FlyTheNest

Morning all.

https://news.sky.com/story/40-people-di ... e-11540038" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Vote increased incarceration and continued needless death


Vote Tory

Jo Swinson for Queen.

Sorry,apparently she already is.When the fuck did that happen?

Tarquin suitably armed and in position to combat any attempted "unwanted" political trespassing.An Englishman's home is a Tory free castle.

Constance already on the campaign trail.

Swinson now leader of both the known and unknown World.

Is it still talking out of your arse if your face resembles one?

A response of sorts from PF,my job is done and off to bed.

HindleA wrote:A response of sorts from PF,my job is done and off to bed.

Have a good rest!

#BritainHasExploded

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

Oh - good morfternoon.

Morning all. A brief interlude between Y5 swimming and meeting my brother for lunch.

Dan Hicks
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ARCHAEOLOGISTS! Let's celebrate #halloween2019 by sharing some of our favourite European ditches. To start us off: @Pitt_Rivers excavations at Wor Barrow, Dorset, 1893.

gilsey wrote:#BritainHasExploded

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

Said hashtag has provided some genuine amusement this morning

Good afternoon, everyone.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

gilsey wrote:#BritainHasExploded

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

Said hashtag has provided some genuine amusement this morning

The first horrific image made me laugh

Looks like Bercow is off today after all, thought he might as well wait for the GE now.

The campaigning commences

https://socialcarefuture.blog/2019/10/3 ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We start with the idea of social care as a solution. The dominant narrative presents it as a problem to be fixed.
We regard social care as a springboard, while the dominant narrative presents it overwhelmingly as a safety net.
We see the growing value to society of great support. The dominant narrative presents social care as a growing social and financial cost.
We see our fellow citizens being supported to lives they choose to lead, as part of a reciprocal web of community based support. The dominant narrative is of a one-way street, with regulated personal care service ‘looking after vulnerable people.’
We see people with gifts and potential to be nurtured. The dominant narrative sees people with needs.
We believe everyone is set to benefit from there being great care and support. The dominant narrative presents social care as exclusively benefiting older, disabled people and ‘vulnerable people.’ Moreover, the print media most commonly now describe people using or needing social care as ‘patients.’
Crucially, we believe great care and support transforms people’s lives and we want to see exciting new approaches grow and spread, through a reformed approach and greater financial investment. The dominant narrative presents social care only as in crisis and broken with more funding to maintain the status quo the only answer.
We root our vision in intrinsic values of equality, justice and reciprocity. The dominant narrative flip-flops between a highly paternalistic form of benevolence or, through emphasising threats, invoking extrinsic values around security and social order.

Corbyn on good form today, its almost as if he likes campaigning.

Yes. Throw Remainers a lifeline and push JC firmly into his comfort zone. Way to go, tories. Or in current parlance, classic Dom.

Dmitry Grozoubinski
@DmitryOpines
Leavers would have had their dream thrice over by now if they hadn't spent years devising purity tests and knifing each other over often illusory differences.

Maybe there's some kind of lesson in that for Remainers, idk.

Chicken run.

James Melville
@JamesMelville
Apparently Boris Johnson is ditching Uxbridge and South Ruislip (majority of 5,034) and scarpering off to stand in Rutland & Melton (majority of 23,104).

#generalelection2019

gilsey wrote:Chicken run.

James Melville
@JamesMelville
Apparently Boris Johnson is ditching Uxbridge and South Ruislip (majority of 5,034) and scarpering off to stand in Rutland & Melton (majority of 23,104).

#generalelection2019

coward

I've not heard from family in California yet

Oven ready chicken,apparently.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f335417e ... 89c151ca38" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

image of Johnson tie tucked rolled up sleeves standing with healthcare professionals
they're desperately suppressing the urge to laugh out loud at him
seated staffer wants him thrown right the hell off the premises

Eight local council byelections last week:

Daventry DC - Tory gain from Labour with over 40% of the vote and a double figure increase since 2018 when there were last elections here (this year's district elections in Northants being notoriously cancelled) This ward has actually had a varied recent electoral history - splitting 2Lab/1Con in the 2012 all-out elections (though the Tory topped the poll) with UKIP not that far behind, UKIP then actually took a Labour seat in 2014 and the Tories won the other in 2015 before Labour hit back with gains in 2016 and 2018 - by which time UKIP had dropped to a poor fifth and last place whilst the LibDems moved up to a strong third. UKIP dropped out this time, whilst LibDems put on another 10 points to just over 30%, meaning they overtook Labour who dropped by a similar amount and were third for the first time since 2014.

