe at all, and yet Britain and Europe have been unable - in nearly four years - to provide sufficient support to Ukraine so that they can protect themselves from the threat of a catastrophe that would kill many thousands.
There's something missing there.
I fear that Britain is not at all prepared for the destruction that Russia could inflict upon the country, should they so choose.
Russia has more nuclear weapons than any nation on earth. If Russia had no nukes it would likely have been forced out of Ukraine even before Biden left office.
If Putin floods much of Ukraine that just ensures Zelensky rejects any peace deal
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
Union Carbide - post 1984?
I've thought for a while that "Roger" was a parody account - this clinches it…
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
The sensible answer to Reform would be to develop policies to deal with the problems that are not Reform “solutions”.
Starmer has demonstrated that cosplaying Reform doesn’t work.
For example, a Labour government could change the culture from ever increasing regulation and little enforcement on employment rights and conditions.
So more inspectors (with teeth) and less bullshit in the paperwork.
This would reduce costs for the good employers and result in public court cases leading to fines and imprisonment for those who abuse - deliberately paying less than minimum wage, illegal employment etc etc.
“Enforce the Factory Acts” - that should be popular with the Labour Party and a large chunk of the country.
No performative cruelty to migrants required.
This is an area you clearly know more about than I.
I don't know what the "bullshit in the paperwork" is either - it sounds like a good idea so the question then becomes why haven't Governments of any stripe implemented what seems a sensible solution? I wonder if it's the legal aspect or a lack of manpower to carry out inspections and enforcements.
To what extent, for example, would employers create fraudulent paperwork to show they were complying with regulations and how do you then prove they aren't? In addition, some "migrants" (whatever that term actually means in this context) are often frightened, desperate people with poor English language skills. They are exploited and whether you want to call it modern slavery or not, the truth is their "life" is on many levels, controlled.
The Victorians managed to enforce the Faxtory Acts. Because they used inspectors who were given the power to inspect. And agencies behind them, who would prosecute.
The current UK approach to standards goes like this -
Write ever more complex regulations. The user/employer generates paperwork to demonstrate compliance. There is too little enforcement.
For example - a loft conversion. The builder is supposed to put north of 20 pages, as part of a document the size of a telephone directory, on how they will mitigate “slip hazards”. There is a separate section for trip hazards. There is, essentially no enforcement of this. So
1) big builders copy and pasta the same stuff into the boilerplate template every time. 2) the cash in hand mob ignore it completely 3) the well run builders bring in Henry vac along with the kettle. And a broom. And use them.
So lots of people get injured on building sites run by scumbags/idiots.
On the upside, the generation of the bullshit that no one reads is being streamlined by AI.
You might be amused to hear that concerns have been raised that the Post-Grenfell paperwork won’t prevent highly inflammable buildings being built. Because people are gaming the paperwork to comply.
Paper is surprisingly hard to burn when it's stacked - air can't get in to the leaves away from the exposed edges.
I hope PBers are grateful to Starmer for the gift of manufactured outrage in this festive season, especially those that voted for him. Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
I've worked in Cairo several times and I'm a fan of Egyptians. Not humble in the way of some in the region but thoughtful as I often find in places with old civilizations.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
Union Carbide - post 1984?
I've thought for a while that "Roger" was a parody account - this clinches it…
Despite Bhopal, Union Carbide are still operating as part of Dow Chemicals. Dow Chemicals in Barry have a great canteen (or they did 20 years ago) curry day was Wednesday.
What will encourage Starmer though is that on a forced choice voters prefer him to Farage as PM by 57% to 43% on a new poll. So what may still save him is FPTP tactical voting to stop Farage and the divide on the right, as Kemi by contrast is preferred by voters over Starmer by 52% to 48% in the same Ashcroft poll
This is why Badenoch's strategic attitude to Farage and Reform is so important and I've yet to hear anyone from the Conservative (or ex-Conservative side) offer a response to whether the Conservatives under Badenoch should move closer to Reform (as a potential Government coalition partner) or remain distinct from Reform and risk becoming further marginalised?
