Coming here soon too, no doubt, with the prospect of our own Trump in number 10.
Great news if they do. High skilled migrants coming to work hard and be net contributors as opposed to just live off the state in a subsidised council/HA home or do win wage work and get benefits top ups.
If the PCS really wanted to screw over a Fukker government, they should order all civil servants to work as hard and diligently as they could for it.
Most of them would epically screw up and the policy would either never happen or have the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
And the competent ones would implement policies that would just backfire spectacularly or be a mess anyway because the Fukkers are madder than Lettuce Lady.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
Has Farage finally bitten off more than he can chew, one bare faced lie to many and ALL Opposition Parties aligned.
Rather than admit his £5m offshore loan from a very spurious source should have been retrospectively declared, he starts slandering and libeling a newspaper claiming a Russian hack.
He's now got various Security, Criminal and Financial Agencies standing up and saying, give us the evidence or perjure yourself.
The allegation from Farage if true would have a seismic impact on UK and probably NATO and EU already strained relations with Russia and trigger very punitive actions.
Of course if in desperation and attention seeking he's spouted bare faced lies he's going to have to own up and fess up very very quickly.
Let's be honest here IF ANY Politician of any credible Party pulled such a blatant and irresponsible stunt, they would be kicked out of their Party, suspended from Parliament and most likely face possible perjury or public office misconduct charges.
If he can't own up or prove his allegations, why BTW he could do once Hoc reopens under Parliamentary protection, he is in deep deep shit.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
These old chaps are going to get a shock when Nigel uses the US insurance model to fund healthcare.
Death of the high street, no jobs, no council houses. Only one man on camera said immigration although the presenter did say it was raised more often.
But the death of the high street was linked to immigration, Wigan council providing" free vape shops". And the pointing to the corner shop was another hint at immigration I thought, albeit historical immigration. I think Nigel has tapped into a rich seam of votes.
They still might get a shock when Nigel tackles the healthcare and welfare crises.
If the PCS really wanted to screw over a Fukker government, they should order all civil servants to work as hard and diligently as they could for it.
Most of them would epically screw up and the policy would either never happen or have the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
And the competent ones would implement policies that would just backfire spectacularly or be a mess anyway because the Fukkers are madder than Lettuce Lady.
The PCS primarily represents administrative, operational, and technical grades. So, the people doing day-to-day jobs in HMRC, Border Force, DWP etc. They are not the people implementing government policy. The people you’re thinking of are in the FDA.
Having been a civil servant I know what the grades are, thanks.
And I stand by my statement. You might be surprised at how many truly incredibly stupid and incompetent people there are in the lower grades and how many screw ups happen there. My personal favourite was the one who accidentally taxed a government facility at ten times the correct rate for five years, and nobody noticed.
The FDA members are a different matter and will just screw things up all the time anyway because they are so arrogant.
So all civil servants are completely incompetent except, presumably, you, when you were one?
At this point I'd like to remind everyone that sweeping generalisations are always wrong.
Has Farage finally bitten off more than he can chew, one bare faced lie to many and ALL Opposition Parties aligned.
Rather than admit his £5m offshore loan from a very spurious source should have been retrospectively declared, he starts slandering and libeling a newspaper claiming a Russian hack.
He's now got various Security, Criminal and Financial Agencies standing up and saying, give us the evidence or perjure yourself.
The allegation from Farage if true would have a seismic impact on UK and probably NATO and EU already strained relations with Russia and trigger very punitive actions.
Of course if in desperation and attention seeking he's spouted bare faced lies he's going to have to own up and fess up very very quickly.
Let's be honest here IF ANY Politician of any credible Party pulled such a blatant and irresponsible stunt, they would be kicked out of their Party, suspended from Parliament and most likely face possible perjury or public office misconduct charges.
If he can't own up or prove his allegations, why BTW he could do once Hoc reopens under Parliamentary protection, he is in deep deep shit.
It should be so but the oily creep will get away with it.
Has Farage finally bitten off more than he can chew, one bare faced lie to many and ALL Opposition Parties aligned.
