I should have thought ...

That's been a recurring theme of Rishi's campaign so far. Apart from a third bet being reported this morning (not yet confirmed), there's his early dash back from the international phase of the D-day commemoration to record a TV election interview: he treated the whole thing as a private British event, rather than the remembrance of a world war. He's apologised, but only after looking an idiot first.

It gets worse:

Laura Saunders, the [conservative] party’s candidate in Bristol North West, has worked for the Tories since 2015.

She is married to Tony Lee, who is the Conservative Party’s Director of Campaigns.

(from Chris Mason, BBC Political editor, on a live stream web page)

Any more for the gravy train?

Years ago we had a political scandal in Bavaria that several members of the state parliament only employed relatives in their offices. The explanation given by some of them was refreshing. Having grown up on rural, family-run farms, they are used to relying only on the extended family when things need to be done.

Hot on the UK news:

Conservatives undone by insider gambling?... And also by Sunak's Big Oil connection and personal profits?

Reform party is undone by Farage gaffs and misogynistic cruel comments by multiple Reform candidates?...

And Labour is the least sleezed?!...


What hope do we have for a clear and clean election?


Only here in the UK,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I wonder if Nigel realises that his name is the male equivalent of a "Karen" here down under.

Yes... We have the same connotation in this area up here...

Whatever next?!!


All in an emotional (non-logical) world of politics!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

First oil for short-term profits...? (And The World be damned.)

And now:


Revealed: how Sunak dropped smoking ban amid lobbying from tobacco firms
wrote:

Investigation details industry campaign including legal threats and charm offensive aimed at Tory MPs...

... And the public be damned...

All in our despicable games of politics...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The state of play here in the UK:


I simulated each UK party’s first years in government in a video game, and the results were awful
wrote:

For the past week, I’ve been feeding UK party manifestos into the politics management game Democracy 4, to simulate their results five years on … Are you ready to be dismayed?...

A rather interesting play...

How will reality play out?...


Only in the UK?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Well, that's it for another 5 years.
I see the 2 main parties on the same lines as the England National football team.

Currently, Tories - World class players but a mediocre manager.
Past, Labour - mediocre players but with world class managers.

ITMA.
He's done it again & for a 3rd time, this time becoming an MP in the process.

Watched his victory speech in the early hours of the morning.
A nemesis for both the Tories & EU, stated he's now going to be gunning for Labour.

With the likes of Abbot, Rayner & Thornberry for the next 5 years...

...god help Labour.

Not too mention the poison chalice they've inherited....
There are a few jobs I wouldn't like to have, and being PM of the UK just now comes a long way below cleaning the lats after a very wet festival....

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Not too mention the poison chalice they've inherited....

Much like the England team for the last 30 years.
At least the "Brylcream Boy" has been booted from No 10.

Very sadly:


I’m an international student – we’ve been so demonised, no wonder Britain’s losing us
wrote:

Tory ministers and Nigel Farage scapegoated us as part of their anti-immigration agenda. Does anyone see us as human?

... as students flock back to campuses, we will probably see fewer international student faces. According to the latest statistics, the number of work or study visa applicants fell by more than a third compared with last July, with some institutions bracing for a 50% decline in new international enrolments. This is causing a severe financial crisis for many universities...

... The political climate for international students over the past year (I’ve been here for four years, but I feel like the situation has been especially tense since parties began their election campaigns) has been extremely bleak. The Tory government and Reform leader Nigel Farage demonised international students in their bid to win votes in the election this summer.

Farage and some Conservative ministers implied we are the driving force behind surging immigration (a byword for “bad” for all parties this election season) – even though it is debatable whether students actually contribute to net migration to the UK. Many countries, including the US and Canada, choose not to count international students in their figures because most of us are temporary migrants who will return home after course completion.

Senior Tories such as Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly have repeatedly framed international students as low-quality students abusing the immigration system...

... It’s frustrating to hear these tired stereotypes being repeated. International students bring so many benefits aside from the fees we pay. We engage with local communities, work as hard as anyone else here and break down cultural barriers. To demonise us like this is narrow-minded and only does this country a disservice...

... One second we are demonised; the next, we are a powerless cash cow, ready to be milked.

I am also fed up with the stereotypes...

... if we want the UK to remain a culturally inclusive, diverse, exciting place to study, we have to change our conversation around international students, to reflect the fact we are human too.

Uneducated politics at its worst.

We really do need to enforce a human competency test against the more loud-mouthed foul-mouthed of what I see are the schoolyard bullies of our political system...


But would we get the "Ayes" needed for such good sensibilities?

Only in the UK?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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And now the fun starts...

Mr Athwal has now also admitted his flats do not have the correct property licences required under a scheme he introduced as Redbridge Council leader.
He had earlier claimed to the BBC that he had complied with the rules.

...didn't take long.
Labour MP;s tenants complaints
While reading that report, I was struck by a weird coincidence.
The year that cost Labour power & the year it regained it.
Both have the same digits in the year.
1979 - 1997

1979 - 1997

Can you elaborate on that? Are you referring to 2024 and 2042?

That may have been the case in the ('good old'?) past. Today, for a bad government to lose power for a long period, the opposition would have to have a well-thought-out, targeted strategy with a long-term outlook, represented by competent MPs who feel called to serve the country. That has become rare.

1979 - the Winter of discontent which cost the Labour Party the General Election later that year.
1997 - The year they regained power with Master B-Liar.

We have, deadly:


NHS must reform or die, Starmer to say
wrote:

"Ballooning" NHS waiting times and delays getting vital treatment in A&E and cancer care is harming health and costing lives...

... waiting times in A&E are leading to avoidable deaths, adding: "People's loved ones who could have been saved. Doctors and nurses whose whole vocation is to save them - hampered from doing so. It's devastating."...

... “The Labour government will be judged on its actions. It has stopped new hospitals from being built, scrapped our social care reforms and taken money from pensioners to fund unsustainable pay rises with no gains in productivity." "They need to move from rhetoric to action.”...

... So...

We might have more funds for the NHS for hospitals... However...

That is all futile if there is no extra funding for the services required to keep people out of A&E in the first place...

There is a deadly silly amount of needless hospital workload for the very expensive consequences of people who have no where else to go for help...


Stay healthy folks!
Martin


A&E: Accident and Emergency admittance to a hospital. Now overly abused as a 24-hour refuge.

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Sometimes a knee jerk action is not thought through:

Winter fuel cut impact was not assessed, says Starmer

Analysis by the House of Commons Library says, external that 10.8 million pensioners in England and Wales received the winter fuel payment last winter. This coming winter, 1.5 million will receive the payment.

One has to ask how many of the 9.3 million who loose this payment are currently sitting on the borderline of serious fuel poverty, and so will suffer if this coming winter is even a "mild" one. And how many of those will require medical interventions as a result of being forced to live in cold homes?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce808nyry3do

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

After yesterday's news about the number of older people loosing their winter fuel payment it would appear that another 0.8 million aren't getting it despite being eligible for it. It is said that the main reason is the need to fill in a multi-page form with many convoluted questions. Then there are about 70% of disabled people (any age?) who are set to loose their similar payments.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr54n3r0l50o

So, how much more is going to be spent by the NHS local social services - nobody is prepared to take a guess, but I'll stick my neck out an say much more than that "saved".

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

easy to count beans or hard to count beans -- would that be ford Pinto beans?

The biggest con in British transport history

As for the WFP?
NO COMMENT.

As for the Labour Party?
Definitely NO COMMENT.