Thursday 25th May 2023

[refitman]

Morning all

[refitman]

In contrast to Starmer, attacking immigrants during PMQs yesterday

[AnatolyKasparov]

And you know as well as I do that "let them all in, no questions asked" will always be a fringe position.

Of course we have to be careful in the language we use when discussing this topic.

But too many seem to be squeamish about just pointing out that the Tories have failed *on their own terms*.

(if indeed it is even that - the more conspiratorial view is that they are happy to have high immigration and then the likes of Braverman opposing it; keeps the issue in the headlines and their own core voters angry about it, you see)

[refitman]

And you know as well as I do that "let them all in, no questions asked" will always be a fringe position.

Of course we have to be careful in the language we use when discussing this topic.

But too many seem to be squeamish about just pointing out that the Tories have failed *on their own terms*.

(if indeed it is even that - the more conspiratorial view is that they are happy to have high immigration and then the likes of Braverman opposing it; keeps the issue in the headlines and their own core voters angry about it, you see)

Labour's current position is 'immigrants bad, we will stop more of them than the other lot'. It's not even a dog-whistle, it's just pandering to racists.

They aren't even bothering to discern between 'deserving' ones (fleeing conflicts & persecution) and undeserving (economic).

[AnatolyKasparov]

Where do they actually say "immigrants bad".

AFAICS its much more "Tories have failed, we will sort it out".

[frog222]

"Children don't get covid"

"School is the safest place"

"Parents who keep children at home will be fined

And risk having child taken into 'care' "

Criminal negligence .

[refitman]

Where do they actually say "immigrants bad".

AFAICS its much more "Tories have failed, we will sort it out".

"The Tories have failed to keep all the immigrants out of the UK. Vote Labour, we will be better at keeping them out"

[AnatolyKasparov]

That is your interpretation, it could equally be "we will get the immigration process working effectively".

It depends on your starting point, I know that some on the left see any immigration controls at all as racist. Others do not agree with this.

[refitman]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Putting the recall motion for Margaret Ferrier into action has been postponed until after the Whitsun recess, apparently.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

No QT review tonight because of this -

Leeds broadband outage: Virgin apologises after cable cut

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65707917

Useless bastards. I'm not even with Virgin but they've taken out everyone's landlines in this entire area so if you rely on that for your broadband then you're screwed. So it's not a 'small number of customers' and apparently they're prioritising their own customers over other providers so I'm still waiting for it to be fixed. Absolute arseholes. I've had to tether my phone to my PC but the signal in the area is so bad that half the time web pages are failing to load. According to the bloke I spoke to on the phone earlier it took them over 12 hours to admit what they'd done so nobody had a clue what was going on until this morning. Dickheads.

[frog222]

Bugger --- was looking forward to it as always ! NN

[Sky'sGoneOut]

What really gets me is why they didn't just admit what they'd done right away? Did they really think thousands of people losing their phone line and broadband for two days would go unnoticed? I blame brexit.

[refitman]

Someone explain The Wall to Labour MPs, please

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Just a quick one because my connection is dodgy

QT tonight came to you from Gravesend...where judging by some of the audience inbreeding has been rife for centuries. Either that or a modern day Dr Moreau has been performing unspeakable experiments. One particularly hideous wretch asked a question about having to use foodbanks then immediately went on to attack benefit claimants for getting stuff for free, despite as it turned out, being on Universal Credit herself. Honestly.

For the Tories we had Laura Trott. Laura offered nothing of any interest whatsoever besides an apology for what went on with her party last year. She looked sad throughout. A total lightweight but at least she sounded relatively sane and nobody laughed at her which given the recent performances of her colleagues is a plus.

For Labour we had Peter Kyle. Peter somehow managed to be both tedious and hubristic at the same time. Which was weird because when a lad said Starmer was boring and too close to the Tories Peter told him Labour had to win his vote with humility. But then when asked about forming a coalition Peter went off on a lengthy rant about how Labour were winning in all the polls so they were going to crush all before them and feast upon their opponents electoral flesh (I paraphrase). It could be argued he should be commended for showing such confidence in Labour's chances but he just came over like a conceited twat.

For the Lib Dems (blimey) we had Munira Wilson. I have to say Munira did a sterling job despite being constantly harassed by a certain host. She refused to be drawn into giving some arbitrary ideal figure for immigration while pointing out the advantages immigration brings to our NHS, care sector, universities and actually got applause for it...in Kent.

For telly from the Eighties we had Janet Street-Porter. Janet was well worth her guest spot tonight. For example during the discussion about food bank use she said the supermarkets were ripping us off because the washing powder she buys had gone up to £9 a box. What the fuck does she wash her clothes with?

For entertainment value we had Theo Paphitis. As usual Theo was somewhat mercurial, veering from making some good points to being a dick. On the plus side he bemoaned the politicisation of immigration, while on the other he criticised Khan's expansion of London's Ultra Low Emissions Zone while downplaying it's effectiveness. I challenge anyone to read about the effects of particulate pollution, or Nitrous Oxide from diesels, and then come back and deny the need for such schemes. I read an article just this week about a study in Vietnam which demonstrated that those who live in densely urban areas with lots of traffic are twice as likely to suffer macular degeneration as they get older than those who don't. There's reams of evidence showing traffic pollution blights people's lives but apparently charging people a tenner to enter London in an old car or white van spewing out shit from it's exhaust is an outrage.

[Sky'sGoneOut]