Thursday 27th April 2023

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

It would be nice if Labour came out with a line like this, target then "they're not deporting enough, we'll deport even harder than them"

[frog222]

Morning refit



It's too early to say that the UK evacuation was by far the worst effort of any major country, but it was obviously very very far from the best --

The Times , some collected articles

https://archive.ph/1Sjen

The ten hour Hostile Environment hanging around and repeated passport checks are typical of Tory UK, while on Sunday people would have already landed in Djibouti with the Frogs . Days before several other countries had organised coach pickups around the city ….

[frog222]

OMG --

" Babiker Mohamed, a British citizen, who was speaking from his home in Stoke-on-Trent, told how his wife, Gayda, 35, and their two sons, aged 10 and six, faced a five-hour journey to the airbase. But they were not allowed to board the evacuation flight because he was not with them.

Mohamed said his family have valid visas to enter the UK but they were told that they had to have a British passport holder with them in order to be eligible for the RAF flight. "

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... cape-sudan

[gilsey]

This one, too

Mujtaba Ahmed, 31, is living in Cardiff on a tier-2 skilled worker visa as a structural engineer and his wife Mazza Hamid, 24, who lives in Khartoum recently had her UK dependent visa approved to join him.

Mr Ahmed and Ms Hamid applied for the visa four weeks ago and received the visa approval email four days ago. However, her visa documents and passport were still being processed at the TLS contact centre in Khartoum where UK visas are approved. That office is now shut, due to the violence erupting in the capital.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/woman-uk ... nd-2295608


If your story's right then she wouldn't be allowed on the plane anyway.

[tinyclanger2]

Shared use pathways anyone?
This clanger is a committed pedstrian who regards (almost) anything on wheels as more similar to each other than they are to someone moving on foot. I hadn't realised that footpaths can be indescriminately turned into shared paths (ie: converted into cyclepaths). It's almost like the world has nothing left to offer anyone who isn't a committed adrenaline junky.

[frog222]

This one, too

Mujtaba Ahmed, 31, is living in Cardiff on a tier-2 skilled worker visa as a structural engineer and his wife Mazza Hamid, 24, who lives in Khartoum recently had her UK dependent visa approved to join him.
Mr Ahmed and Ms Hamid applied for the visa four weeks ago and received the visa approval email four days ago. However, her visa documents and passport were still being processed at the TLS contact centre in Khartoum where UK visas are approved. That office is now shut, due to the violence erupting in the capital.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/woman-uk ... nd-2295608

If your story's right then she wouldn't be allowed on the plane anyway.

I had a free read, truly dreadful and just another example of extreme negligence from the FCO.
-------------------------------------------------------------

I still think 30Pee would look better in black

[refitman]

He's been lying again

[tinyclanger2]

If Labour doesn't go for PR there is literally no point in voting them in.

[tinyclanger2]

(ITCHO)

[AnatolyKasparov]

It partly depends on the election result, unfortunately. A massive majority like in 1997 and there is less chance of it happening.

(the inconvenient paradox being that, just like then, the Tories *deserve* to be crushingly defeated)

[tinyclanger2]

They do, but engaging in some long-term thinking is the only honorable thing to do.

[tinyclanger2]

I realise this is alien to most politicians but they are there to represent our interests not their own.

[tinyclanger2]

Anyroad. Step up Lithuania's Monika Linkyte to sing "Stay" in a linguistic combination of English and another language I don't recognise, but assume to be Lithuanian. (Apologies if this is incorrect, and I've offended thousands, simply by not knowing something.)

The short story with "Stay" is that there is basically nothing to see here. Monika is wearing an outfit that makes me think of Rolos (which in turn makes me realise not only that I've not had a Rolo for a while, but that I would really like one now). The voice is a bit brain-slicing and the dancing is largely ambling around - so again, nothing we haven't encountered already on this Eurovision endeavour. Musically I'd describe the piece as "earnest warbling interspersed by what's presumably intended to be a catchy side-stepping bit."