The sensible answer to Reform would be to develop policies to deal with the problems that are not Reform “solutions”.
Starmer has demonstrated that cosplaying Reform doesn’t work.
For example, a Labour government could change the culture from ever increasing regulation and little enforcement on employment rights and conditions.
So more inspectors (with teeth) and less bullshit in the paperwork.
This would reduce costs for the good employers and result in public court cases leading to fines and imprisonment for those who abuse - deliberately paying less than minimum wage, illegal employment etc etc.
“Enforce the Factory Acts” - that should be popular with the Labour Party and a large chunk of the country.
No performative cruelty to migrants required.
This is an area you clearly know more about than I.
I don't know what the "bullshit in the paperwork" is either - it sounds like a good idea so the question then becomes why haven't Governments of any stripe implemented what seems a sensible solution? I wonder if it's the legal aspect or a lack of manpower to carry out inspections and enforcements.
To what extent, for example, would employers create fraudulent paperwork to show they were complying with regulations and how do you then prove they aren't? In addition, some "migrants" (whatever that term actually means in this context) are often frightened, desperate people with poor English language skills. They are exploited and whether you want to call it modern slavery or not, the truth is their "life" is on many levels, controlled.
The Victorians managed to enforce the Faxtory Acts. Because they used inspectors who were given the power to inspect. And agencies behind them, who would prosecute.
The current UK approach to standards goes like this -
Write ever more complex regulations. The user/employer generates paperwork to demonstrate compliance. There is too little enforcement.
For example - a loft conversion. The builder is supposed to put north of 20 pages, as part of a document the size of a telephone directory, on how they will mitigate “slip hazards”. There is a separate section for trip hazards. There is, essentially no enforcement of this. So
1) big builders copy and pasta the same stuff into the boilerplate template every time. 2) the cash in hand mob ignore it completely 3) the well run builders bring in Henry vac along with the kettle. And a broom. And use them.
So lots of people get injured on building sites run by scumbags/idiots.
On the upside, the generation of the bullshit that no one reads is being streamlined by AI.
You might be amused to hear that concerns have been raised that the Post-Grenfell paperwork won’t prevent highly inflammable buildings being built. Because people are gaming the paperwork to comply.
Paper is surprisingly hard to burn when it's stacked - air can't get in to the leaves away from the exposed edges.
Er… St Paul’s?
Is a fine monument to the talent of Sir Christopher Wren and a decent height for a view of London, though I daresay it's changed a bit since I last went up.
The problem is that a project like this will be aggressively opposed by the Enquiry Industrial Complex. Minimum 20 years to get approval.
No. Swansea got through planning in 2 years, with 80-odd% local support.
The bigger issue is that Minhead was always one of the more complex options. It has not been improved by Hinkley C going for a tidal cooling system of it own, as their "fish scarer" - part of the planning requirement - didn't work.
Plus the stated numbers are notywhere near as good as Cardiff. That would be the sensible first build. All the twiddly bits they are talking about for Minehead that make it more appealling were already incorporated into the Swansea proposal.
Comments
I'm not sure on the "raging anti-semite" stuff, until I see a proper analysis. He has had the support of organisations such as English PEN (which I respect) and Amnesty (whose values I respect, but the character of the organisation rather less so).
His political activities were in opposition to Mubarak's dictatorship, the Military Government who staged a coup, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I've never heard of the man, and he looks to be an Arab Spring activist who has been locked up for a long time.
I need more evidence before I reach a conclusion.
The Mail and the gammonry were already enraged at that point.
For mercenaries, my uni flatmate (who was a re-enactor) had on his door a motto from the Flemish mercenaries of King Stephen:
IN GOD WE TRUST
All others must pay cash.
Bears no resemblance to Begum case.
I’m aware his Mother is British, hence why the U.K. govt had to give him citizenship.
Totally different to Begum.
