FlyTheNest

Morning all.

Thank you. I was beginning to think there was nobody there.

Terrible ice here this morning. It snowed yesterday evening, then melted a bit, then froze.

PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Thank you. I was beginning to think there was nobody there.

Terrible ice here this morning. It snowed yesterday evening, then melted a bit, then froze.

Friends from Huddersfield on Facebook earlier in the week. Someone took 3 hours to get to Golcar from Leeds Road. 90 minutes to Lindley and Almondbury!

Madness!

@jpjanson
21 minutes ago

BREAKING: Scientists worldwide startled as Boris Johnson's ego:talent ratio nears infinity.

howsillyofme1 wrote:

PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Thank you. I was beginning to think there was nobody there.

Terrible ice here this morning. It snowed yesterday evening, then melted a bit, then froze.

Friends from Huddersfield on Facebook earlier in the week. Someone took 3 hours to get to Golcar from Leeds Road. 90 minutes to Lindley and Almondbury!

Madness!

Yes I was there (well actually in a pub waiting for buses to restart ) and of course the usual suspects are having a go at the council because there aren't enough gritters, without thinking for one second that it's what they voted for.

Anyone else seen this thread?

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jeremy Hunt Tweeted "Really clever use of technology at @IpswichHosp to ensure safe staffing levels" and attached a photo of a standard staffing chart with so much red on it that it's quite obvious that there were not safe staffing levels.

Laugh or cry?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ill-brexit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Boris will fight them on the bridges … but is he Churchill? I’m afraid not" - Marina Hyde

If you haven’t read his Churchill book, it is hugely recommended as a psychiatric document – for all the horrifying and hilarious things it unwittingly reveals about its author. I can never believe his therapist let him publish it. By the end, it’s quite clear that you have not read Churchill’s story so much as Boris’s attempt to get you to see anything he might have done, or might ever do, as Churchillian. All politicians are self-interested gamblers with events, Johnson explains, and Churchill “put his shirt on a horse called anti-Nazism … his bet came off in spectacular fashion”. Mmmm. It probably helps to imagine Churchill spending a Sunday morning
writing two columns – the first advocating resisting Hitler, the second making the case for supporting totalitarian conquest of Europe and the elimination of Jews.

Very long thread about public procurement
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ian Makgill
‏

@ianmakgill
23h23 hours ago
More
2/ The biggest problem that we face is that more and more money is going to fewer and fewer suppliers. In Local Government, 20 companies earn more than the 75,000 small businesses that supply the sector.

Ian Makgill
‏

@ianmakgill
23h23 hours ago
More
4/ We’ve analysed the spend of 300 public bodies, between 2011 and 2016 just three of them had no trade at all with Capita, another major outsourcing firm. We're becoming dependent on firms like this.

https://www.conservativehome.com/thetor ... -film.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Why are audiences breaking into applause after the new Churchill film?"
I haven't seen it, and don't intend to, but I'd hope it was in praise, not for some twisted Brexit reason as writer would like. Some of the replies are interesting (?), some make the Paul Goodman look balanced (it's Conservativehome).

PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Anyone else seen this thread?

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jeremy Hunt Tweeted "Really clever use of technology at @IpswichHosp to ensure safe staffing levels" and attached a photo of a standard staffing chart with so much red on it that it's quite obvious that there were not safe staffing levels.

Laugh or cry?

He is genuinely dense. That hasn't stopped some credulous hacks recently talking him up as a future Tory leader, however

Gina Miller‏
@thatginamiller

Everyone - irrespective of how you feel about #Brexit should read this report
#safeguarding children after Brexit – UK in a changing Europe http://ukandeu.ac.uk/safeguarding-child ... jk.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Safeguarding children after Brexit
Kate Green MP

http://ukandeu.ac.uk/safeguarding-child ... jk.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

tinybgoat wrote:https://www.conservativehome.com/thetor ... -film.html
"Why are audiences breaking into applause after the new Churchill film?"
I haven't seen it, and don't intend to, but I'd hope it was in praise, not for some twisted Brexit reason as writer would like. Some of the replies are interesting (?), some make the Paul Goodman look balanced (it's Conservativehome).

The claim btl that the applauders have mostly been in US cinemas does ring rather true, tbh.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/ ... buy-to-let" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Milton Keynes: UK capital of ‘right-to-buy-to-let’

[youtube]1B88VUROxFg[/youtube]

Voters should be able to change their minds on referendums, says Speaker
John Bercow says people on the losing side do not have to accept their case is lost for ever

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ys-speaker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42754868" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Mary Lou McDonald set to be new Sinn Féin president

Not sure if any relation to Looby

[youtube]ttMt9SHRwsM[/youtube]

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

tinybgoat wrote:https://www.conservativehome.com/thetor ... -film.html
"Why are audiences breaking into applause after the new Churchill film?"
I haven't seen it, and don't intend to, but I'd hope it was in praise, not for some twisted Brexit reason as writer would like. Some of the replies are interesting (?), some make the Paul Goodman look balanced (it's Conservativehome).