Rather than admit his £5m offshore loan from a very spurious source should have been retrospectively declared, he starts slandering and libeling a newspaper claiming a Russian hack.
He's now got various Security, Criminal and Financial Agencies standing up and saying, give us the evidence or perjure yourself.
The allegation from Farage if true would have a seismic impact on UK and probably NATO and EU already strained relations with Russia and trigger very punitive actions.
Of course if in desperation and attention seeking he's spouted bare faced lies he's going to have to own up and fess up very very quickly.
Let's be honest here IF ANY Politician of any credible Party pulled such a blatant and irresponsible stunt, they would be kicked out of their Party, suspended from Parliament and most likely face possible perjury or public office misconduct charges.
If he can't own up or prove his allegations, why BTW he could do once Hoc reopens under Parliamentary protection, he is in deep deep shit.
You think people are paying attention to this? When our weather is finally doing something interesting? I'm not saying this shouldn't be the end of Farage but I think you are being wildly optimistic about how far this can go and how serious it will get.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
However, if they live in New York city they don't like Mamdani much either, Cuomo won 62% of New Yorkers earning over $300,000 a year last year for example in the NYC Mayoral race to just 33% for Mamdani. Hence plenty of rich Americans are taking a break abroad in London, Singapore, Toronto, Paris, Greece, New Zealand, Sydney, Ireland etc
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
When I saw the plumber, not a family man, and also not terrible looking and with quite a plausible expression to him that probably makes female customers think 'I can tame him', it crossed my mind that he was probably a massive shagger and that it could be an issue. Let's hope comments about Carol Vorderman's southern hemisphere are as bad as it gets.
Oh it gets worse. Here's some of what's already on wiki:
"Kenyon has described abortion as a "cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby" and claimed that women make false rape accusations to access abortions.[24][25][26]
Kenyon was among several Reform UK politicians identified as being Facebook friends with an account belonging to Gary Raikes, a British fascist politician, in June 2024. Previously the leader of the British National Party in Scotland, Raikes founded and leads the New British Union, a neo-fascist group claiming to be a revival of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists that advocates for overthrowing parliamentary democracy via a "fascist revolution"..... Searchlight, which originally found Kenyon was Facebook friends with Raikes in 2024,[32][29] reported he was also friends on the same platform with Alex Eversfield, a neo-Nazi, and Robert Baggs, a leading member of the neo-fascist Homeland Party.[33]
Posts from Kenyon's Twitter account during the 2024 general election campaign focused heavily on immigration and later included commentary linking local crime, the UK's asylum policy, and the Southport murders to broader claims about immigration and policing. In the aftermath of the murders, he also interacted with and amplified posts from several far-right and alt-right commentators, such as Carl Benjamin and Eva Vlaardingerbroek.[9][34] Kenyon has also used Twitter to voice scepticism over the efficacy of a vaccine in reply to an NHS-run account and express support for Donald Trump.[9][34][35] Kenyon was banned from Twitter for breaking the platform's rules.[10][35][30] His posts on a second Twitter account included comments including voicing COVID-19 conspiracy theories, sexist and sexually explicit comments about women, including Carol Vorderman and women's rugby players, and violent and homophobic messages."
He’s starting to remind me of someone, but I can’t place the name…
Looks like typically bizarre Reform Candidate Vetting...or are they trying to make a point that the eloctorate will vote for anyone they put up?
It's not an unknown * type of opinions for Reformistas, including approved candidates.
But we know it's OK, because Nigel Farage thinks it is not important.
For example, one Ref UK Councillor defenestrated since the election, Stuart Prior, had reportedly posted “Good. Reap it.” in response to a report of rape.
I think there are a couple of issues, One is that they crawl out from under their stones without thinking, and another is that Farage thinks he needs them so sits on his bottom unless it gets enough national profile to embarrass him.
I think an interesting reaction, if it comes (or has come), will be from Sarah Pochin, since she is an former JP, and has her constituency less than 20 miles away from Makerfield.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
Don't forget the Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.
