Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ This sums up well what I consider a large threat to UK democracy, naturally therefore the threat comes from the Tories }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{So the Tories are on a bragging tour about how they have fixed the Northern Ireland Protocol, not mentioning of course they negotiated, came up with and signed onto the protocol in the first place.

The solution? Well its a 98% a fix- goods destined for the EU going from UK into Ireland will be in a red lane- usual customs checks in other words, all goods destined to stay in NI will go through the green lane without any checks. And they resolved issues of pets and medicines crossing the borders.
So far so good, but there is still a role for the European Court in some areas- which the DUP said was a red line. So it will be interesting to see if the DUP will resume their seats now in Stormont and give NI a working Parliament again- I have my doubts as I have a sneaky feeling the real objection the DUP have is that Sinn Fein won the election for the first time and theyd be serving under a catholic ruling party.

Two other things come to mind, firstly the disgraceful use of the Monarchy in all this- her late Maj will be rolling in her grave at this constitutional abuse, disgraceful.

And secondly, given Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and the single market, every single constituency voting remain, why can't we have the same deal? A red lane for Scottish goods going to the EU and a green lane for goods going to England and we can rejoin the single market.
They already have this solution for NI so we know its possible. But I wont hold my breath. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ I cant believe what I just heard Sunak say, so much so I had to transcribe it as you can bet your ass our media will not want to dwell on it.
He is in NI selling his deal and was giving a speech to factory workers, and he said this-

“I think the other thing to say is, you talk about Northern Ireland, that is the prize that is on offer. Because if we get this right, if we get this framework implemented, we get the Executive back up and running here, Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position, unique position, in the entire world, European continent in having privileged access not just to the UK home market – which is enormous, fifth biggest in the world – but also the European Union single market. Nobody else has that. No one. Only you guys, only here. And that is the prize. I can tell you, when I go around the world and talk to businesses, they know that, they say 'that's interesting, if you guys get this sorted then we will want to invest in Northern Ireland. Because nowhere else does that exist. That's like the worlds most exciting economic zone.'”

If being in the single market is such a prize, why is the rest of Britain not in it?
Why did Sunak campaign and vote to leave it if this is what he believes?
Especially why is Scotland who never voted to leave it in the first place not allowed to be in same as NI?
And if what Sunak says about investment is true that just means he's made NI far more attractive to invest jobs in that mainland UK. Im happy for NI that they are now the 'worlds most exciting economic zone', its just I'd like us to be in it too!  
If England is so determined to stay out the single market let them sit outside on their own. }}

[halfwise]

{{ This sums up well what I consider a large threat to UK democracy, naturally therefore the threat comes from the Tories }}

This could almost word for word substitute for the Republican voter ID laws over here. But you'd need to add in that gun registration certificate could count as ID, but not a university student ID.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ seems the right think alike no matter where they are!

On my above point about King Charlie being on wobbly constitutional ground I should also add it was bloody stupid too, as its potentially dangerous, even life threatening.

The self-styled 'Real IRA' unfortunately popped back up a few days ago to shoot a police officer in NI. The IRA want what they have always wanted, a united Ireland, and they have seen the trouble over the protocol as beneficial to that cause, as it was distancing NI more from mainland UK whilst making it closer with southern Ireland and the EU.
To have the monarch, a hated IRA figure whoever it is, shaking hands with the head of the EU over a deal which would restore closer ties with mainland UK and move the north away from the south, and to do so at the bequest of a hated Tory government in hated Westminster only makes it worse, and an even more stupid thing to do.
These nutjobs dont tend to take too much to get upset enough to start blowing or shooting stuff up. It was appallingly clumsy in an area that requires utmost sensitivity in dealing with.}}

[Mrs Figg]

That voter ID thing is well dodgy. Most European countries have it and its not a problem because they didn't implement it for dodgy reasons. The Italians did it because of the massive problems with the mafia and the ID is also your residency permit all in one.

But we all know the Tories have done it to disenfranchise certain sections of the population, its disgusting. They don't want Labour voters voting, the poor, the young, and BAME people will be the target.

[Pettytyrant101]

{ Well as predicted the DUP have rejected the latest deal so they will not be returning to Stormont anytime soon and NI will have to do without a government for even longer.
Leets face it they are not going to accept any deal if it means they have to go sit in a Parliament the catholics run, thats the real issue at the heart of this for them. They are, and always have been bigots and unlike other parties in NI they have never moved on from being bigots. }}

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ I watched the full 3 hours of Boris's grilling at the Select Committee over breaches of his own covid rules. If I coud summarise his three hours of defence it would be something like- 'I did break the rules that I set for everyone, but I didnt know I was breaking them because nobody told me I was breaking them and I couldnt see I was breaking them even though I was there because I was told what I was seeing, which broke the rules, was not breaking the rules and I believed my advisors'.
When pressed on who those advisors were he refused to give names, then finally had to admit they were not in fact civil servants but some junior press officers.

Favourite moments include Boris insisting all mitigating techniques were used in Downing Street, only to have it pointed out that there were no mitigating things evident in the photos, like social distancing, screens etc, so Boris pointed out yes but they did have them, just not in the room with all the people in it and besides they did have hand sanitiser and didnt pass each other pens. To which the committee chair responded 'maybe you didnt pass pens but we have pictures and video of people passing drinks to each other'.

Or Boris claiming that he knew nothing about the party of 40-60 people going on in the vestibule of No 10 despite his diary entry saying he went to his flat as it was going on, his flat being off a corridor that opens directly onto the vestibule less than 2 metres away where he alleges he never saw a thing, so presumably he went to his flat with a blindfold and headphones on. Or his claim all the 'parties' were work related despite invites saying 'bring your own drink' and cheese and copious bottles of wine laid on. He also claimed it only included work related people, whilst his wife and her interior decorator were present.
It was the usual shamless Boris display of bluster and denial and trying to blame everyone else but himself. }}

[Mrs Figg]

wow 3 hours of Boris. I managed 5 minutes. That was enough to know he is a world class bullshitter.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ One thing thats been pissing me off unrelated to the actual breaking of rules bit, is the evident long accepted notion of drinking at work. Worse we the taxpayer are paying for them to get pissed at work. Its long overdue for all the Commons bars to be shut and No10 to be alcohol free, why do they have bars in their place of work? Let alone bars we pay for. Anyone else who drinks at work gets sacked.

I've long been of the opinion what our great and good decide is acceptable ways to treat the rest of us should be applied to them. For example according to the laws they set its perfectly acceptable for companies like Amazon to effectively tag their workers while at work and monitor every second of what they do, including how long they take for a toilet break and to punish accordingly if they deem you take too long. Fine, if thats fair then tag our MP's so we the taxpayer who employ them can log in at end of each day and see exactly how much time they've spent at their desk, when they were drinking, how long and how much their meals cost us and how long they spend snorting cocaine in the toilets.
I bet theyd decide to change the laws pretty damn fast if they were subject to the same treatment they impose on the working class. }}

[Pettytyrant101]