South Ribble DC - Tory hold with almost half the vote, a small drop since May. This ward safely returned two Tories in the 2015 post boundary change elections and again (slightly more narrowly) this May with Labour runners up both times - which makes it slightly surprising they did not stand this time even though they could have become the biggest party on the council with a win. In their absence an Independent candidate (who had stood here as a Green in 2015) polled close to 40%, whilst the LibDems also got 12% after being absent from the previous two polls.

Wiltshire - Tory hold with 60% of the vote, an increase of around 5 points since 2017. This has been a safe Tory ward since the inaugural unitary election in 2009, save for 2013 when UKIP ran them close - however they dropped to a poor third four years later and the LibDems regained the second place they had in the original election, albeit more distantly. In a straight fight with the Tories this time, they more than doubled their score.

West Lindsey DC - Tory hold with 35% of the vote, a drop of over 20 points since earlier this year when they beat the LibDems in a straight fight by close to 3 to 2 (in the first post boundary change election in 2015, the Tories had actually been elected unopposed) LibDems narrowly failed to win this time because their own share was also down - thanks largely to a still rare intervention at local level from the Brexit Party, who came a close third with a respectable 28%. Labour in contrast polled less than 4%, but that was still more than the Tory winning margin.

Flintshire - Labour hold in a straight fight with an Independent by approaching 2 to 1, an encouraging result for them given their recent poor form in Welsh vacancies even there is limited past electoral evidence to go on in this ward - Labour unopposed in 2017 and 2012, beating the LibDems in a straight fight in 2008 by a similar margin to now, then a slightly closer battle with a Tory in 2004 (which makes it maybe slightly surprising they haven't tried their luck here since)

Devon CC - Labour hold in one of their Exeter divisions which has normally been safe for them since 2005 (only in 2009 did the Tories make it close - a local curiosity is that the "continuity Liberals used to be strong and came second four years earlier) but it was a close run thing as they dropped 20 points since 2017 to finish just ahead of the Tories. That the latter only polled 30% themselves, slightly down on two years ago, shows that the problems came from elsewhere - both the LibDems and Greens had double figure increases and shared 35% between them, the former just squeezing into the third spot. The far right For Britain outfit scored a modest 2% in one of its occasional electoral outings.

Powys - two vacancies here, the first was a Tory hold in a ward they took in 2017 after a long standing Independent retired (they had comfortably won all previous elections since 2004, remarkably the Tories came last with just 27 votes in the final win in 2012) but with a double figure drop to under half the vote. LibDems came second with 35% after sitting last time out (returning to the runners up spot they had in 2004 - when they were the only opposition - and 2008, but polling rather better than then) whilst Plaid, runners up two years ago, dropped 9 points to 20%. The other contest saw the LibDems go one better with a gain from the Tories in a ward that had previously swapped hands between Indies and Tory (Independent in 2004 and 2012, Tory in 2008 and two years ago) which was a rather better performance for them than the last place with just 21 votes they had managed in 2012, their only previous electoral showing this millennium. Tories down nearly 20 points, Labour little changed on last time with 19%.

Three contests this week, two of which have already happened! The write up should be earlier next time, hopefully tomorrow

Cheers.

The false narrative is widespread across the spectrum,the left's penchant for ignoring outwith the easy fit sufficiently poor,bedraggled etc is equally responsible.You aren't less worthy of consideration according to homre status,ncome etc,itt works both ways.

citizenJA wrote:

gilsey wrote:Chicken run.

James Melville
@JamesMelville
Apparently Boris Johnson is ditching Uxbridge and South Ruislip (majority of 5,034) and scarpering off to stand in Rutland & Melton (majority of 23,104).

#generalelection2019

coward

So, the people who kept portraying Corbyn as a coward for running away from a GE will call Johnson a coward from running away from his constituency?

Probably not...

citizenJA wrote:I've not heard from family in California yet

I hope that they're safe and well, and that they get in touch with you soon.

Boris Johnson has been given the all-clear on the Jennifer Arcuri matter (Sky News).

PorFavor wrote:Boris Johnson has been given the all-clear on the Jennifer Arcuri matter (Sky News).

By who, exactly? His mum?

PorFavor wrote:

citizenJA wrote:I've not heard from family in California yet

I hope that they're safe and well, and that they get in touch with you soon.

thank you

Willow904 wrote:

PorFavor wrote:Boris Johnson has been given the all-clear on the Jennifer Arcuri matter (Sky News).

By who, exactly? His mum?

Trump says he wants to see Boris Johnson form some sort of pact with Nigel Farage

The Brexit party leader Nigel Farage has recorded an interview with his political ally, President Trump, for his LBC show. The whole thing is being broadcast later, but LBC has just broadcast a clip, and it included Trump saying that he thought Farage should be uniting in some way with Boris Johnson. Together Johnson and Farage would be an “unstoppable force”, Trump said.