The £5k coffee machine, which Nicola is on video using, when it suddenly appeared in the kitchen, did she really not take a peek about how much it cost and perhaps ask WTF, £5k, on a coffee machine, are we thinking of going into business up against Starbucks?
Her excuse of well he had a high salary. £100k is a high salary, but its not footballer money, where you wouldn't blink when they bought Mont Blanc money clips and £125 pencil sharpners despite never using a pencil.
If the PCS really wanted to screw over a Fukker government, they should order all civil servants to work as hard and diligently as they could for it.
Most of them would epically screw up and the policy would either never happen or have the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
And the competent ones would implement policies that would just backfire spectacularly or be a mess anyway because the Fukkers are madder than Lettuce Lady.
The PCS primarily represents administrative, operational, and technical grades. So, the people doing day-to-day jobs in HMRC, Border Force, DWP etc. They are not the people implementing government policy. The people you’re thinking of are in the FDA.
Having been a civil servant I know what the grades are, thanks.
And I stand by my statement. You might be surprised at how many truly incredibly stupid and incompetent people there are in the lower grades and how many screw ups happen there. My personal favourite was the one who accidentally taxed a government facility at ten times the correct rate for five years, and nobody noticed.
The FDA members are a different matter and will just screw things up all the time anyway because they are so arrogant.
So all civil servants are completely incompetent except, presumably, you, when you were one?
At this point I'd like to remind everyone that sweeping generalisations are always wrong.
FDA members cant be that bright if they continually recruit useless "lower grade" civil servants and fail to train them effectively to carry out their roles.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
I hate to nitpick (natpick?) a good myth, but the motorhome was never parked on ‘Nippy’s’ drive.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
I think it comes down to what your normal level of finances are. My husband and I have separate finances so I wouldn't question how he'd paid for a couple of extra computer games or fancy socks in a month. I would question how he'd got the money for a new car as that is outside of our financial circumstances. I'd imagine that the Murrell-Sturgeon household are pretty well off so I can see some expensive watches and pens slipping by. The question in my mind was why he needed to embezzel the money in the first place. Wouldn't the accepted CEO practice be to vote yourself a pay rise to cover the new motor home?
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
I think it comes down to what your normal level of finances are. My husband and I have separate finances so I wouldn't question how he'd paid for a couple of extra computer games or fancy socks in a month. I would question how he'd got the money for a new car as that is outside of our financial circumstances. I'd imagine that the Murrell-Sturgeon household are pretty well off so I can see some expensive watches and pens slipping by. The question in my mind was why he needed to embezzel the money in the first place. Wouldn't the accepted CEO practice be to vote yourself a pay rise to cover the new motor home?
I believe they did bump his pay up as well to over £100k.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Let's face it, there is no sensible explanation that passes the skeptical politician test.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
Murrell parked the motorhome on his mother's drive, in Dunfermline. How often it was used, I dont know
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
I think it comes down to what your normal level of finances are. My husband and I have separate finances so I wouldn't question how he'd paid for a couple of extra computer games or fancy socks in a month. I would question how he'd got the money for a new car as that is outside of our financial circumstances. I'd imagine that the Murrell-Sturgeon household are pretty well off so I can see some expensive watches and pens slipping by. The question in my mind was why he needed to embezzel the money in the first place. Wouldn't the accepted CEO practice be to vote yourself a pay rise to cover the new motor home?
I believe they did bump his pay up as well to over £100k.
Ironically he's probably the only CEO in the country who's results warranted a big bonus.
"On one level it’s not exactly surprising. The idea that large parts of the civil service would treat a Farage government with horror and seek to frustrate it is what many of Reform UK’s supporters have long suspected. But the sheer brazenness with which the Blob has now declared its hand is shocking and appalling in equal measure.
Civil servants’ largest trade union, PCS, has been debating a motion to ‘’ counter a hostile Reform government with ‘sustained industrial action’. If the motion is approved, the union’s ruling NEC would draw up a resistance strategy by the end of the year. In other words, they are considering going on strike if Farage wins the next election."
