Wednesday 26th March 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Frog222]

Morning !

" Wes Streeting: I’m pumped for the emergency budget.

Reeves: It’s not an emergency budget. It’s a spring statement. Why is everyone so down on the Treasury? The economy is actually doing really well all things considered. It’s not my fault the Americans have fucked up everything for the rest of us. We just need to re-educate the people about how brilliant we are.

Starmer: That’s actually a very good point, Rachel. Thank you for that.

Streeting: Well, whatever we call it, I’m ready for it.

Miliband: That’s all very well for you to say, Wes. Your department is protected from any cuts.

Liz Kendall: Stop being such a wuss. My department is vulnerable and I can’t wait for the cuts. I’m sick to death of people with disabilities trying to freeload off the state. We’ve got to stop bailing them out. It’s time we got people to stand on their own two legs …

Miliband: What if they’ve had a leg amputated? "

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ncy-budget

[refitman]

Replace 'gender critical' with 'racist'.

[Frog222]

I was up early for a jab and bloods, and then settled in the armchair to listen to Richard Murphy's Budget Statement YT of this morning .

He again made the point about Liz Truss's "run on the pound", that in fact on the Thursday before Kwazi Kwarteng's 'disastrous' Friday statement Andrew Bailey announced that he'd himself be shortly flogging off £80billions of paper ...

which of course would push up interest rates .

[gilsey]

Seen this, frog?

Phillips Obrien

Ukraine Was Just Knifed In The Back

Second: While the US was negotiating one Black Sea ceasefire with the Ukrainians (above) they were negotiating a very different one with the Russian. We might say this is the one that really reflects the Trump administration’s views. The US was agreeing as part of the ceasefire to work with Russia to weaken (perhaps fatally) the sanctions regime now in place against the Russian state.

Doomed.

[Frog222]

Seen this, frog? Phillips Obrien--

Second: While the US was negotiating one Black Sea ceasefire with the Ukrainians (above) they were negotiating a very different one with the Russian. We might say this is the one that really reflects the Trump administration’s views. The US was agreeing as part of the ceasefire to work with Russia to weaken (perhaps fatally) the sanctions regime now in place against the Russian state.

Doomed.

No gilsey I hadn't yet checked my mail !

The little I knew yesterday about that 'deal' really put me off wanting to know more the same day, just so deeply depressing .

I don't know to what extent the US controls SWIFT --

Who controls the SWIFT banking system?
Swift is overseen by the G-10 central banks (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, and Sweden), as well as the European Central Bank, with its lead overseer being the National Bank of Belgium.

It appears the Russkies sent low-level nitpickers to 'negotiate' but that didn't stop the idiot Witkoff giving them everything they wanted .

Street interviews ( short one -4mins ! ) with Ukrainians completely dismantling Witkoff's ignorant statements on 'Russian-speakers' and 'referendums' in the Occupied Territories

[Frog222]

That'll show them !

[Sky'sGoneOut]

So let me get this straight.

Reeves is going to take another half a billion from health and disability benefits because the OBR disputed her figures? With a plethora of other options this is the one she's chosen. Again. If it didn't look like wanton cruelty before it certainly does now. There's no other way of dressing this up as anything other than a cut to cover her own incompetence. This is entirely on her and I'll despise her for it for as long as I breathe.

Just a couple of weeks ago they were making a fanfare about raising the basic rate of UC (by a whopping £7 a week) but now even that's going to be gone by the end of the decade.

Oh well, at least it's a lovely day and I just saw my first butterfly of the year (a brimstone) so I'm going out for a walk rather than listening to that appalling woman.

[Frog222]

Fairly warm here too, will go for a prowl behind my lawnmower, first of the year !

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Had a lovely woodland stroll in the sun, loads of butterflies (Commas, Peacocks, and more Brimstones), plenty of queen bees buzzing around as well. Absolutely glorious. Then I have to come back to this shit.

A million people losing PIP and carers allowance.

A quarter of a million forced into poverty, including 50,000 kids.

3.2 million families losing (on average) £1720 a year.

All according to the DWP's own impact assessment.

Even Paul Johnson of the IFS (hardly a leftist institution) criticising Reeves for 'undermining the idea that benefit reform is being made for any reason other than chasing a fiscal number'.

Anyone who claims to be on the left defending this needs to be whipped through the streets.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And now they've lost Marina Purkiss.

[refitman]

It's so cool having the continuity Tories in charge. Osborne & IDS must be so proud.

[Frog222]

Consciously or unconsciously , the UK Labour Party on Austerity is in much the same position as Trump when he denied having any knowledge even of Project 2025.

He then applied it , HARD !

One redeeming item, from the LB --

" Tax campaigner Dan Niedle reckons that this could be the toughest ever suite of anti-tax avoidance proposals introduced in the UK.

Niedle explains that the government would be able to issue a “promoter action notice” to third parties (such as banks, employment services or social media networks) who facilitate a scheme. It would also become a criminal offence to not report a tax avoidance scheme to HMRC."

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Where do Labour they find these freaks? Who in their right mind thinks it's ok to compare disabled people losing thousands of pounds a year to cutting their kids pocket money?

[refitman]

Dunno, this seems like a valid statement. Guess we can all pack up and go home?

[refitman]

[Frog222]

Good stuff , OJ with James Meadway --

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I'm really struggling to put my thoughts into words this evening. In fact I'm worried if I should. They're not healthy. One of the symptoms of OCD are what they call 'intrusive thoughts'. They can range from a bit of music, a repeated phrase, to disturbingly violent thoughts. Let's just say I've been experiencing the latter end of that spectrum over the last few hours. It's horrible and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. A psychologist once explained to me that it's an exaggerated form of the fight or flight response, when people with OCD feel trapped and under threat they can be flooded by these violent impulses, which does tally with my lived experience. To be clear these impulses are directed entirely towards the perceived threat, there's no urge to self harm involved, quite the contrary, and it doesn't take much imagination to guess where that threat may have come from today.

It's years since I've felt like this and I know from experience it can be dulled by drugs and alcohol, but is best treated by being in good, trusted company while doing lots of healthy exercise. So I'm getting pissed tonight then fucking off up North for a few days.

So yeah, thanks for the relapse Reeves, and you really don't want to know what my twisted subconscious has been suggesting I do to you if you were here.

(Sorry if that's a all a bit unsettling but according to Labour there's nothing wrong with me so we're all good).

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And besides, what's worse?

Someone with a mental illness having violent impulses as a result of having a massive fist punching down at them.

Or allegedly sane Labour politicians choosing to wield that fist?

I may be fucked in the head but as far as I can tell I retain enough empathy and humanity to understand that what Labour are doing is morally objectionable while their chancellor proudly stands before parliament and displays all the compassion of Harold Shipman reincarnated as a Praying Mantis.

And not even a real one, a robot Praying Mantis.

Which to be honest I would like (not a Reeves size one though, one big enough to bring me a coffee or glass of wine would do fine).

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Whatever way you look at it, this is a defining moment for this pitiful excuse for a Labour party and government.

These choices are what they'll be remembered for. Of course there's a long way to go and there'll be events dear boy and a week is a long time in politics and all that shit but this will leave an indelible stain that will stay long after they lose the next election.

And I'll tell you why.

I along with 2 million other people would now be happier if the Tories had won the last election. And we're the poorest motherfuckers in the country.