Trump also said that there were aspects of Johnson’s Brexit deal that would obstruct a UK-US trade deal. He said:

To be honest with you, this deal, under certain aspects of the deal, you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t trade. We can’t make a trade deal with the UK ...

Under certain ways, we’re precluded - which would be ridiculous.

From the extract broadcast just now, it is not clear what Trump was referring to. (Politics Live, Guardian - my emphasis)

Let me take a wild guess . . .

Still, should rack up quite a few points for Labour!

Here's the article about the £100k award to the Pm's chum...

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

A £100,000 grant awarded to the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri’s Hacker House company by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has been considered “appropriate” by the government’s internal audit agency.

I'd never heard of this lot before - but they're here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... dit-agency

I know that Pickles killed off the Audit Commission in his bonfire of the quangos...but is this just them being re-created again under a different name?

@RogerOThornhill

Thank you - and apologies to Willow904 for not responding in a timely fashion!

Hmm...

So the Government's Internal Audit Agency is just that an executive agency that reports to the Treasury.

And the National Audit Office?

Headed up by the Comptroller & Auditor General

https://www.nao.org.uk/about-us/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, leads the NAO and is an officer of the House of Commons. He and the staff of the NAO (about 800 people) are independent of government. They are not civil servants and do not report to a minister.

far be it from me to suggest that the GIAA has been leant on but...I think with something like this I'd trust the NAO more.

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

RogerOThornhill wrote:
I know that Pickles killed off the Audit Commission in his bonfire of the quangos...but is this just them being re-created again under a different name?

No, the National Audit Office audited central govt and the Audit Commission audited everything else - LAs, NHS Trusts etc. They're all audited by the private sector now, you know those incredibly reliable firms like PWC, KPMG, EY.

Well I feel like shit, have done all week, but I managed to shamble to Tesco and get some cheap Chilean Merlot so Question Time review is back tonight after last week's shameful no show because I was hungover.

At least I'll be able to flick snotty tissues at Isabel Oakshott. Which sounds like some kind of weird euphemism but really isn't. I'll literally be throwing bits of snotty toilet paper at her.

We haven't left.

It was midnight Brussels time

Ok please forgive me if this edition of Question Time report isn't up to my usual standard. Meeting other forum members resulted in me becoming diseased. Which is probably fair.

Tonight QT came from Birmingham with quite a few shouty brexiters who curiously seemed to go quiet when the subject changed as if they were only capable of responding to a single stimulus. Now I'm not saying brexiters are simple but even bacteria are capable of more complex behaviour.

For the Tories we had Paul Scully. You may, like me, ask who the fuck is Paul Scully? Well if you were watching a 70's sitcom Paul would be the dodgy geezer down the pub. A kind of non threatening low level criminal who might know where to get some knock off perfume for the missus. He's also Deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. At one point, during a discussion about female MPs receiving abuse, he claimed Boris Johnson was entirely blameless and had offered nothing other than positive language, which was met with laughter before a Muslim lass put the boot in and in order to placate her he tried to sell her some Chanel Number 5 for a fiver.

For Labour we had Jon Ashworth who was apparently our shadow health secretary. Jon started off in full on election mode being all argumentative, talking over other panelists, obviously up for the fight. But as the programme progressed I think we saw the real Jon come to the fore, a nice guy who just wanted to get on with people, he even ended up shaking hands with the Tory eedjit above. And we can't have that. This is a political fight to the death and while we on the left may be awesome and really cool people that killer instinct has to be there. As much as it may disgust us politics is a zero sum game in this country under FPTP and we can't afford pussies like Jon behaving like actual humans.

For the Lib-Dems we had Layla Moran. Now I'm not going to deny this but I have a bit of a crush when it comes to Layla, that whole liberal headmistress of a 1960's private girls school look she has going on makes me tingle. And she refused to take any shit. From Labour, the Tories or...

For the descent into fascism we had Isabel Oakeshott, Isabel played the part of a 'concern troll' offering a reasonable preamble to each of her comments before saying 'but' after which everything was the fault of the left and Labour or indeed Hugh Grant. Also every time I blew my nose I waited until she was full face frontal on my TV and threw snotty toilet paper at it. This amused me.

And finally we come to Mairead McGuinness. Vice president of the European Parliament. Mairead has been on a number of times, she's smart, she's reasonable, she's everything you would expect of someone given her position. Tonight however she couldn't disguise the frustration of the EU and its WTF response to what is going on here. And we can hardly blame them.