Tuesday 8th July 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

[gilsey]

Good morning.


RIP Norman Tebbit, I suppose. He was a character anyway, and he and Mrs Tebbit deserving of our sympathy after the Brighton bomb.

The G has a list of his quotes, this last one I misread 'Grayling' for 'Patten'.

The poll tax was a classic case of a good idea being entrusted to Chris Patten and becoming a terrible failure.

[gilsey]

Sam Freedman
‪@samfr.bsky.social‬
Apologies I had actually missed two. They've lost 11 councillors in two months. And another that should have been suspended after being charged with assault.

[refitman]

Good morning.


RIP Norman Tebbit, I suppose. He was a character anyway, and he and Mrs Tebbit deserving of our sympathy after the Brighton bomb.

The G has a list of his quotes, this last one I misread 'Grayling' for 'Patten'.

The poll tax was a classic case of a good idea being entrusted to Chris Patten and becoming a terrible failure.

Hope he burns in hell

[gilsey]

We won't fall out about it, I hope.

Whenever a child dies in some horrible manner and their family and friends tell us how beautiful and wonderful they were, I think that it doesn't matter if they were the worst child ever born, they still don't deserve to die like that.

Awful people still didn't deserve getting blown up by the IRA.

I'd make an exception for Putin.

[gilsey]

It appears I can stop ranting about the A66.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gree ... 42000-jobs

The long awaited A66 Northern Trans-Pennine will also be delivered

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Obviously this has to be mentioned.

Norman Tebbit Attacks Child Dressed As Dragon

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lord-nor ... k_n_473706

Lord Norman Tebbit, a British Conservative politician, has apparently attacked a crowd celebrating Chinese New Year near his home in Bury St Edmunds.

Lord Tebbit, a former cabinet minister, was so angered by the celebrations that he allegedly ran 300 feet from his home, grabbed a drum and kicked a child dressed as a dragon on his backside.

Restaurant owner Patrick Chung told The Daily Mail that he had organized the traditional Chinese New Year parade. The parade had been running for 20 years, but Lord Tebbit had only recently moved to the area.

"He did kick the dragon. There was a child inside the dragon costume and he was kicking the dragon's bottom," Chung told The Mail. "He ran after the dragon and kicked it. The child was upset. He did not know what was happening."

Another witness said, "This old man came running towards the dragon on the street parade. He grabbed the drum and cymbal being played and then started violently kicking the dragon itself."

[gilsey]

[Frog222]

Awful people still didn't deserve getting blown up by the IRA.
I'd make an exception for Putin.

RE Putin and so many other Russians, they have no complexes at all of exchanging Ukrainian POW's and corpses who have been tortured . Now extended to neighbouring ex-USSR states who are increasingly distancing themselves .

[Frog222]

After Israel recently attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, Putin saw an opportunity to tempt Iran into a new war by blaming Azerbaijan. Thousands of new fake accounts were created on social media with claims Israeli jets and drones attacked Iran from Azerbaijani airspace. This initially created friction between the two nations despite a categorical denial from Baku. Iran although initially sparked and provoked, realised it was their supposed ally who had tried to trick them. In response Baku sent weapons to Ukraine.

The shift in power is tangible. Azerbaijan no longer lives in fear of Russia. Friendly gestures of cooperation are being made between Armenia and Azerbaijan, who both realise a future without Russia is possible. Oil and gas are flowing out and wealth is flowing in. There are new friends, allies, and a new future on the horizon.

The war in Ukraine made all this possible. Ukraine exposed the great fallacy of Russian power. Fear of the Russian bear is fading; it no longer has the muscle or the claws to tear apart it’s enemies. Without fear, tyranny loses all power.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Going to be an interesting day in parliament tomorrow with the government forcing through the third reading of the welfare bill and all its amendments in a single afternoon. Nobody is forcing them to do it of course, when arranging the timetable their genius strategists clearly thought it would be when they faced the biggest threat of a rebellion so compressed it into as little time as possible to stymie the rebels. Worked a treat didn't it?

Anyway there's a bunch of amendments (38) to be voted on including some performative cruelty from the Tories which they've chucked in to remind everyone what massive twats they are. There's some good stuff from the Labour left, SNP, and Lib Dems trying to mitigate the cuts to UC and make sure the promised PIP review is fit for purpose. Truth be told I'm not sure if any of them will garner enough votes, is there any appetite left amongst Labour backbenchers to rub Starmer and Kendall's noses in it any further? Who knows at this point. All we do know is it's going to be a chaos entirely manufactured by McSweeney and co.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It appears I can stop ranting about the A66.

Isn't it mostly dual carriageway now anyway?

Ever since I was a kid there's been arguments going on about the A1 between Newcastle and Berwick being made dual carriageway but I'd argue that getting stuck behind a tractor going 30mph on a major route between England and Scotland is part of Northumberland's charm. It gives you the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the view. Besides, if it were to happen within no time the roads would be awash with haulage traffic trying to avoid the M6. If there's one thing studies of road traffic consistently agree on it's that if you build more roads vehicles will magically appear and clog it up. As an example I'd give the extra lane of that very same A1 they've spent millions of pounds building through Gateshead and Newcastle. For years it's been a pain in the arse getting through the extensive roadworks and speed restrictions. Now they're gone and guess what? The traffic's increased and it's moving even slower than it was before.

It's entirely unsustainable. When my Dad and I take my mother out in her wheelchair we can't take her along the pavement as we should be doing because so many massive cars are parked halfway up it literally blocking our path so we have to push her along the road. I've seen the same thing here with mothers and pushchairs. Infuriatingly when you look half of these people have drives which they can't be arsed to park in. There are too many cars owned by too many arseholes in this country. The answer isn't more roads, it's fewer cars and arseholes.

(I just want to make it abundantly clear this wasn't aimed at Gilsey and was just a general howl of frustration).