General UK politics

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"Government dealt string of defeats on post-Brexit immigration bill in Lords

Peers have backed a call for unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with close relatives in the UK as they inflicted a series of defeats on Boris Johnson's flagship post-Brexit immigration bill.

The Lords overwhelmingly supported an amendment by Lord Dubs, who himself fled the Nazis as a child, to restore potections after the EU transition period ends later this year.

Before the vote Lord Dubs had asked: “Surely it is right that when there are young people who have got relatives here that family reunion must be a basic, basic thing that we should support?"

The vote was one of a number of defeats home secretary Priti Patel suffered as peers considered the legislation in the Lords, just hours after she pledged to ‘fix’ what she said was a broken asylum system."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...ation-bill-in-lords/ar-BB19IXYl?ocid=msedgdhp
 


So many parallels:
Churchill sought to use his wartime popularity as part of his campaign to keep the Conservatives in power after a wartime coalition had been spent since 1940 with the other political parties, but he faced questions from public opinion surrounding the Conservatives' actions in the 1930s and his ability to handle domestic issues unrelated to warfare. Clement Attlee, who led the Labour Party, was seen as a more competent leader by voters, particularly those who feared a return to the levels of unemployment in the 1930s and sought a strong figurehead in British politics to lead the postwar rebuilding of the country. Opinion polls when the election was called showed strong approval ratings for Churchill, but Labour had gradually gained support for months prior to the war's conclusion.
 
Boris says it should be done by private enterprise and not state lead though. So no comparison with post ww2 at all.
 
It’ll be OK, we’ll all be able to retrain as cinema projectionists, lock-keepers, or boxers.

Boxer or lock-keeper? Government careers quiz scorned by users

A government jobs quiz aimed at identifying potential new areas of work provides a string of unhelpful career suggestions including lock-keeping and boxing as well as currently precarious posts including airline pilot and cinema projectionist, users have complained.
 
Imagine how it would be now if Ed Milliband had won the election in 2015. A properly funded NHS with nurses and doctors who aren't demoralised, a public sector able to deal with the pandemic and stability instead of chaos and the disaster plus, no Brexit.
But there was a picture of him eating a bacon sandwich so obviously he wasn't fit to be Prime Minister.
 
It may be the usual nostalgia effect, but I do not recall the UK having such a corrupt and incompetent government in my lifetime as we have now. While I may have disagreed (violently in some cases) with the policies, at least the people in the Cabinet were generally able to do their jobs, and with at least some semblance of doing things for the public good rather than lining the pockets of their friends.
 
There's been the odd numpty or eejit in most cabinets during my life time (I'm in my early 60s), but this bunch aren't even sensible or competent enough to make it as numpties or eejits, well off into couldn't find the brewery for the drunken entertainment category.

Definitely NOT nostalgia.
 
No 10 press secretary Allegra Stratton is married to the Spectator political editor who works with the commissioning editor married to Dominic Cummings adviser to Boris Johnson. The Spectator is part of Press Holdings: chairman Andrew Neil & owned by Barclay Bros.
 
No 10 press secretary Allegra Stratton is married to the Spectator political editor who works with the commissioning editor married to Dominic Cummings adviser to Boris Johnson. The Spectator is part of Press Holdings: chairman Andrew Neil & owned by Barclay Bros.

Here in Whitehall we have a lucrative contract to hand out, so hold on to your sears as it's time to spin "The Wheel of Nepotisim"!
 
The difference today is that more people have access to the information and you have lots of people not from the establishment willing to "publish" this information. Go back to Thatcher's years and they were all in it for backhanders, non-exec directorships, jobs and lucrative contracts and the like. Go back to the 60s and 70s and it was even worse, up to their necks for access to the "glamour" of the gangsters, to sex workers and all the rest.

And never forget that Major's years were embroiled in constant sleaze of every kind not just "family values", the press had enough sex stories to get them sales they didn't have space for all the other sleaze!

So I would say that they were equally incompetent back then, in fact I'd say they were worse because there was zero expectation that ministers were meant to do anything and be competent, it is a sign of a (very slow) change in culture that we now expect ministers to be competent and do something!
 
Following on from Patels stance on immigration:

"A “violent, racist attack” in which a man entered a law firm in London armed with a knife was inspired by a speech given by Priti Patel, lawyers have claimed.

On 7 September, a 28-year-old man entered the office of a law firm whose identity has been withheld, armed with a knife. He was subsequently charged with assault, racially aggravated public disorder, possession of, and making threats with, a bladed article in a public place and making threats to kill.

Days earlier, the home secretary had complained about “activist lawyers” who were working to delay the removal of failed asylum seekers."

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/knife-attack-law-firm-inspired-154456285.html
 
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Following on from Patels stance on immigration:

"A “violent, racist attack” in which a man entered a law firm in London armed with a knife was inspired by a speech given by Priti Patel, lawyers have claimed.

On 7 September, a 28-year-old man entered the office of a law firm whose identity has been withheld, armed with a knife. He was subsequently charged with assault, racially aggravated public disorder, possession of, and making threats with, a bladed article in a public place and making threats to kill.

Days earlier, the home secretary had complained about “activist lawyers” who were working to delay the removal of failed asylum seekers."

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/knife-attack-law-firm-inspired-154456285.html

Next up is black sites and kidnappings leaving targeted people in overburdened rafts on sea, who then risk being capsized by the Coast Guard to make them drown.
 
Imagine how it would be now if Ed Milliband had won the election in 2015. A properly funded NHS with nurses and doctors who aren't demoralised, a public sector able to deal with the pandemic and stability instead of chaos and the disaster plus, no Brexit.
But there was a picture of him eating a bacon sandwich so obviously he wasn't fit to be Prime Minister.

Plus he got scared as the election drew in and dropped every single policy Labour had and began aping the tories.

It may be the usual nostalgia effect, but I do not recall the UK having such a corrupt and incompetent government in my lifetime as we have now. While I may have disagreed (violently in some cases) with the policies, at least the people in the Cabinet were generally able to do their jobs, and with at least some semblance of doing things for the public good rather than lining the pockets of their friends.

The joke doing the rounds in diplomatic circles during the Thatcher years was how easily and cheaply UK ministers could be bought. I think the going rate was £10,000 for a Cabinet Secretary, and a bit of plamásing for the PM herself.
 
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How come Cummings gets away with £50k unpaid council tax when people have been sent to jail for owing a tiny fraction of that?
 
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