The claim btl that the applauders have mostly been in US cinemas does ring rather true, tbh.

I suppose, To be fair (& based on my own sheep like tendencies), it just takes one person to start clapping & if they've made it a thing now..

http://unitelive.org/landmark-deal-2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I enjoyed reading this about better terms for London bus drivers. Accepting it's Unite spin, it's still a glimpse of a better world.

Good morfternoon.

Good-afternoon, everyone

Afternoon all.

My neck and shoulders are telling me not to sit in front of the computer all afternoon and go take a long walk.

The weather, however, has other ideas...

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2018/01/fitne ... tation-go/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RogerOThornhill wrote:Afternoon all.

My neck and shoulders are telling me not to sit in front of the computer all afternoon and go take a long walk.

The weather, however, has other ideas...

Follow your neck and shoulders advice, I ended up.off work for a few days in 2016 for similar & in agony sitting down (though this may not have been helped by works physio), Raising monitor up to eye level improved, but currently going to osteopath which has helped greatly.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... ing-216482" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"The Secret to Henry Kissinger’s Success"
Long read, adapted from even longer read
THE SQUARE AND THE TOWER: Networks and Power, from Freemasons to Facebook by Niall Ferguson

https://pando-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/u ... .09_pm.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... 15facd7f7c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was just going to ask if there was anyone there

Missed this, but wonder how stable the DUP support is.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/secre ... -1-8337807" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Secretary of State Karen Bradley retracts claim about DUP’s £1bn deal"

New Secretary of State Karen Bradley has wrongly claimed that the £1 billion secured by the DUP could not be spent until ministers are in place in Belfast – but rapidly clarified her own remarks after the DUP said that she was incorrect.
Read more at: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/secre ... -1-8337807" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems to be some distrust of when (or if) the money's going to be received.
https://sluggerotoole.com/2018/01/20/th ... rty-talks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"The extra £1 billion promised to the DUP is still a card to play in the renewed party talks"

"A White House statement issued just before midnight said “this is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators”."

- US government enters shutdown after Senate rejects funding bill

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... nding-bill" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A leader doesn't speak about people like that, an irresponsible, insecure and weak little person does.

"The problems start from the top and have to get solved from the top," he said. "The president is the leader, and he's got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead."


Trump re.'13 16 day shutdown.

Totally off the wall Twitter thread. A pisstake of Donald Trump/ tribute to to Victoria Wood. Worth reading to the end:

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Another thread, making yet another obvious point about things we didn't bother to think about before we held an EU referendum.

Matthew Holehouse
@mattholehouse
·
19 Jan
A bridge is probably quite a good idea, when you consider what Brexit might do to Eurotunnel's business model

Matthew Holehouse
@mattholehouse
Eurostar: "should the UK leave the customs union... these new customs obligations would be very difficult to put in place in the restricted space available in stations, and would make our current cargo business (Eurodespatch) economically unviable."
9:38 am · 19 Jan 2018

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[youtube]nDxhugRKZ8g[/youtube]

AngryAsWell wrote:Voters should be able to change their minds on referendums, says Speaker
John Bercow says people on the losing side do not have to accept their case is lost for ever

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ys-speaker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am a firm believer in the notion that only the laws of physics are immutable.

A year to the day after Trump took office, government goes into shutdown as nationwide protests take aim at his divisive presidency
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... mens-march" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not great to see Peter Kyle, one of the less bad "moderate" Labour MPs on the whole, making a tit of himself.

Willow904 wrote:Totally off the wall Twitter thread. A pisstake of Donald Trump/ tribute to to Victoria Wood. Worth reading to the end:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brilliant ! Thanks

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Not great to see Peter Kyle, one of the less bad "moderate" Labour MPs on the whole, making a tit of himself.

What has he done ?

Accused the likes of Abbott and Corbyn of not caring about gay rights, pretty much. There are lots of things that can be said about them, but I think that one is a bit hard to sustain.

I was an outsourced Carillion hospital worker. Here’s what I learned
Polly Toynbee Polly Toynbee

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... asury-work" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"A while ago I worked for Carillion as a hospital porter. Or at least I worked for an agency that provided labour for Carillion – as these outsourcers always themselves outsource, to cut costs further. I was researching my book Hard Work, but try as I might, in every single public sector job I failed to work for the public sector.

Every minimum-wage-level job was outsourced in the two NHS hospitals where I worked, in a primary school kitchen and in a government nursery. Austerity causes the number of public employees to keep falling. But try to find out how many apparently public employees work for these companies, and no one knows.

Blame for outsourcing starts with Margaret Thatcher’s compulsory competitive tendering, which was forced on councils and others. Public managers still doing it often do so reluctantly, under the cost-cutting extremes of Treasury austerity, as lowest-paid employees take the hardest hit.

Carillion had taken over this large London teaching hospital’s portering, cleaning and other services. Its cuts meant there were too few porters to fetch and wheel soaring numbers of patients, leaving wards and operating theatres impatient at delays. Before outsourcing, there had been 16 porters, but they were cut to 11. This is how outsourcing works – cutting staff and holding down pay. Agency workers were paid less than the old staff Carillion had taken over."

