Wednesday 25th June 2025
Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
Good morning.
From the G
Good news from NYC, too.
From the G
MPs are due to vote on the universal credit (UC) and personal independent payments (Pip) bill next week, the legislation enacting the disability and sickness benefit cuts worth around £5bn. As Pippa Crerar and Aletha Adu report in our overnight story, Keir Starmer insisted yesterday that he was pressing ahead with the plans.
But this morning it seems all but certain that, if the government goes ahead with the vote without offering a colossal concession, it will lose. And, if governments know they are going to get defeated on flagship legislation, they normally pull the vote at the last minute.
Good news from NYC, too.
Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
LIVEBLOG
"" One of the MPs waiting in Westminster Hall to see constituents, the Lib Dem Roz Savage, organised a debate in May about the repercussions of the court ruling. She said:
I have to say it was eye opening. I think most people just aren’t aware of the daily challenges faced by members of the trans community. I really just want to see everybody treated with the respect and the dignity that they deserve.
On the EHRC guidance she said:
It’s very hard to see how it could work on a practical level. I think you only have to imagine a few scenarios to see how impractical it is, and would probably actually cause more consternation than the opposite, than the way things were before.
So I think just on a common sense level, as well as a moral and ethical and humanitarian level, this really has to be looked at again.""
"" One of the MPs waiting in Westminster Hall to see constituents, the Lib Dem Roz Savage, organised a debate in May about the repercussions of the court ruling. She said:
I have to say it was eye opening. I think most people just aren’t aware of the daily challenges faced by members of the trans community. I really just want to see everybody treated with the respect and the dignity that they deserve.
On the EHRC guidance she said:
It’s very hard to see how it could work on a practical level. I think you only have to imagine a few scenarios to see how impractical it is, and would probably actually cause more consternation than the opposite, than the way things were before.
So I think just on a common sense level, as well as a moral and ethical and humanitarian level, this really has to be looked at again.""
Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
Been having phone probs, so this is REALLY my first Lol of the Day --
""Trump said: “They went down, Iran went down to the site afterwards. They said it's so devastated and they settled when they saw what we did to it… Two Iranians went down to see it and they called back and they said, ‘this place is gone’.”
Only secret agents working inside the Iranian government would have this kind of detail – that two people did an on-the-ground survey.
“It was hit brutally and it knocked it out. The original word that I use, I guess it got us in trouble because it's a strong word. It was obliteration. And you'll see that. And it's going to come out. Israel is doing a report on it now. I understand…
“You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit,” said the president of the United States – risking the lives of any agents who might be on the ground or on the Iranian inner circle. ""
ALSO "" In May 2017 Trump blurted highly classified intelligence that had been shared with the US by Israel to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - the then Russian ambassador to Washington. The latter was a former Russian intelligence officer.
He jeopardised the life of a source that was working inside the so-called Islamic State, caused Israel extreme operational embarrassment, and set off a damage control operation by the CIA and other agencies.
He was then no longer trusted by very close US allies in the Five Eyes secrets-sharing network of the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. He has also damaged his standing among the spy agencies of the Middle East.""
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 76632.html
""Trump said: “They went down, Iran went down to the site afterwards. They said it's so devastated and they settled when they saw what we did to it… Two Iranians went down to see it and they called back and they said, ‘this place is gone’.”
Only secret agents working inside the Iranian government would have this kind of detail – that two people did an on-the-ground survey.
“It was hit brutally and it knocked it out. The original word that I use, I guess it got us in trouble because it's a strong word. It was obliteration. And you'll see that. And it's going to come out. Israel is doing a report on it now. I understand…
“You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit,” said the president of the United States – risking the lives of any agents who might be on the ground or on the Iranian inner circle. ""
ALSO "" In May 2017 Trump blurted highly classified intelligence that had been shared with the US by Israel to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - the then Russian ambassador to Washington. The latter was a former Russian intelligence officer.
He jeopardised the life of a source that was working inside the so-called Islamic State, caused Israel extreme operational embarrassment, and set off a damage control operation by the CIA and other agencies.
He was then no longer trusted by very close US allies in the Five Eyes secrets-sharing network of the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. He has also damaged his standing among the spy agencies of the Middle East.""
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 76632.html
Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
Aljazeera explains the so-called 'Death to America' slogan ,
youtube short!!
When we moved from Essex to London in the mid-Fifties, the parents brought along their Persian cat , called Musadegh (!!!) . I have no memory of it, but he/she disappeared shortly after .
youtube short!!