It will confirms what most of his supporters have long suspected, that the civil service is institutionally soft left, and has worked to frustrate that aims of right leaning governments for many years.
The massive opportunity it gives him is that it provides cover to bring forward a very short bill allowing the government to sack striking employees, and then sack them all (CF Regan and the air traffic controllers).
They will need sacking as anyone contemplating this sort of action is by very definition not suitable to be an impartial civil servant. It will also rid out almost all his civil service opponents in one go, which will make getting the remaining civil service to do his bidding much easier. And as a final bonus, the civil service needs halving in size anyway, and this will save the government a fortune in redundancy payments.
It might also have a salutory effect to "pour encourager les autres" with regard to any other statutory bodies or the like who fancy trying to put a spanner in his works.
Well that's straight up nonsense. Are you saying civil servants have no right to take industrial action in the face of their employer seeking mass redundancies ?
While you might be right that such action turns out to be counterproductive, I don't see how it can fairly be described as a breach of impartiality.
But in this case it’s strike action simply because they don’t like the govt that has been elected.
They don’t even know what the policy platform is at the moment.
It's a straight reaction to a declared policy; those condemning the motion fully acknowledge that Reform plan to slash civil service numbers. It's pretty silly to argue that no one knows about the policy just because there isn't a manifesto yet.
..The union has rejected accusations from Reform UK that this breaches civil service impartiality, saying this is about protecting members against threats to jobs, pay, pensions, and terms and conditions...
You can't fairly argue that a union preparing to fight redundancies for its members is breaching impartiality.
The test of that would come when civil servants are ordered to make the cuts.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Let's face it, there is no sensible explanation that passes the skeptical politician test.
Far less, passes the septical wife test.
She was interviewed by Police Scotland and no charges were brought. On that basis I think we have to park our incredulity on the mother in law's driveway and take her word for it.
These old chaps are going to get a shock when Nigel uses the US insurance model to fund healthcare.
Death of the high street, no jobs, no council houses. Only one man on camera said immigration although the presenter did say it was raised more often.
But the death of the high street was linked to immigration, Wigan council providing" free vape shops". And the pointing to the corner shop was another hint at immigration I thought, albeit historical immigration. I think Nigel has tapped into a rich seam of votes.
They still might get a shock when Nigel tackles the healthcare and welfare crises.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Let's face it, there is no sensible explanation that passes the skeptical politician test.
Far less, passes the septical wife test.
Although it’s worth remembering that the gossip for a long time was that their marriage wasn’t genuine and simply a relationship of convenience, for reasons that don’t concern us here. In such a case it is perhaps less surprising that they lived their lives with a degree of detachment.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Let's face it, there is no sensible explanation that passes the skeptical politician test.
Far less, passes the septical wife test.
She was interviewed by Police Scotland and no charges were brought. On that basis I think we have to park our incredulity on the mother in law's driveway and take her word for it.
But the word is that she said nothing when interviewed by police, so she wasn't willing to put any word on the record in relation to this at all. So there's no word of hers to trust.
Now, as per the popular YouTube video from the American lawyer, that's standard advice for a police interview. Say nothing, because the police will try to trick you into contradicting yourself, or will misconstrue what you do say into incriminating yourself, even if you are entirely innocent.
But still. If she'd answered all their questions and they still didn't manage to charge her then it would look better for her than it does.
"On one level it’s not exactly surprising. The idea that large parts of the civil service would treat a Farage government with horror and seek to frustrate it is what many of Reform UK’s supporters have long suspected. But the sheer brazenness with which the Blob has now declared its hand is shocking and appalling in equal measure.
Civil servants’ largest trade union, PCS, has been debating a motion to ‘’ counter a hostile Reform government with ‘sustained industrial action’. If the motion is approved, the union’s ruling NEC would draw up a resistance strategy by the end of the year. In other words, they are considering going on strike if Farage wins the next election."
It will confirms what most of his supporters have long suspected, that the civil service is institutionally soft left, and has worked to frustrate that aims of right leaning governments for many years.
