Politics Thread!

[merman]

Front bench ministers can now be driven home from Westminster to anywhere in the UK, at taxpayer’s expense. Because why should they put up with terrible trains?

And they will get a new posh fleet of armoured Government limousines.
Ordered from a German company, because Brexit means UK firms cannot meet the requirements.

They are expecting trouble then.

[k345y]

Front bench ministers can now be driven home from Westminster to anywhere in the UK, at taxpayer’s expense. Because why should they put up with terrible trains?

And they will get a new posh fleet of armoured Government limousines.
Ordered from a German company, because Brexit means UK firms cannot meet the requirements.

They are expecting trouble then.

Government party front benches or all front benches....(official HAHA) opposition?

I honestly don't think protecting the democratically elected voice of the people is a bad thing. It's just that in the UK, high profile politicians, the ones that tend to be front benchers and (I use the term expanded and widely) the ones of newsworth happen to mostly be cunts.

[merman]

Front bench ministers can now be driven home from Westminster to anywhere in the UK, at taxpayer’s expense. Because why should they put up with terrible trains?

And they will get a new posh fleet of armoured Government limousines.
Ordered from a German company, because Brexit means UK firms cannot meet the requirements.

They are expecting trouble then.

Government party front benches or all front benches....(official HAHA) opposition?

I honestly don't think protecting the democratically elected voice of the people is a bad thing. It's just that in the UK, high profile politicians, the ones that tend to be front benchers and (I use the term expanded and widely) the ones of newsworth happen to mostly be cunts.

Government front bench - previously it was only the top three that could get an official Government car outside London. Then there’s the thousands of miles Johnson, Gove and Sunak flew on the Government jet in the last two years...

[PFVA]

The transfer of the presidency to Lula da Silva who got elected president is today. That man that has been president is not going to the ceremony and left the country to avoid it. From all places he could have flown to he decided to go to Florida. I can't stop wondering if he is going to spend time with his idol, Donald Trump.

[PFVA]

I'm hoping for a peaceful and democratic solution

Note: whatever Bolsonaro supporters would like I don't think the Brazilian military in general will support a coup d' état
even though some of them are supporters of Bolsonaro.

Supporters of Brazilian far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro have stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and surrounded the presidential palace.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64204860

[gilesgoat]

Sounds like "Trump set a precedent" .. we had "some sort of things" going in Italy as well ...

[PFVA]

Copy cats. The pics they took of themselves for the social media were a copy of the ones of the US Congress invasion. They must have spent a lot of time on the web studying them. Except that they want a military dictatorship back.

In the last few months Lula has been busy negotiating a viable government and he already has one. Even though he didn't have the majority in the Congress he was able to negotiate one with other parties.

And the military in general hasn't showed any interest in setting up a dictatorship.

And the people didn't go out to the streets to support them.

And the governor of the state of Brasilia, who is or was a Bolsonaro supporter publicly asked excuses to Lula and the government for the way they dealt with it. He has been suspended fm functions for 3 monthsby the Supreme Federal Court pending an investigation. (Brazil has the 3 powers, presidency, congress, and the Supreme Court.)

In the long term the way they dealt may not have been so bad. They let them in, or actually they didn't try to battle them, they stayed there for a few hours, and then they went in and arrested several of them. As they were very busy taking selfies a lot of internet users collected them and have made them available to the appropriate authorities so they can be identified, investigated, and appropriate charges can be made.

We'll see.

[PFVA]

I can see why.

Having to deal with Trump and his supporters is bad enough. They may not be thrilled about foreign Trump admirers
moving there.

From Reuters via Yahoo news:

The United States has a Jair Bolsonaro problem.
...
Democratic President Joe Biden is now facing mounting pressure to remove Bolsonaro from his self-imposed exile in suburban Orlando.

https://news.yahoo.com/bolsonaros-flori ... fb&tsrc=fb

[Orava]

That Brexit thing keeps giving, any Europeans here that have a 'settled status'? You are then surely familiar with the 'sharing code' that you can use to prove you have the right to live here. The problem is that it expires after six months, so you have to go through the process of getting a new one, luckily this is automated and you don't have to deal with the Home Office w*nkers.**,***

First I had to prove to social services that I had the right to live with my half-British/half-Finnish three children and then one potential employee wanted the code before even before nterviewing me (I refused that one). It is sounding sounding increasingly like some sort of fascist burden created to make you feel like you definitely want to go home and don't belogs here (after 29 years). And don't even ask me why it took me over a year to get a settled status**. half of which it during I was technically an illegal immigrant.

Yes Brexit...

** OK, an expired passport and COVID making it impossible to get a new one

***, ** Yes the Home Office fanboys again.

[gilesgoat]

That Brexit thing keeps giving, any Europeans here that have a 'settled status'? You are then surely familiar with the 'sharing code' that you can use to prove you have the right to live here. The problem is that it expires after six months, so you have to go through the process of getting a new one, luckily this is automated and you don't have to deal with the Home Office w*nkers.**,***

First I had to prove to social services that I had the right to live with my half-British/half-Finnish three children and then one potential employee wanted the code before even before nterviewing me (I refused that one). It is sounding sounding increasingly like some sort of fascist burden created to make you feel like you definitely want to go home and don't belogs here (after 29 years). And don't even ask me why it took me over a year to get a settled status**. half of which it during I was technically an illegal immigrant.

Yes Brexit...