Lots of tweets from him calling for violence and even killings of Zionists and the like, Twitter is awash with them and not from conspiracy sites.
You’re free to hold what view of him you want. I’ve seen enough to know he’s a wrong un.
(Aside: Monck was Cromwell's General who did much to ease the handover to Charles II.)
He told a handover story, which I was not able to confirm from other sources, of the Army drawn-up near London, symbolically expressing obedience to the King by putting their weapons on the ground and taking one step back. Then, on a new command, they stepped forward again, and repossessed the same weapons. but with the new sovereign at their head.
To me that also felt liek a semi-myth designed to embed the Army's self-understanding. I could not find any records of a single occasion of such a clear handover.
https://x.com/alaa/status/24135778438?s=61
Holocaust denial too.
But, he’s okay 🤷♂️
I'm not calling it yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaa_Abd_El-Fattah
It does sound like he has a long record of campaigning for democratic rights that we take for granted. Precisely the sort of determined activist for democratic values that our Casino said should be worthy of being granted refugee status.
But, as ever, real life is complicated, and he would appear to have expressed many opinions which I find reprehensible. What to do? I don't know, but I would suggest that coming to a snap judgement on the basis of partial information available from a brief foray online was probably unwise.
No different to nationalists attacking Mhairi Black for her banter posts ln soccer.
I do not think this is as simple as Jenrick is trying to make it.
But we shall see.
I hope that I can do differently.
The same applies for most of the West's allies in the Arab Spring. They were and are terrorist-adjacent or flat out terrorists. Quite happy to have them toppling regimes, but wouldn't want them living next door. Unless you're Keir Starmer.
Maybe it's safer just to shut up and say nothing, eh?
The rise and fall of my favourite subject
James Marriott"
https://jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-death-of-english-literature
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1SrnexZqUE/?mibextid=wwXIfr
He was probably sober at the time.
These are not the words of a child.
https://x.com/alexmaccaroon/status/2004879379789119801?s=61
In my view they are steering clear of immigration (although have “done enough” to appeal to those who see it as a concern). Now they are focusing on economics / tax / competence / etc - traditional conservative strengths that play to them not to Reform.
That seems to be the right strategy. And it doesn’t involve saying “we are anti-Reform” or “we are mini-Reform”
lol, hadn’t been in the country 24 hours and he was already retweeting criticism of Starmer
https://x.com/pmarlowe1939/status/2004911116212994243?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Proper assimilation:
https://x.com/jaheale/status/2004920552234832130?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
@hilalchouman because no medicine can reverse god's will. he should subject his anger at good for creating those dirty homosexual.
https://x.com/alaa/status/27761639460?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
https://x.com/timmyvoe/status/2004917948587409441?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
https://x.com/v_j_freeman/status/2004903556038754467
https://x.com/nicolelampert/status/2004849504051470338
Meanwhile American Twitter is just waking up to this story…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/27/london-eye-architect-proposes-14-mile-tidal-power-station-off-somerset-coast
Britain used to be quite proud of being a haven for democracy campaigners persecuted by other countries. People being people I'm sure that some of those past democracy campaigners had a few unpleasant opinions.
I don't know. Maybe I'm making all the wrong assumptions. Perhaps people who know more about the Egyptian Arab Spring protests would have considerably less respect for him than for many other people involved in those protests, and he's more on balance a rum cove.
https://x.com/JamesCleverly/status/1588114772519796736
Last night I spoke to the sisters of @Alaa
We will continue to work tirelessly for his release.
The Hornblower novels gave me the idea, as a boy, that the RN was essentially a floating concentration camp, for the ratings. These books were useful correctives.
Merchant shipowners always sought to cut costs to the bone, by employing as few seamen as possible, whereas the RN always wanted lots of men to fight, so the workload on the latter, was always much lighter than on the former.
There was always the risk of death or injury in battle, but RN ships were less likely to founder than merchantmen.
Just think, some of them didn’t know old Alaa from Adam 24 hours ago!
1) If you are "of interest" to the police, they will build a profile of you, based on your social media.
