UK General Election

[Darat]

Another area that the Tories shot themselves in the foot was the security issue. Proposing huge cuts to the Police budget while saying you will make Britian safer was really, really, stupid, and Labor was not slow to take advantage of it.

What I think is quite ironic was that Labour's policy to increase police numbers was (because of Abbott flubs) all over the media for days and earned them quite a lot of ridicule. So when the terrible attacks happen people already knew which party was against further cuts to the police without any whiff of Labour being opportunistic.

 

[dudalb]

And a second Indy Referendum for Scotland is DOA. The Scots simply did not want to go thorough that again so soon, and the SNP made a big mistake in pushing it so hard. They tried to back down and emphszise other issues in the last couple of weeks,but the damage was done.

 

[baron]

What I think is quite ironic was that Labour's policy to increase police numbers was (because of Abbott flubs) all over the media for days and earned them quite a lot of ridicule. So when the terrible attacks happen people already knew which party was against further cuts to the police without any whiff of Labour being opportunistic.

And yet I know full well you have read posts that explain that the security services have not been cut, they have actually increased, and how the armed police numbers will be at their highest ever level within three years. Or are we to believe that these terrorist attacks have all been thwarted by unarmed uniformed officers? Corbyn is against arming any police!

 

[dudalb]

Denial is not just a river in Egypt....

 

[Darat]

And yet I know full well you have read posts that explain that the security services have not been cut, they have actually increased, and how the armed police numbers will be at their highest ever level within three years. Or are we to believe that these terrorist attacks have all been thwarted by unarmed uniformed officers? Corbyn is against arming any police!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...es-budgets-tories-london-attack-a7775351.html

...snip...While Osborne’s decision in 2015 to protect police budgets was extremely welcome within a service that was anticipating further cuts, work by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has catalogued how total police spending had already fallen by 14% or 3.7% a year in real-terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. Looking at the government’s new commitment, the same researchers have indicated that police budgets are estimated to remain “broadly flat” in cash terms between 2015-16 and 2016-17. ...snip....

...snip.... This resulted in the loss of 17,000 police officers by December 2015. In the Sky/Channel 4 interview, May admitted that the number of police had decreased from 141,850 in 2010 when the Conservatives came in to 124,000 in 2017. ...snip...

 

[Craig B]

And yet I know full well you have read posts that explain that the security services have not been cut, they have actually increased, and how the armed police numbers will be at their highest ever level within three years. Or are we to believe that these terrorist attacks have all been thwarted by unarmed uniformed officers? Corbyn is against arming any police!

Where do you get this from? You used to say that one of his associates probably did this essentially. You have abandoned these caveats. So now give me your source stating Corbyn wants police to be unarmed while dealing with armed terrorists engaged in murdering people.

Can you not see that such shameless propaganda has in fact helped Corbyn by being so ridiculous?

 

[David RP]

And a second Indy Referendum for Scotland is DOA. The Scots simply did not want to go thorough that again so soon, and the SNP made a big mistake in pushing it so hard. They tried to back down and emphszise other issues in the last couple of weeks,but the damage was done.

Yes there is a big reversal of that but a reversal was expected. The scale of the reversal surprised people yes but we had rather unprecedented things like labour telling people to vote tactically for Tory to keep SNP out.

I think Robertson is a big loss to Parliament not just the SNP as he was very good at his job.

The Tory surge is on the back of the unionist vote but more people voted SNP than voted Tory.

Perhaps the Scottish constituencies that voted Tory should be subject to Tory policies instead of being shielded by the Snp

 

[Garrison]

So as a labour voter I'm pretty happy with this outcome, big jump in votes, more seats and probably an end to the infighting over Corbyn's leadership(yeah I'm stunned, he's not completely useless). At the same time a crippled Conservative government and lame duck May get stuck with the poison chalice of the Brexit negotiations.

 

[baron]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...es-budgets-tories-london-attack-a7775351.html

What's the daft face for? From your very own article (did you even read it?)

The key partner in counter-terrorism is the security service, MI5, which since 2004 has witnessed enhanced budgets and expansion. In the wake of the London 7/7 attacks in 2005, regional Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Units were also established across the country. Although these are made up of a number of different security agencies, they are effectively led by the police.​

May is correct to say that counter-terrorism budgets have been protected – since November 2015 – but this includes the security service not merely the police service.​

Here's some detail:

https://fullfact.org/crime/have-armed-police-numbers-been-cut/

In March 2016 there were 3,888 counter-terrorism/Special Branch officers working in police forces across England and Wales. A year previously it was 3,733 officers. Again, these are full-time equivalent figures.​

The site also describes how armed police are almost at their peak maximum.

That suggests the number as of April 2017 would be about 6,300 firearms officers. That’s a drop of about 700 officers since 2010.

Once the training round is completed, the NPCC expects the number of firearms officers to be back over 7,000, similar to the levels at the start of this decade.​

Where do you get this from? You used to say that one of his associates probably did this essentially. You have abandoned these caveats.

Nonsense. Here is the exact same Corbyn quote I used in my post and which I know you read because you commented on it!

