Wednesday 12th March 2025
Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 6:40 am
Morning all.
Morning refit, the comments as expected !!!refitman wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 8:23 am If you needed convincing that Labour Together are just the worst people...
-----------------------------------------------------In many ways, the sheer openness of Elon Musk’s transactional relationship with right-wing politicians and media organisations in the UK has been a highly educational moment. Freed from the pretence of being motivated by patriotism or principle, Britain’s budding Muskovites can now be seen exactly for who they really are.
Because the truth is that far from wanting us to gain our ‘independence’ from foreign influence, much of Britain’s British political and media establishment has instead been acting as cheerleaders for the biggest foreign interference campaign ever launched against the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ine-moscowLess discussed, but still significant, was the inclusion in Putin’s delegation of Kirill Dmitriev, an alumnus of Stanford University, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, now head of the Russian state investment fund. His pitch was that US businesses have foregone billions of dollars in profits by quitting Russia. Sanctions against Moscow are presented as another way that Ukraine and its European accomplices are ripping off America. Shortly after the Saudi meeting, Dmitriev was formally appointed Putin’s “special representative for investment and economic partnership with overseas countries”, with a mandate covering deals with the US.
The proposed model, unnamed but also unhidden, is partition. Washington gets access to Ukrainian mineral resources. Moscow gets a fat slice of Ukraine. Russia and America reset diplomatic relations and renew commercial ties without any of the old fuss around rule of law and human rights – an oligarch entente.
Maybe because they haven't finalised what they want to do yet? Just a thought.refitman wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 1:41 pm So, they don't know how many people they're going to affect with their cuts
You know what, if they actually aren't planning on cutting PIP - a benefit which has NO RECORD OF EXCESS PAYMENTS, SO ANY CUTS WILL DIRECTLY HURT PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY NEED IT - why don't they deny it's going to happen? They keep equivocating and using weasely words in interviews, which only gives the impression that cuts are coming, which is causing untold stress to people who need it. If, after all this, they don't actually cut it, they do realise people aren't going to go "ah, you got me there. Great joke Labour". They're going to call them duplicitous cunts and never vote for them again.AnatolyKasparov wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 3:40 pmMaybe because they haven't finalised what they want to do yet? Just a thought.refitman wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 1:41 pm So, they don't know how many people they're going to affect with their cuts
(remember, the sole actual evidence for any specific measures so far is one unsourced news report)
I don't think the meeting with MPs went wellAnatolyKasparov wrote: Wed Mar 12, 2025 6:40 pm Because the usual practice with this sort of thing is to say "we're not commenting on leaks".
All governments basically take that line, because once you start doing so there is a danger that you never stop.
Labour MPs are meeting with Starmer in the coming days, I am sure they will raise the PIP rumour amongst other things.
After the meeting, MPs privately criticised the prime minister for failing to respond to a direct question on Pip when one directly challenged him. The MP described his own daughter who has significant disabilities, and asked for reassurance about the cuts, saying they would have a huge impact on his own family. “There was audible support in the room but the PM did not respond,” another MP said.