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Accused the likes of Abbott and Corbyn of not caring about gay rights, pretty much. There are lots of things that can be said about them, but I think that one is a bit hard to sustain.

Do you mean this:

Peter Kyle MP
@peterkyle
·
5h
She may forget the support he got, but people like me remember the support we got from his govt.

As a gay man practically every freedom I enjoy today was delivered by Blair’s govt. For that alone I will never forget and always be thankful

In response to this:

PoliticsHome
@politicshome
Triumphant Diane Abbott declares: 'No one can now remember that they supported Tony Blair'

(link: https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/fo ... w-remember" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) politicshome.com/news/uk/foreig…

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Accused the likes of Abbott and Corbyn of not caring about gay rights, pretty much. There are lots of things that can be said about them, but I think that one is a bit hard to sustain.

He's gay I think, so his perceptions may be a bit keener than those who aren't. Plus I think context matters so without reading his actual statement can't really say if he's right or wrong.

Chuka Umunna
‏Verified account

@ChukaUmunna
1m1 minute ago

Poll in tmr’s Observer: among all potential Labour voters at the next election, 56% want the party to back permanent membership of the single market and customs union, while just 13% think it should remain opposed @laboursinglemkt

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... membership" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MPs on the warpath over academy trust accountability

The government should publish “scorecards” for academy trusts and base decisions on whether they are allowed to grow both on educational and financial performance, an influential group of MPs has said.

The parliamentary education committee has warned of a “lack of joined-up accountability in the school system”, particularly over failed trusts like the doomed Wakefield City Academies Trust, and is demanding improvements to the way their performance is assessed by officials and communicated to parents and staff.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/mps-on-the-wa ... ntability/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pascal Jacquemain #FBPE‏
@jacquep
Following Following @jacquep

People are crowdfunding to buy Katie Hopkins’ house to turn it into a Refugee Shelter https://evolvepolitics.com/people-are-c ... e-shelter/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … via @EvolvePolitics

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Four local council byelections this past week:

Rochford DC - LibDem hold, beating the Tories in a straight fight by over 3 to 1 - a significant swing to them since 2016 when this council had all out elections and 3 LibDems were returned here (though Independent and Labour candidates also stood then) Prior to the boundary changes then, a similar ward had returned LibDems with big majorities since previous all-outs elected two of them come 2002 in what was then a two member ward; only on GE in 2015 was it remotely close, when UKIP also polled decently in their only appearance here. But this has since reverted to being a very safe LibDem stronghold, something that is not all that common these days.

Milton Keynes - Tory hold a safe ward in the still mainly rural north of this unitary borough with over half the vote, up 5 points since last year. This ward first voted in its present form come the 2014 all-out elections after boundary changes, one of the previous wards had usually voted LibDem but on this occasion three Tory councillors were safely elected and they duly again won handily in 2015 and 2016. In 2014 UKIP had actually finished second and even two years ago they still polled a significant vote, but their absence now meant Labour also improved to a quarter of the vote and held on to the (albeit distant) second place that they achieved in the previous two elections here. LibDems not far behind also improving their vote, but given their past strength this result may be slightly disappointing for them.

Bolton - Tory gain from Labour with nearly half the vote, an increase of over 16% since the last contest in 2016 and a swing of nearly 7% in their favour. This result may become more explicable given this ward's past history - after returning 3 Tories in the 2004 all-out elections (though Labour were competitive in what is a polarised area) they won every subsequent election - though normally not overwhelmingly - for a decade, even holding on in Labour's best recent year of 2012. But then UKIP appeared, and in 2014 they won in their first outing here - it was a close 3 party fight, as were the subsequent contests in 2015 and '16, though UKIP were pushed into a close third in both of them. This time round, they collapsed by three quarters to just 6% of the vote - and, aided by local issues (especially controversial development proposals) the Tories scooped up most of this even though Labour were able to also improve to almost exactly 40%. LibDems little changed and they overtook the Greens who saw their share halved to less than 2% and last place.

Bournemouth - Independent hold in a ward that was one of the few not to vote Tory en bloc in 2015, when it split 1ind/2C (the former topped the poll) after voting in a full slate of 3 Indies in 2011 and 2007 (Tories won a seat in 2003 when there were only two Independent candidates) In a fairly fragmented contest, the winner had a relatively modest 31% of the vote, just ahead of the Tories who dropped slightly on three years ago. Labour had notably strong GE results in Bournemouth last year, and that was reflected here as they came a good third with nearly 24% of the poll, close to double their score when coming 4th last time (behind UKIP, yet again an absentee on this occasion) One of the former UKIP candidates here stood as another Independent now and scored a more modest 7%, still ahead of the LibDems who stood for the first time since 2007. Greens last with less than 2%, some 10 points down on 2015 when they were just behind Labour.

Just the one contest to end the month next week - but February gets a *lot* busier.

Thank you AK

Ken Clarke: 'I am very glad I am here. It’s the maddest situation I have seen in my entire political career'

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/po ... ery-glad-i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;