Tuesday 2nd July 2019

[HindleA]

Morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... hin-months" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

https://www.openglobalrights.org/hope-guide/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RogerOThornhill]

Morning all.

This is marvellous.

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[RogerOThornhill]

Mostly behind the paywall but I'll post anyway.

Boris Johnson could shrink Cabinet by half and merge departments to save Government billions of pounds

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... ents-save/

Boris Johnson is considering proposals to shrink the size of the Cabinet after key backers urged him to slim down the Government if he becomes prime minister.

Mr Johnson has already voiced a desire to merge the Department for International Development and the Foreign Office, but supporters are encouraging him to go further by reviewing the future of seven or more other departments to save billions of pounds.

The departments for Justice, Business, Culture, International Trade, Work and Pensions, Transport, and Brexit could all be abolished or merged with other departments under plans being championed by members of Mr Johnson’s team.

Among those backing Mr Johnson’s campaign who are in favour of...

...are the people who you'd expect to go for this.

Brexit would have been due to go eventually anyway but international trade? Not a great look if you want to appear to be 'going global'

DFiD was in the FCO until split out.

There was a quote from Priti Patel about creeping centralization - maybe she ought to look at the DfE academy system with every school chain reporting drect into RSCs who are DfE civil servants. Not sure that helps.

[HindleA]

https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/news/t ... fit-future" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... iness-live" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

PF and Constance doing a duet on the txalaparta.

[HindleA]

Having eaten the cheese drums.

[adam]

Having eaten the cheese drums.

cheese drums.jpg (285.6 KiB) Viewed 4551 times

[RogerOThornhill]

Jesus wept...



Unbelievable how immature some people can be really.

Claire Fox tweeted that "we don't want to be here" - nobody forced you to stand.

[HindleA]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/g ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/g ... ssion=true

An interesting one this, given how much Tories have relied on the support of older voters in recent years.

[Willow904]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/g ... ssion=true

An interesting one this, given how much Tories have relied on the support of older voters in recent years.

I read somewhere the pledge to maintain the free OAP licence was left in the 2017 Tory manifesto by mistake, which makes sense as the decision had already been made not to ringfence that money from 2020, leaving them with a promise they had already broken. Even without that extra election though, the Tories would have been going into the 2020 GE having just ditched the free licences, which wouldn't have played much better for them.

[AnatolyKasparov]

As mentioned yesterday, Hunt now seems to be trying to outbid Johnson on Brexit.

Quite apart from the silliness of what he has been saying, I don't see how this is going to work as a tactic.

[Willow904]

I just turned on BBC News to Johnson giving a speech with a caption underneath saying "we must get Brexit over the line".

Which makes our country sound like a knackered pony staggering down the final straight having long since lost any chance of winning.

[Willow904]

He looks haggard.

[HindleA]

Though along with SMI to interest bearing loan and mooted penalising social.care in own home receiving homeowners daring not to be institutionalised saving the country a fortune,I guess it was perceived it was their turn to play their part in the fairness reduction game(even though they encompass equally those not elderly,of course)

[AnatolyKasparov]

He looks haggard.

He makes the recent rumour-mongering over Corbyn look all the stupider.

[HindleA]

"Intergeneration fairness"regardless of being "unfair"to your own genetation.
"People have done nothing to get terminally ill,die early just to get ill gotten gains,it must be paid back(or seen to be)"

[HindleA]

"Death taxes" are fine as long as they are "targeted "properly.

[HindleA]

https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/art ... reme-court" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/art ... reme-court

Yes, easy to forget that this *thing* is still with us.

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/201 ... for-735000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/201 ... for-735000

Your random factoid for the day - there is a "troofer" element in the chess community who don't think they are chess pieces at all.

[RogerOThornhill]

So yesterday we had this:

UK factories report worst month in six years amid Brexit fears

and today, this:

UK construction industry suffers worst month in a decade

Yep, totally worth it this Brexit lark...

The biggest self-inflicted wound since Thatcher raised interest rates to ruinous levels in the early 80s.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Rhyming Slang very much living up to said moniker with his comments on AS and Corbyn today, I see.

[RogerOThornhill]

Given their habit of appointing people who lack knowledge of anything at all, this actually looks to be a good appointment.

MHCLG announces Chief Scientific Adviser appointment

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhcl ... ppointment

Following a rigorous recruitment campaign Professor Alan Penn has been appointed to the role. Professor Penn is Professor in Architectural and Urban Computing at UCL and due to step down as Dean of the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.

In this role Professor Penn will offer advice to the ministry, including to the Building Safety Programme which was set up following the Grenfell Tower tragedy

I'm pretty sure he spoke at a book launch I went to at the Bartlett a few months ago.

[RogerOThornhill]

Great thread in answer to James Cleverly's ridiculous 'golden legacy' claim...

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[Sky'sGoneOut]

My commiserations to the English women's football team, they've been a credit to the tourname...ach splutter...nope, can't do it, my chippy celtic genes simply won't allow me to indulge in anything other than schadenfreude. Especially after that ridiculous penalty they got against us. If that makes me a small, petty man then so be it, but surely it was a timely reminder that 'England believing in themselves', as the commentators were imploring, sometimes isn't quite enough when confronted by reality.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Great thread in answer to James Cleverly's ridiculous 'golden legacy' claim..." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is, but let's face it, getting into a battle of wits with James Cleverly would be like playing tennis against a sea urchin, yet it's a battle I've seen Labour MPs lose.

Although to be fair it's nearly always Barry Gardiner.