Clanger rating:
Was it fun: No
Was it dancey: No
What would Terry have said about it: Again, Terry would have been too busy catching a quick 40 winks to be able to pass comment

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Shared use pathways anyone?
This clanger is a committed pedstrian who regards (almost) anything on wheels as more similar to each other than they are to someone moving on foot. I hadn't realised that footpaths can be indescriminately turned into shared paths (ie: converted into cyclepaths). It's almost like the world has nothing left to offer anyone who isn't a committed adrenaline junky.

We have something similar round here but instead of cyclists we have motorists converting the pavements into car parks. What's most infuriating is all the houses have drives but they can't be arsed to use them so decide to make the pavements impassible instead. We had one guy running a cleaning business out of his house who parked three white vans on the pavement outside it. I collared him one day and asked him how someone in a wheelchair could get past his vans and got a mouthful of abuse so sneaked back at night with a permanent marker pen and wrote 'move your fucking vans you arsehole' across the back of all of them. They were never seen again. I'm not sure that would solve your problem though, it would be quite hard to express your frustration in prose on a moving cyclist.

[tinyclanger2]

Shared use pathways anyone?
This clanger is a committed pedstrian who regards (almost) anything on wheels as more similar to each other than they are to someone moving on foot. I hadn't realised that footpaths can be indescriminately turned into shared paths (ie: converted into cyclepaths). It's almost like the world has nothing left to offer anyone who isn't a committed adrenaline junky.

... it would be quite hard to express your frustration in prose on a moving cyclist.

I use a minimum of words (two). One begins with the letter "F" and the other with one of the other 25 (can vary).

As for cars on pavements (or indeed cars at all) don't get me started ...

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Is this 'Starmer doesn't want PR' thing new? I thought we'd know this for months?

If Labour were a truly democratic party it would be policy because a vast majority of the members and most of the affiliated unions support it but any sniff of winning an electoral majority under FPTP means the parliamentary party will ignore their wishes. This was a true of Corbyn and all who came before him as it is of Starmer. It's pure self interest and unless they're forced into it nothing will change.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Ladies night!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

The short story with "Stay" is that there is basically nothing to see here.

Yeah I can see why you were struggling with that one. It's so forgettable I can't remember if I watched it or not.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Why can't QT make up its mind about a 4 or 5 person panel? I know its hardly the most important problem with it, but still.

[refitman]

Ladies night!

Three Tories and a centrist? Doesn't exactly seem balanced.

[gilsey]

The centrist being Moran?

[refitman]

The centrist being Moran?

I couldn't possibly say

[gilsey]

A rare bit of good news.

https://archive.ph/2uGnn

UK government U-turns on plan to scrap or revise all EU law
Fury among Eurosceptics at news that 4,000 pieces of Brussels legislation will stay on statute books

The UK government is set to abandon its controversial plan to review or scrap all EU-era law by the end of 2023, in a move which has sparked fury among Tory Eurosceptics.

[frog222]

The centrist being Moran?

Well Nandy belongs to the Starmer Party, and I only just found out who Twominey is, she's a GB News freak, so that leaves Moran !

[frog222]

A rare bit of good news.
https://archive.ph/2uGnn

UK government U-turns on plan to scrap or revise all EU law
Fury among Eurosceptics at news that 4,000 pieces of Brussels legislation will stay on statute books
The UK government is set to abandon its controversial plan to review or scrap all EU-era law by the end of 2023, in a move which has sparked fury among Tory Eurosceptics.

Sneaky archive link !

The Brexit Fundamentalists are as bad as the DUP, who actually want a return to a hard border in Ireland .... '50000jobs lost are a price they'd pay ..."

[AnatolyKasparov]

Calling either Moran (very much on the left of the LibDems) or Nandy a Tory is pretty silly tbh.