When we moved from Essex to London in the mid-Fifties, the parents brought along their Persian cat , called Musadegh (!!!) . I have no memory of it, but he/she disappeared shortly after .
Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
""In a terrifying turn of events, a brown Muslim jihadist has defeated everyone's favourite corporate sex pest Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary to be New York mayor. The intifada has truly reached American shores...
Zohran Mamdani holds disturbing views such as genocide is wrong and poor people should be able to afford food. Chillingly, he plans to create city-owned grocery stores that would drive food prices down. Personally, I think the poor should rummage through restaurant bins for leftovers like they do in civilised countries.""
Bibi not welcome in NY
Checked his origins, father = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani holds disturbing views such as genocide is wrong and poor people should be able to afford food. Chillingly, he plans to create city-owned grocery stores that would drive food prices down. Personally, I think the poor should rummage through restaurant bins for leftovers like they do in civilised countries.""
Bibi not welcome in NY
Checked his origins, father = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani
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Re: Wednesday 25th June 2025
Despite my natural pessimism telling me Starmer and his goons will find some way of passing their welfare bill I must say I'm very much enjoying watching them squirm. It's been a long time coming and the fact that it's happening over this issue makes it doubly delicious for the likes of me.
I have to admit, like McSweeney, I didn't see this coming. It didn't happen under Nu-Labour when they targetted the sick and disabled and brought in the likes of ATOS to deny claimants their benefits, so it's pretty unprecedented to see so many Labour backbenchers (both senior and junior) taking a stand. Of course many of the youngsters will have grown up politically campaigning against Tory austerity, they'll have either worked for or with local groups and charities helping those struggling with the benefit system. They know their stuff. Which makes it all the more difficult for the government whips to offer half baked concessions when these guys can spot their bullshit a mile off. Another aspect is that I read one of them saying if they didn't support the amendment/vote against the bill their local party would rightly deselect them making any threats from Starmer's lackeys feeble by comparison.
All of this was entirely avoidable. Regardless of what anyone thinks of him when Jonathan Ashworth was shadow work and pensions secretary he properly consulted with disability charities and as a result came out with some genuinely good and helpful proposals, but of course this was back when Starmer and Reeves were telling us the Tory plans for slashing disability benefits were dreadful and awful and a disgrace despite being nowhere near as bad as what they and their idiot sidekick Kendall have since come up with. For a brief moment it looked like something sensible might happen, but then Ashworth lost his seat, Reeves needed to find 5 billion, and one of Blair's stupidest babes was only too willing to help.
We all know the benefits system is a dysfunctional costly mess, just ask those of us who have to rely on it, so reforming it is not a bad thing in and of itself. What is bad however is casually slashing support to the sick, mentally ill, and disabled, while calling it reform when it's obviously nothing more than a crude slashing of financial support from those who most need it because a flailing chancellor of the exchequer needs the OBR to approve her spreadsheet.
How about actually listening to us for once?
I have to admit, like McSweeney, I didn't see this coming. It didn't happen under Nu-Labour when they targetted the sick and disabled and brought in the likes of ATOS to deny claimants their benefits, so it's pretty unprecedented to see so many Labour backbenchers (both senior and junior) taking a stand. Of course many of the youngsters will have grown up politically campaigning against Tory austerity, they'll have either worked for or with local groups and charities helping those struggling with the benefit system. They know their stuff. Which makes it all the more difficult for the government whips to offer half baked concessions when these guys can spot their bullshit a mile off. Another aspect is that I read one of them saying if they didn't support the amendment/vote against the bill their local party would rightly deselect them making any threats from Starmer's lackeys feeble by comparison.
All of this was entirely avoidable. Regardless of what anyone thinks of him when Jonathan Ashworth was shadow work and pensions secretary he properly consulted with disability charities and as a result came out with some genuinely good and helpful proposals, but of course this was back when Starmer and Reeves were telling us the Tory plans for slashing disability benefits were dreadful and awful and a disgrace despite being nowhere near as bad as what they and their idiot sidekick Kendall have since come up with. For a brief moment it looked like something sensible might happen, but then Ashworth lost his seat, Reeves needed to find 5 billion, and one of Blair's stupidest babes was only too willing to help.
We all know the benefits system is a dysfunctional costly mess, just ask those of us who have to rely on it, so reforming it is not a bad thing in and of itself. What is bad however is casually slashing support to the sick, mentally ill, and disabled, while calling it reform when it's obviously nothing more than a crude slashing of financial support from those who most need it because a flailing chancellor of the exchequer needs the OBR to approve her spreadsheet.
How about actually listening to us for once?