The massive opportunity it gives him is that it provides cover to bring forward a very short bill allowing the government to sack striking employees, and then sack them all (CF Regan and the air traffic controllers).
They will need sacking as anyone contemplating this sort of action is by very definition not suitable to be an impartial civil servant. It will also rid out almost all his civil service opponents in one go, which will make getting the remaining civil service to do his bidding much easier. And as a final bonus, the civil service needs halving in size anyway, and this will save the government a fortune in redundancy payments.
It might also have a salutory effect to "pour encourager les autres" with regard to any other statutory bodies or the like who fancy trying to put a spanner in his works.
Well that's straight up nonsense. Are you saying civil servants have no right to take industrial action in the face of their employer seeking mass redundancies ?
While you might be right that such action turns out to be counterproductive, I don't see how it can fairly be described as a breach of impartiality.
But in this case it’s strike action simply because they don’t like the govt that has been elected.
They don’t even know what the policy platform is at the moment.
It's a straight reaction to a declared policy; those condemning the motion fully acknowledge that Reform plan to slash civil service numbers. It's pretty silly to argue that no one knows about the policy just because there isn't a manifesto yet.
..The union has rejected accusations from Reform UK that this breaches civil service impartiality, saying this is about protecting members against threats to jobs, pay, pensions, and terms and conditions...
You can't fairly argue that a union preparing to fight redundancies for its members is breaching impartiality.
The test of that would come when civil servants are ordered to make the cuts.
Yes, so a legitimate industrial dispute.
Worth noting that these civil servants are not the "Whitehall Mandarins" who are in the FDA. They are the rank and file in agencies across the land, indeed particularly in economically deprived regions as a long standing government policy.
Britain rapidly becomes a failed state when Farage takes over. Whether due to strikes or cuts, organisations like DWP, IRS, Customs, DoH will shut down.
I am planning to fully retire from the NHS before the GE. I want no part of the shitshow.
When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.
I'd hate to be fair to Nippy but so what? When I buy my wife jewellery she doesn't know the income source. She can assume it is from my monthly earnings, and in my case she would be right.
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
And the near £15k on watches mentioned yesterday. I don't know about you but these are not the sort of things that I can buy from my monthly earnings.
Would Nippy necessarily know the value of a particular watch without Googling it? I suppose the Golf could be explained away as a lease, and why would she even feel the need to look at that?
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Let's face it, there is no sensible explanation that passes the skeptical politician test.
Far less, passes the septical wife test.
She was interviewed by Police Scotland and no charges were brought. On that basis I think we have to park our incredulity on the mother in law's driveway and take her word for it.
But the word is that she said nothing when interviewed by police, so she wasn't willing to put any word on the record in relation to this at all. So there's no word of hers to trust.
Now, as per the popular YouTube video from the American lawyer, that's standard advice for a police interview. Say nothing, because the police will try to trick you into contradicting yourself, or will misconstrue what you do say into incriminating yourself, even if you are entirely innocent.
But still. If she'd answered all their questions and they still didn't manage to charge her then it would look better for her than it does.
At this point, though, so what ?
In March 2025, Sturgeon was cleared by Police Scotland, who said she was no longer under investigation and would not be facing any charges.
If the PCS really wanted to screw over a Fukker government, they should order all civil servants to work as hard and diligently as they could for it.
Most of them would epically screw up and the policy would either never happen or have the exact opposite effect of what was intended.
And the competent ones would implement policies that would just backfire spectacularly or be a mess anyway because the Fukkers are madder than Lettuce Lady.
The PCS primarily represents administrative, operational, and technical grades. So, the people doing day-to-day jobs in HMRC, Border Force, DWP etc. They are not the people implementing government policy. The people you’re thinking of are in the FDA.
Having been a civil servant I know what the grades are, thanks.
And I stand by my statement. You might be surprised at how many truly incredibly stupid and incompetent people there are in the lower grades and how many screw ups happen there. My personal favourite was the one who accidentally taxed a government facility at ten times the correct rate for five years, and nobody noticed.