(if the latter had won the Labour leadership, the lefties on here might be a bit happier - though probably not regarding Brexit admittedly)

[refitman]

This Lisa Nandy?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

QT tonight came from Greenford. Somewhere fairly well off in London judging by the accents.

For the Tories we had Rachel Maclean. Rachel has the stern demeanour of a strict headmistress (public school obviously) curiously combined with that of a sad dog. A sort of downcast irascibility which doesn't serve you well while being laughed at. Which Rachel was. Three times. First for claiming brexit has nothing to do with our economic woes, then for embarrassingly failing to back up a claim she made that the last Labour government built the least amount of houses since the 1920's, and then again for trying to blame the Conservatives' lack of housebuilding on 'Labour's financial crash'. Added to this she took offence on behalf of the armed forces for criticism of the evacuation from Sudan despite nobody blaming them. Contradicted the Foreign Secretary about who should be evacuated before it was pointed out she was contradicting him then did a complete volte-face and said she agreed with him. Then got tetchy with members of the audience when they pointed out the government had not in fact halved their heating bills. I mean it was a complete shit show, if I were a better man I'd have felt some measure of pity, but I'm not, she deserved to be mocked, and it goes some way to explaining why this country is in such a mess when someone so evidently inept can become a government minister.

For Labour we had Lisa Nandy. I've said it many times before and I'm going to say it again, whether you agree with her politics or not Lisa is by far and away the best communicator Labour has. Unlike poor plastic robot Wes last week tonight we had Lisa not only talking like the rest of us humans but showing genuine human emotions. Her irritation with Rachel's nonsense was genuine, when she smiled at audience members when they asked a question it seemed genuine, her anger at the Tory mismanagement of this country was obviously genuine. I keep using the word because unlike a lot of her colleagues in the Labour party she doesn't come across as a programmed automaton coached to give the correct responses, she seems...genuine. What also helps is her pugnacious refusal to take any shit but if I'd been her tonight I'd have been tempted to have words with Fiona Bruce who would not stop interrupting her. On the politics side her finest moment came tonight when she reeled off a number of reforms to the housing and rental sector that are long overdue which got a huge round of applause.

For the Lib Dems we had Layla Moran. Ah Layla, what can I say, she was awesome and I can just see her taking those glasses off and shaking her lustrous hair, perhaps in a library where she works and I've come to return an overdue book and she's about to give me a fine but at that moment our eyes meet and my bosom begins to heave. 'You realise this fine is higher because of brexit', she says and I feel the throbbing tumescence of my remainer passion rise. 'I know', I reply, 'I hate brexit'. At which she grabs me by my shirt and forces me against the wall, her face mere inches from my own. 'If you really hate brexit then prove it', she says while....

Ahem, sorry, that was a bit weird I don't know what happened.

For the Telegraph and GB news we had Camilla Tominey. As usual when faced with real people Camilla pretended not to be right wing and wasted everyone's time.

[AnatolyKasparov]

This Lisa Nandy?

She never said that (indeed, it is doubtful that anybody used those actual words)

Why do you believe this, and not that John McDonnell said Esther McVey should be lynched?

Both widely believed and promulgated on social media, both untrue.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Apologies for the lateness of that review I had to witness Man Utd making dicks of themselves before watching QT.

[RogerOThornhill]

For today's breathtaking hypocrisy, this takes some beating...look at when she was allowed to stay in the UK...

[Sky'sGoneOut]

What's wrong with being a 'centrist'? I would class myself as centre left. There's a lot of us about.

I can't be doing with all this Twitter shite that keeps being repeated, especially by self important Labour members who think the universe revolves around them.

You don't get to define 'the left' or judge anyone based on your own insular tendentious scale of leftiness.

It's both arrogant and fucking tiresome.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Sorry if that upsets anyone but as a 'centrist' I feel it's high time we came out and started kicking some arse. Obviously not really hard though, a kind of medium strength kick, like a tired zebra.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Take drugs kids.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]