2) The actual work is done by external contractors.
3) Such as Palantir
4) So you are assessed as being/not being an extremist by Peter Thiel
You WILL be ProtectServed, Citizen. You Have 10 Seconds To Comply
1) Some people are bellends who say disgusting things on Twitter;
2) They can still be wrongfully imprisoned and deserve to be released.
Lucy Connolly can probably explain this better than I can.
One of the first people to tackle ISIS was Putin.
Jenrick though clearly pitching against Starmer and Cleverly and showing more leg to Reform voters by being an even more articulate version of Farage and saying the release of this man is a disaster
https://x.com/evgen1232007/status/2004492185128034464
These are from Rosstat, the ONS of Russia.
YoY production by category, November:
Pumps -38%
Bearings -37%
Tractors -61%
Bulldozers -53%
Elevators -37%
Internal combustion engines -48%
Cars -34%
Buses -17%-28%
Trucks -43%
Car bodies -38%
Trailers -33%
Electric locomotives -24%
Railway cars -40%-44%
He's not a team player for the Conservative Party, but he does manage to dog whistle those people he wants to trigger. He's certainly managed it on here this afternoon, so I daresay that works for the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, GB News and voters that get excited by Jenrick's Islam critical tweets. It is an effective, if cynical strategy. Jenrick is the Chopper Harris of Conservative politics.
https://x.com/nafovoyager/status/2004909075637977249
Now they were probably looking to take out the power lines rather than the dam itself, but if that dam goes the Ukranian capital gets flooded. Add to the list of Russian war crimes.
There's something missing there.
I fear that Britain is not at all prepared for the destruction that Russia could inflict upon the country, should they so choose.
I remember asking my grandfather if he was growing up expecting to spend the war flying a B-25 bombing Europe and he said that clearly he didn’t, he never thought about it and him and his brothers expected to go to university, become lawyers etc but when it happened it happened and they had a huge mindset change. He was lucky as was one of his brothers but another died being shot down in Libya.
There is only so much preparation people will take when we have been relatively “safe”.
Pumps 0%
Bearings 0%
Tractors 0%
Bulldozers 0%
Elevators 0%
Internal combustion engines 0%
Cars 0%
Buses 0%
Trucks 0%
Car bodies 0%
Trailers 0%
Electric locomotives 0%
Railway cars 0%
Not much of a plan is it, Vlad?
He’s a great guy
Pt. 94
https://x.com/basilthegreat/status/2004940944735695015?s=61
"Based on reports, Alaa Abd El-Fattah arrived in the UK on Dec 26, 2025, without arrest. His 2011-2013 tweets, if genuine, include sarcastic remarks (e.g., with smileys) on racism/privilege, which may not meet UK hate speech thresholds under the Public Order Act (requiring intent to stir hatred). Recent arrests targeted incitement during riots. No ongoing probe reported."
I think Grok is contending that it was possibly all banter. Personally I hate banter.
I was once shooting for Union Carbide by the pyramids-a story of a young couple who fell in love listening to a radio!!-and we happened to be shooting during Ramadan. The heat was excruciating.
We'd started at dawn and by five or six the crew were flagging. Not even taking any water. The cameraman called the crew-maybe 30 people-together and talked to them angrily for about ten minutes after which we resumed and carried on until sunset.
The first assistant translated for me as he spoke. Basically the meaning of Ramadan and how it was useless if they were going to use it as an excuse for not giving of their best. It was really moving. It inspired me to read a translation of the koran.
If Putin floods much of Ukraine that just ensures Zelensky rejects any peace deal
The bigger issue is that Minhead was always one of the more complex options. It has not been improved by Hinkley C going for a tidal cooling system of it own, as their "fish scarer" - part of the planning requirement - didn't work.
Plus the stated numbers are notywhere near as good as Cardiff. That would be the sensible first build. All the twiddly bits they are talking about for Minehead that make it more appealling were already incorporated into the Swansea proposal.