Bank Holiday Weekend 24th-26th May 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

Awesome, Labour have found another way to harm vulnerable people.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Why would they do this? It's a hollow brick ffs. It would cost housebuilders nothing and would entice a bit of nature back into urban environments bringing people a bit of happiness. Reading Pennycook's statements it seems that they care more about sneering at the Guardian and environmental campaigners than anything else. Which is presumably part of the 'hippie punching' ethos encouraged by McSweeney. Miserable bastards.

Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks’ in all new homes

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -new-homes

Providing every new home with at least one “swift brick” to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill.

The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee.

Despite the Labour party having supported the swift brick amendment when it was tabled on Conservative government legislation in 2023, housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, told the House of Commons committee: “We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement.”

A new petition calling for swift bricks to be made mandatory for new homes has rapidly reached 80,000 signatures in recent days, two years after activist Hannah Bourne-Taylor won a parliamentary debate to help the rapidly declining migratory birds after 109,896 voters signed a government petition.

Bourne-Taylor said there appeared to be “no logic” to the government’s opposition to swift bricks when they precisely meet its ambition of creating win-wins for the economy and nature.

“They are going to be building millions of bricks into walls. I don’t understand why there’s such a problem with a brick with a hole in it. It seems ludicrous,” she said. “Why say your new legislation is a win-win for new homes and the environment and exclude the only measure that is a true win-win?

“They are tone-deaf. This is such a tiny thing they could do, but it’s brewing such a distrust and sense of betrayal among the people who voted for them.”

[refitman]

It's like they saw the last Tory government as a challenge to exceed, rather than counter. I'm trying to think of any major piece of legislation Labour have proposed, that actively benefits people (other than their donors or active bigots). Everything seems designed to impoverish or harm a group people - and the more vulnerable they are, seemingly the better.

Never mind Corbyn, bring back Gordon Brown.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Look what I found.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It's like they saw the last Tory government as a challenge to exceed, rather than counter. I'm trying to think of any major piece of legislation Labour have proposed, that actively benefits people (other than their donors or active bigots). Everything seems designed to impoverish or harm a group people - and the more vulnerable they are, seemingly the better.

Never mind Corbyn, bring back Gordon Brown.

It's also the bullshit they spout to justify it all.

"If we don't cut the winter fuel allowance there'll be a Liz Truss style economic meltdown."
"If we don't slash disability benefits the whole benefits system will collapse."
"If we put hollow bricks for birds in houses the birds will gang up and attack people like in that Hitchcock film...what was it called?"

[refitman]

Labour really hate old people, eh?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

For anyone following my housing woes I actually had some welcome good news today. The landlord finally got sent the same documents I received and after a long phone chat I'm facing two possibilities.

He appeals, wins the appeal, I get to stay in a place I'm happy living in.

He appeals, loses the appeal, the council have to pay me eight grand in compensation and cover my moving costs (by law*).

What's certain is I won't be getting kicked out in a few weeks because the appeal will have to go to a tribunal which is certain to take a while, months probably, so the immediate threat has been lifted. I feared he might just call it quits and sell the place but he's a stubborn old bugger. He's asked me and a couple of the other tenants to provide evidence for the tribunal which I said I was happy to do and in return he's promised if he loses he'll provide us with anything we need to qualify for compensation. In regard to that I now know exactly what we need because I had a chat with a lovely lady from Shelter over the phone yesterday who was really helpful. She was also genuinely appalled at how the council have gone about this. Apparently every tenant should have been consulted, our views taken into consideration, and we should have been provided with advice on our rights and options. It's all part of the legal process before a prohibition order can be served. None of that happened. We just got something through the door out of the blue telling us we had a month to fuck off.

*https://england.shelter.org.uk/professi ... their_home

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Leeds is of course a Labour council so we can add this to the shit list.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Anyway...on a slightly lighter note, I love this because for most of the video we get to see the racist dickhead scampering away from a presumably hard looking bloke but then the camera turns to reveal Bill Bailey from about 30 years ago in a 70's jacket.

[Frog222]

SKY -- So glad that Shelter still exists !

And of course you now have some basis for a case against the council

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I've just been having a look at the legal papers they sent.

In determining the most appropriate course of action regard has been given to the following:

- Views of the occupiers

Nope. Never happened.

