Thursday 13th February 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

Fucking hell, what a heartless cunt. Remember when he was lauded as a former human rights lawyer? Former is very much the operative word now

[Frog222]

Morning
My first close-up contact with AI earlier -- cold call with perfect French accent which is unusual, trying to tell me about grants for solar panels . No reaction whatsoever when I croaked that I was just about to go into hospital, just an exact repetition of an earlier phrase. When I explained again, very same reply ignoring what I'd said !

[gilsey]

Remember when he was lauded as a former human rights lawyer? Former is very much the operative word now

What or who makes him think this is a good look?

[refitman]

Remember when he was lauded as a former human rights lawyer? Former is very much the operative word now

What or who makes him think this is a good look?

McSweeny et al, who seem to think that the only people in the UK are Tory and/or Reform voters. There is no possibility of anyone else existing, who could think this is a bad thing.

Remember, always look to the right.

[Frog222]

Remember when he was lauded as a former human rights lawyer? Former is very much the operative word now

What or who makes him think this is a good look?

In the fun and games of Commons jousting it's so easy to forget that real people are involved ? Then you see them as pixilated faces in a commercial for Tough Government. And all the time Reform are chuckling ...

[Frog222]

Has everyone forgotten Trump Steaks and Trump University and Trump 'negotiating' with the Taliban ? (Plus the scores of other scams and thousands of lies....°)

[Frog222]

https://bsky.app/profile/helenebismarck ... 27ekgn3c2f

Helene von Bismarck‬ ‪@helenebismarck.bsky.social‬ 2h
Ukraine did not "go into this war“. They were attacked. !!



Don't know why the von Bismarck doesn't show up ?

[Frog222]

Emmanuelle reports for various media including the OuestFrance newspaper. She was there when they opened up the mass graves of tortured and executed in Izyum .

[Frog222]

Birbalsingh Philllips Duel --

https://archive.ph/fKkbA

A government official noted: “The SoS [Phillipson] stated she would need to ask KB [Birbalsingh] to lower her tone, and asked they remove the heat from the discussion.

“The SoS emphasised she would appreciate if KB would allow her to finish her sentences so that she can address KB’s questions and concerns in turn.”

In another section, the minutes record that Birbalsingh had said that “as she herself did not understand politics, she should not expect the SoS to understand education because the SoS has not been a head teacher”.

Birbalsingh said colleagues in Westminster had suggested she ask if the reason Phillipson is “introducing this bill, is because she wants to become the leader of the Labour party”, according to the official note.

Unsatisfactory all round !!!

WTH not record the meeting, AI could provide the basics of a transcript, if requested, then there would be no arguments ?

[refitman]

Remember, don't drink Brewdog beer

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I was going to give QT a miss tonight as I've come down with some horrible lurgy but then saw Monbiot and Goodwin on the same panel. So now I'm building myself up to going on a bleary shamble to procure some wine (and a Vicks inhaler).

[AnatolyKasparov]

Birbalsingh Philllips Duel --

https://archive.ph/fKkbA

A government official noted: “The SoS [Phillipson] stated she would need to ask KB [Birbalsingh] to lower her tone, and asked they remove the heat from the discussion.

“The SoS emphasised she would appreciate if KB would allow her to finish her sentences so that she can address KB’s questions and concerns in turn.”

In another section, the minutes record that Birbalsingh had said that “as she herself did not understand politics, she should not expect the SoS to understand education because the SoS has not been a head teacher”.

Birbalsingh said colleagues in Westminster had suggested she ask if the reason Phillipson is “introducing this bill, is because she wants to become the leader of the Labour party”, according to the official note.

Unsatisfactory all round !!!

WTH not record the meeting, AI could provide the basics of a transcript, if requested, then there would be no arguments ?

I must admit, "you can't be Education Sec because you haven't been a head teacher" is a new one - and would exclude most if not all previous incumbents.