I’m not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general. I think that is quite dangerous and I think can often be counter-productive. I think you have to have security that prevents people firing off weapons where you can​

So now give me your source stating Corbyn wants police to be unarmed while dealing with armed terrorists engaged in murdering people.

There you have it. He said this in the direct aftermath of the Paris attacks when being interviewed by the BBC.

Can you not see that such shameless propaganda has in fact helped Corbyn by being so ridiculous?

Can you not see that such shameless misrepresentation of what I post, time and again, makes your arguments looks totally desperate?

 

[Garrison]

Oh and Kensington is finally confirmed, Labour gain by 20 votes. My sympathies to the poor unfortunate counters who had to wade through the votes three times.

 

[ddt]

So as a labour voter I'm pretty happy with this outcome, big jump in votes, more seats and probably an end to the infighting over Corbyn's leadership(yeah I'm stunned, he's not completely useless). At the same time a crippled Conservative government and lame duck May get stuck with the poison chalice of the Brexit negotiations.

... and do so with the support of the protestant Taliban.

 

[angrysoba]

But with flying you always have passport controls. When I fly from Amsterdam to Rome - within the Schengen Area - I also have passport control. However, when I get in my car and drive to Rome, or to Cadiz, or to Budapest, I have no passport controls whatsoever.

Right now, Ireland is not part of Schengen because it has the CTA, a similar agreement with the UK. After Brexit, that reason is gone and the inner-Irish border is the outer border of the EU. The default would be that it becomes a similar border as between, say, Poland and Belarus.

A second option would be that Ireland-the-island would become part of Schengen. But the DUP said they don't want a special EU status for NI, so they shot that down.

A third option would be that the Irish Republic doesn't join Schengen, but it's EU policy that everybody joins in due time, and most EU states are, I think, very happy to be rid of the most meddlesome "I want an exception" member.

No. As I said, there is no passport control when you fly from Dublin to Bristol.

 

[dudalb]

... and do so with the support of the protestant Taliban.

A moment while we sing The new Tory Party Anthem;

"It is old but it is beautiful,
The colors they are fine.
Twas worn at old Derry's walls,
at Enskillen and the Boyne.....

And I will proudly wear the Bright Orange Sash,
That my fathers wore"...

 

[Craig B]

Or are we to believe that these terrorist attacks have all been thwarted by unarmed uniformed officers? Corbyn is against arming any police! ... Nonsense. Here is the exact same Corbyn quote I used in my post and which I know you read because you commented on it!

I’m not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general. I think that is quite dangerous and I think can often be counter-productive. I think you have to have security that prevents people firing off weapons where you can​

There you have it. He said this in the direct aftermath of the Paris attacks when being interviewed by the BBC.

You do not believe, any more than I believe, that thinking a shoot to kill policy can be dangerous and counter productive is the same thing as being against arming any police. You can't believe that, so there's no point in my commenting on it.

Can you not see that such shameless misrepresentation of what I post, time and again, makes your arguments looks totally desperate?

You can't believe that, so there's no point in my commenting on it.

 

[ddt]

No. As I said, there is no passport control when you fly from Dublin to Bristol.

Damn, yes, I misread. Was that your whole flight, or one leg of a connection? Or is just the CTA more lenient than what's done these days in the Schengen area?

 

[angrysoba]

Damn, yes, I misread. Was that your whole flight, or one leg of a connection? Or is just the CTA more lenient than what's done these days in the Schengen area?

It was the entire flight. We went through passport control in Dublin, disembark at Bristol and are taken through a "UK, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland" route which involves baggage reclaim and then straight out the door into the arrivals lounge.

 

[Vixen]

So with the Tory alliance with the loony nutter DUP's (think, ranting Ian Paisley) can we expect to see Creationist theory replacing Biology in schools, more mother-and-baby homes built, and people like Graham Norton subjected to Oscar Wilde-type trials?

 

[angrysoba]

So with the Tory alliance with the loony nutter DUP's (think, ranting Ian Paisley) can we expect to see Creationist theory replacing Biology in schools, more mother-and-baby homes built, and people like Graham Norton subjected to Oscar Wilde-type trials?

They told me that if I didn't vote for Theresa May we would end up with a coalition of chaos of blithering incompetents and terrorist sympathizers.


They were right.

 

[ddt]

It was the entire flight. We went through passport control in Dublin, disembark at Bristol and are taken through a "UK, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland" route which involves baggage reclaim and then straight out the door into the arrivals lounge.

Ah, OK, so you have passport control on the departure side but not on the arrival side. Now I have to think really hard what I've encountered inside Schengen... could very well be the same.

 

[ddt]

From the Guardian:

Following her tweet, Davidson told BBC Scotland she has received an assurance from Theresa May on protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or intersex (LGBTI) rights in Northern Ireland.

I was fairly straightforward with her and I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than party. One of them is country, one of the others is LGBTI rights.

She said she received, a “categoric assurance” from the prime minister that an arrangement between the Conservatives and the DUP would see “absolutely no rescission of LGBTI rights in the rest of the UK”.

That "rest of the UK" sounds very much like "England, Scotland and Wales" and that the DUP would be at liberty to discriminate against LGBTI in NI...