Being brief guests in my abode I of course attempted to be a good host and entertain them but they steadfastly refused to engage in conversation, apart from asking idiotic questions like 'does this door open?' while looking at a door about a foot above my bed which would have been last used by servants about a century ago and had been painted shut so many times its outlines look almost melted into the wall.

A better question would be 'Why is there an old door about 3 feet off the ground in that wall?' Who knows. It opens to a tiny spiral staircase which has long been blocked off. Why it's that high off the floor when nothing else is shall forever remain a mystery.

[Edit] I only know it opens onto a tiny spiral staircase because there's a gap in the planks blocking the top of the staircase and I lowered a torch down between them taped to a garden cane. The carpets were gone but the original wallpaper was still there and looked Art Deco, similar to scraps left in the basement. This place must have been fabulous in its pomp.

[gilsey]

For anyone following my housing woes

I think we all are, good luck.

Also, sorry to hear about your Mum, you have to lose your loved one twice over when they have dementia. Grim.

[refitman]

If you ask me, this is an argument for increasing tax rates.

[Frog222]

Being a fairly regular listener, some of the WS is really excellent, and the 'news' less slanted on Gaza, tho the Radio4 is now more 'balanced' than it was until quite recently .
Long way to go tho.

I mean, who cares where ragheads get their news, EH ?

" Two years ago, BBC Arabic radio left the airwaves after decades. Soon afterwards, Russia’s Sputnik service began broadcasting on the frequency left vacant in Lebanon. That detail illuminates a larger picture. China, Russia and others see global-facing media as central to their global ambitions and are investing accordingly – pumping out propaganda to muddle or drown out objective, independently minded journalism. These outlets are state-controlled as well as state-owned.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories and disinformation proliferate online, attacks on press freedom intensify and the Trump administration is dismantling media organisations including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia (RFA), which have been essential sources of information for audiences under repressive regimes. Official Chinese media were gleeful at what RFA’s president, Bay Fang, called “a reward to dictators and despots”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -elsewhere

[Frog222]

If you ask me, this is an argument for increasing tax rates.

I know many , particularly the comfortably retired, who seem to bounce from one holiday to the next . Read somewhere that a quarter of Australians take at least one cruise a year, Byeurck !

There's a relevant chapter on that affluence in this somewhat overlong book --

Capital: The bestselling novel, now on Netflix

Capital by John Lanchester is a moving, funny, and keenly insightful story of London on the brink of the financial crisis.

The VP at some broking firm is gnawing his fingers, getting REALLY worried, because he's afraid of being shuffled to a less well-bonused job ...

I mean, how is he going to manage on less than £1.5million a year ?

Cutting back on holidays, staff, designer clothing for the Mrs, entertaining, kids' schoolfees, their ponies and other expenses , the list goes on, and on .

It's a nightmare I tell you

[refitman]

The plot thickens on the Kipper story

[Frog222]

There MIGHT be real people behind the story, but a quick check would show if their school fees etc stack up .

nice piccy ____

[Frog222]

MADDER ... ... ...



NOW I'm wondering if it's a spoof

[Frog222]

BTW the 'Capital' book came out in 2013, so the £1.5million income would be rather more today ...

[refitman]

MADDER ... ... ...



NOW I'm wondering if it's a spoof

As someone on Bluesky pointed out, the headline should be 'Cis women to present passports...'. Any woman who doesn't confirm to cis stereotypes will be targeted.

[Frog222]

I BLAME REFIT

Right at the beginning he recommended a Loner Box interview with this little star . Not long after her father was killed , which was the 1lth of July. Quite an effort to watch the whole hour , she was so foul-mouthed .

2014 she was coming back from the Maidan, a bit worried to pass by a gang of yobs on the street corner ... " It's OK we're with you sista."



BTW a Russian-speaker . So much for Putin coming to rescue her .

Jake is ex-USAF Strategic Air Command (the nukes) . In a week he raised a million $'s for his birthday , to buy medevac 4WD's . Repeated three times .

[refitman]

Fully fallen to pieces

[refitman]

Don't you just wish you had the towering intellect of Peterson?

[Frog222]

Fully fallen to pieces

Sob story ... ... ...

" “The gardener used to come twice a month, but then he increased his costs from £230 a year to £245 a year. We only have him come once every other month now.”

So, the gardener comes six times a year, for the mighty total sum of ... £61.25 ?