** OK, an expired passport and COVID making it impossible to get a new one

***, ** Yes the Home Office fanboys again.

When I came to UK, after my ghastly experience with USA immigration, I was happy thinking "it's EU, I am safe, no more of that crap" ...

.. then came Brexit .. you can't even imagine how "happy" I am

I tought "finally a place I can freely move and work" and now I too fear all time "something new could happen" ..

Add the fact that during this time Italy changed SO much I am "scared of my own country" as well and it goes "beyond" the normal because I have the feeling that "no matter what I do/vote/etc. for NOTHING better will happen/change".

I DO NOT like ANY of those at the power or possible new power in Italy and there's nothing else I can choose/do, plus the whole thing is "fucked up" anyway "starting from the bottom and going up" ..

DON'T ask me what I feel about the future "in general" .. it's nothing good ..

You ever got "that feeling" that "everything around you is turning/turned into crap and all you loved is gone ?" ..

Don't know man .. "it's all gone mad" .. "people VS people" and politicians/politics "could ( hopefully not more ) not be more crap than this" ...

[merman]

Yet again the Government makes a big “we’re spending x amount to solve a problem” without getting the money to the frontline.

Case in point - they announced £500 million to help the NHS this winter.
As of yesterday, £300 million has not arrived at hospitals.

So they announce “£200 million to purchase social care beds and get medically fit people out of hospital”.

That is “allocated” from that £500 million already announced.
And there’s huge staff shortages in the social care sector, so where are the extra carers magically going to appear from? Will the people being moved out of hospital beds receive adequate care, or simply end up bouncing back and forth?

[KlaxonCow]

This is perfectly ridiculous.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64223974

Boris Johnson erased from Grant Shapps spaceport picture

Business Secretary Grant Shapps has denied doctoring a picture on his Twitter feed to remove former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr Shapps posted a picture of a ministerial visit to Spaceport Cornwall, as he hailed the first rocket launch from UK soil.

But social media users spotted that Mr Johnson, who also went on the trip in 2021, had disappeared from the picture.

Right, so this picture:



...is not just this picture, with Boris photoshopped out of it?



I love these denials. Is he really trying to imply - and have us believe - that the picture just photoshopped itself? Like, it requires a person to actively do this. You don't just post a photo on Twitter and, oops, I lent on the "erase Boris" key on my keyboard by accident and he magically disappeared.

In fairness, I guess it might be that it wasn't Grant Shapps who did it and it might have been Conservative head office, and he just asked them for an appropriate pic.

I'll grant him that he might not be personally responsible - but he still should be intellectually honest and say "oh, they gave me a photoshopped image", and not stupidly pretend like it's not photoshopped, when it's so fucking blatantly photoshopped. Though, you know, even that wouldn't ring entirely true, as he was there - in that photo - so he was aware that Boris was with him at the time. Thus, he should be at least suspicious how the guy he knew was there with him is not pictured there with him, as his own memory inside his own brain would be reminding him, from having actually been there.


But, as I say, perfectly ridiculous. Fucking about editing Boris out of history... instead of, you know, fixing the NHS, sorting the cost of living crisis, investing in insulation and renewables to prevent this shit ever happening again, negotiating to end the strikes, not bankrupting all our businesses with crippling energy bills (that benefits only billionaires and tyrants, who're wallowing in great profits from all this) and that sort of thing. Also known as "doing your fucking job".

I'm sure there are still some sado-masochists out there who're still going to vote Tory. But, at this point, what the fuck is mentally wrong with them? Do they not have eyes and a brain?

[Orava]

Also the Home Office is completely insensitive to any problems that might arise, like 'My passport expired two months ago; but because of COVID and partly because of medical conditions (vulnerable, diabetes) and partly because The Finnish Embassy was practically closed, you had to book an appointment several weeks ahead, them working on a skeleton staff and then they canceled it anyway.

Then the Home Office telling me something like 'your papers are late, you are being deported in three week's time', it took someone from the Embassy (good guys) to let me apply with me expired passports(s) - 3 and what they finally accepted as a proof of identity was my Military Passport, my then time when I was serving in 1990 in National Service and only because it has no expiry date (I would have been happy to look like that young officer again). and was the one of the approved document on the list for an ID as it never has an expiry date, you cannot quit the Finnish Army. Happily I kept it as thought it only had sentimental value.

But yes Home Office people, you have a problem with a person if they somehow do not fit your system 100%, and by the fucks sake at that time I was on my 5th year working for local government emergency systems and designing and implementing some very hush-hush stuff. Some of which could be used to catch illegal immigrants and terrorists.

[Orava]

Now any the time any prospective employee goes and checks me for my 'share code (eligibility to work in this country)' they see an angry looking 19-year-old artillery officer with a crew-cut and an uniform that distinctly looks like something the Wehrmacht left behind, maybe I should apply jobs for other brainless institutions where you shout loudly at people below you, Home Office jobs, anyone?



Here is a scan me from the very same document I supported, mocked up to gray scale, my funny nose is probably because the original doc folded there. This website basically shows your ID scanned and a text saying 'this person is eligible working is the UK with not limits', so everyone with my share-code will see exactly that, maybe I'll put it on my linked-in profile as the main image of me telling I killed millions in Vietnam.

Now, would you employ an army psychopath in a near-German uniform? Hurrah for the Home Office.

[Orava]

Also the scan, shown to all, has some very specific military info on it that might not be a good idea.

I'll find out if you can update your scanned id and make up one with a fucking squirrel in it.