[Frog222]

This Matt Goodwin ?



You have to scroll down some way to find a couple of comments like this --

Alistair Maclenan @QuarryAli 3h
" It's never too early to use a story to make people hate other people, is it Matt? "

[AnatolyKasparov]

There's a persistent rumour about BritProfPol Goodwin - ie that he started his "Great Right Turn" after not being invited to more parties by his colleagues.

[refitman]

Wouldn't it be awesome if the BBC stopped platforming bigots.

[Frog222]

[Frog222]

a short !!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Question Time came tonight from Northwich, a town which I know pretty well as my brother lives in the vicinity. There was an old fool in the audience who said we should use gunboats in the Channel to send the refugees back to France (or simply kill them if they refuse to turn around I guess). For a moment I thought it was my brother's neighbour who still refuses to speak to me as a result of a discussion we had about Brexit and immigration years ago, but it wasn't, it was some other twat.

For angry chipmunks everywhere we had Matt Goodwin. I'm going to deal with Matt first because he had a very strange evening which I doubt he's going to be very satisfied with. He did ok with a section of the audience when it came to slagging off Rachel Reeves, and even his defence of Trump kissing Putin's arse and selling out Ukraine got some support, but when it came to his favourite pastime of ranting about immigration he flopped badly, was clapped by a handful of people at best, then had his arse handed to him by an utterly splendid fellow in the audience who got a fulsome round of applause before Monbiot put the boot in and it was game over. I fully expect Matt will try to explain this away by accusing the people of Northwich of being members of his 'new elite', because there's obviously no chance they just thought he was talking shit and looked like and angry, shouty chipmunk.

For Labour we had Jacqui Smith. Sigh. Will no one rid us of these turbulent Blairites? Jacqui was on top obfuscatory form tonight. I'll begin by praising her for what seemed an honest and forthright determination to do everything we can to help Ukraine in the face of Trump's appeasement of Putin. The rest however was an absolute shitshow. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't give a toss about Reeves' embellishing her experience at the Bank of England, but Jacqui's defence of Reeves was that LinkedIn isn't a CV. Instead of simply saying who the fuck cares and pointing out the hypocrisy of the right wing press, she attempted to argue that Reeves hadn't lied using a technicality then blamed Reeves' junior staff for the incorrect info appearing on LinkedIn. From there it went from bad to worse with her total inability to explain how denying refugees citizenship was going to help anyone in any way whatsoever, before being embarrassingly skewered by Monbiot when it came to Labour failing to provide any safe and legal routes into the country.

For the Lib Dems we had Lisa Smart. I confess I'd never heard of Lisa before this evening and was pleasantly surprised. Despite being sat next to an angry, shouty chipmunk she mostly ignored it (despite a couple of quite funny WTF glances) and went about her own business. Part of that business was arguing for the establishment of safe and legal routes for refugees and she got a lot more applause for it than either Goodwin or Smith received all evening. I'm not having the Lib Dems siding with farmers turning up in London in huge brand new shiny tractors and pleading poverty though.

For a sane and just world we had George Monbiot. After his last appearance I wasn't expecting to see George back so soon (or ever). Presumably they thought having him on with the angry chipmunk would provide a counterbalance. It didn't. On Ukraine, Trump, immigration, even Labour's attacking regulators and environmentalists he was on top form and most of the audience seemed to agree. I'm sure there’ll be a profusion of videos tomorrow that will do him more justice than I can now,

For the Tories we had Danny Kruger. It's late, I've got a stinking cold and I honestly can't be arsed.

[Frog222]

Went to sleep in the armchair, woke up when the Cat tried to install himself on me .



Early start , jab and bloods, look forward to QT Report
----------------------------------------------------------------

PS -- first time ever the Report comes out while I'm awake/reawakened .

Some encouragement there . NN

[AnatolyKasparov]

Had to LOL at that Danny Kruger summary.

[refitman]

[Sky'sGoneOut]