The FDA members are a different matter and will just screw things up all the time anyway because they are so arrogant.
So all civil servants are completely incompetent except, presumably, you, when you were one?
At this point I'd like to remind everyone that sweeping generalisations are always wrong.
Not necessarily, but a lot of them are quite poor - as in, can't enter data in a spreadsheet poor. And a lot of them do tend to find ways to avoid working (endless teams meetings replacing the long walk to the office water bubbler, apparently).
The catch is that while there are plenty of good ones they tend to get weighed down trying to undo the messes made by the bad ones. Which is why I'm saying that getting the latter to work harder would probably make that even worse.
"On one level it’s not exactly surprising. The idea that large parts of the civil service would treat a Farage government with horror and seek to frustrate it is what many of Reform UK’s supporters have long suspected. But the sheer brazenness with which the Blob has now declared its hand is shocking and appalling in equal measure.
Civil servants’ largest trade union, PCS, has been debating a motion to ‘’ counter a hostile Reform government with ‘sustained industrial action’. If the motion is approved, the union’s ruling NEC would draw up a resistance strategy by the end of the year. In other words, they are considering going on strike if Farage wins the next election."
It will confirms what most of his supporters have long suspected, that the civil service is institutionally soft left, and has worked to frustrate that aims of right leaning governments for many years.
The massive opportunity it gives him is that it provides cover to bring forward a very short bill allowing the government to sack striking employees, and then sack them all (CF Regan and the air traffic controllers).
They will need sacking as anyone contemplating this sort of action is by very definition not suitable to be an impartial civil servant. It will also rid out almost all his civil service opponents in one go, which will make getting the remaining civil service to do his bidding much easier. And as a final bonus, the civil service needs halving in size anyway, and this will save the government a fortune in redundancy payments.
It might also have a salutory effect to "pour encourager les autres" with regard to any other statutory bodies or the like who fancy trying to put a spanner in his works.
Well that's straight up nonsense. Are you saying civil servants have no right to take industrial action in the face of their employer seeking mass redundancies ?
While you might be right that such action turns out to be counterproductive, I don't see how it can fairly be described as a breach of impartiality.
But in this case it’s strike action simply because they don’t like the govt that has been elected.
They don’t even know what the policy platform is at the moment.
It's a straight reaction to a declared policy; those condemning the motion fully acknowledge that Reform plan to slash civil service numbers. It's pretty silly to argue that no one knows about the policy just because there isn't a manifesto yet.
..The union has rejected accusations from Reform UK that this breaches civil service impartiality, saying this is about protecting members against threats to jobs, pay, pensions, and terms and conditions...
You can't fairly argue that a union preparing to fight redundancies for its members is breaching impartiality.
The test of that would come when civil servants are ordered to make the cuts.
It's a direct blow to the right wing narrative that the civil service is unable to prepare for potential future events. It raises the possibility that without political interference the "blob" would keep the country running on a steady course, no radical reorganization or cuts. See Belgium
Comments
The sort of immigration all should welcome
So which is it - stand against him for the leadership or throw your toys out of the pram if he doesn't get it?
So much shite passing for journalism.
Off for a walk then a bit of gardening.
Rather than admit his £5m offshore loan from a very spurious source should have been retrospectively declared, he starts slandering and libeling a newspaper claiming a Russian hack.
He's now got various Security, Criminal and Financial Agencies standing up and saying, give us the evidence or perjure yourself.
The allegation from Farage if true would have a seismic impact on UK and probably NATO and EU already strained relations with Russia and trigger very punitive actions.
Of course if in desperation and attention seeking he's spouted bare faced lies he's going to have to own up and fess up very very quickly.
Let's be honest here IF ANY Politician of any credible Party pulled such a blatant and irresponsible stunt, they would be kicked out of their Party, suspended from Parliament and most likely face possible perjury or public office misconduct charges.
If he can't own up or prove his allegations, why BTW he could do once Hoc reopens under Parliamentary protection, he is in deep deep shit.
They still might get a shock when Nigel tackles the healthcare and welfare crises.
At this point I'd like to remind everyone that sweeping generalisations are always wrong.
https://edition.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0
However, if they live in New York city they don't like Mamdani much either, Cuomo won 62% of New Yorkers earning over $300,000 a year last year for example in the NYC Mayoral race to just 33% for Mamdani. Hence plenty of rich Americans are taking a break abroad in London, Singapore, Toronto, Paris, Greece, New Zealand, Sydney, Ireland etc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_City_mayoral_election#Results_2
The Golf and the Winnebago are more problematic purchases, particularly the big f*** off motorhome parked on her drive.
But we know it's OK, because Nigel Farage thinks it is not important.
For example, one Ref UK Councillor defenestrated since the election, Stuart Prior, had reportedly posted “Good. Reap it.” in response to a report of rape.
I think there are a couple of issues, One is that they crawl out from under their stones without thinking, and another is that Farage thinks he needs them so sits on his bottom unless it gets enough national profile to embarrass him.
I think an interesting reaction, if it comes (or has come), will be from Sarah Pochin, since she is an former JP, and has her constituency less than 20 miles away from Makerfield.
The £5k coffee machine, which Nicola is on video using, when it suddenly appeared in the kitchen, did she really not take a peek about how much it cost and perhaps ask WTF, £5k, on a coffee machine, are we thinking of going into business up against Starbucks?
Her excuse of well he had a high salary. £100k is a high salary, but its not footballer money, where you wouldn't blink when they bought Mont Blanc money clips and £125 pencil sharpners despite never using a pencil.
I come back to my original point. How did she not notice the Motorhome. I can't imagine Murrell explained it away by suggesting in was from purloined cash from the party, but any other explanation would raise an eyebrow.
Far less, passes the septical wife test.
It's pretty silly to argue that no one knows about the policy just because there isn't a manifesto yet.
https://news.sky.com/story/civil-service-union-votes-to-double-strike-fund-to-prepare-for-reform-government-13546558
..It (the motion) refers to the Reform leader's plans to cut 70,000 civil service jobs, saying that like Donald Trump, who has slashed thousands of federal jobs, "one of the first acts of a Farage Government is likely to be an attack on civil servants and their unions"..
..The union has rejected accusations from Reform UK that this breaches civil service impartiality, saying this is about protecting members against threats to jobs, pay, pensions, and terms and conditions...
You can't fairly argue that a union preparing to fight redundancies for its members is breaching impartiality.
The test of that would come when civil servants are ordered to make the cuts.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/gjan/29/doom-loop-of-decline-how-struggling-high-streets-fuel-far-right-sympathies-in-uk
But the massive decline of town centres seems semi-invisible to Westminster policy makers.
Now, as per the popular YouTube video from the American lawyer, that's standard advice for a police interview. Say nothing, because the police will try to trick you into contradicting yourself, or will misconstrue what you do say into incriminating yourself, even if you are entirely innocent.
But still. If she'd answered all their questions and they still didn't manage to charge her then it would look better for her than it does.
NEW THREAD
Worth noting that these civil servants are not the "Whitehall Mandarins" who are in the FDA. They are the rank and file in agencies across the land, indeed particularly in economically deprived regions as a long standing government policy.
Britain rapidly becomes a failed state when Farage takes over. Whether due to strikes or cuts, organisations like DWP, IRS, Customs, DoH will shut down.
I am planning to fully retire from the NHS before the GE. I want no part of the shitshow.
In March 2025, Sturgeon was cleared by Police Scotland, who said she was no longer under investigation and would not be facing any charges.
The catch is that while there are plenty of good ones they tend to get weighed down trying to undo the messes made by the bad ones. Which is why I'm saying that getting the latter to work harder would probably make that even worse.
‘ Robert Fripp still confused about why hospital “shaved my balls” after heart attack
"The man shaving my balls didn’t tell me," he said, while sharing an update on his health’
https://x.com/nme/status/2058855199750619170?s=61