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Agree with MoreCash here. Please do not descend to their level. Use science and the facts to calmly discredit every lie told. Name calling reduces the argument to the level of the playground.
We can still call him a useless ****ing **** though?
Boris and Cummings.... Bummings it is amusing but probably not offensive (and if you are comparing to a physical activity then you shouldn't stereotype that the activity is exclusive to one particular type, that could be offensive!).
noted, apologies
We can still call him a useless * * though?
Absolutely!
This is, odd
Not really. He has a DARPA **** fantasy that he wants to bring to life.
His Russian employment history didn't raise too many eyebrows during the vetting process, then. I'm not particularly bothered about him visiting Porton Down, there is likely to be far more sensitive intelligence crossing his desk on a regular basis.
His Russian employment history didn’t raise too many eyebrows during the vetting process, then.
I'm sure it did. As I suspect did his brother in law. But ultimately, they can't keep him out if the PM wants him in.
Not really. He has a DARPA **** fantasy that he wants to bring to life.
But we had a DARPA, the Defence Research Agency, they pioneered the use of carbon fibre composites, invented the first colour LCD in the 1970s and did world leading research across a number of fields, underpinning British defence industry innovation until they were privatised as Qinetiq (under Blair tbf).
Thanks for the Vice article link, didn't realise Cummings was open about his admiration! Another good Vice article linked to from there: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/mbm8p3/boris-johnson-lies-media-bbc
This feels like something straight out of the Surkov playbook also, but in a US context - designed to split the black vote, as well as make people wonder WTF is going on in the world generally and throw their hands up.
Yeezy for POTUS with Elon Musk running his space program?
a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast.
Erm, ok, Kanye.
Nothing nutty to see here.
During PMQs Johnson said that parking was free for NHS staff at hospitals. Is this the case?
At the moment I think - a temporary thing due to end shortly.
I'm sure that Johnson gave the impression that this was not the case during PMQs. If that it the case then surely someone must have picked him up on such a blatant lie. I could be mistaken of course.
Given the outrage on my FB feed, free parking for NHS staff ends very shortly.
Glad I only pay £5.80 a day for my work parking.
Of course parking charges for NHS hospitals are england only bar the RIE were the PPI contract does not give the government the power to stop the charges
If that it the case then surely someone must have picked him up on such a blatant lie.
picking Joris up on his blatant lies at PMQs is a full time job in itself. He just makes it up as he goes along. Joris and the truth have rarely come into contact with each other. The same with his evil mekon-headed boss. Lying comes as easily to them as breathing
Considering Elwood was a junior defence minister in the last Government and was a Reservist, you'd think he'd be a bit more in touch - I spent a round-table discussion with him and he seemed reasonable sensible.
The whole DARPA-thing seems a bit of fluff and nonsense - there's been a whole programme of work on cross-industry technology "accelerators" in defence, automotive, AI etc etc for years - I sat on one of the working groups. The problem often was first encounter with the civil service and the conditions they'd put on co-investment which meant great ideas got dumbed-down to the degree they whole project ran out of steam. Ministers wanted instant results - like throwing money at apprenticeships not realising there's a distinct lack of quality training providers.
At the moment I think – a temporary thing due to end shortly.
Correct, much of the enforcement is off, has resulted in a free for all with staff parking in many places though. It's returning in dribs and drabs, depends on the Trust.
The underlying issue is a total lack of adequate car parking for both staff and visitors and zero chance of investment to sort it out. Staff need to be able to get to work when they are needed, public transport is often a non starter, same for people who are ill, take the bus or get driven, not a difficult decision. Free parking won't address the underlying issues (although I think it's fundamentally wrong to charge staff to park) there's simply not enough car parking at many major hospitals.
Government covid funding from which our trust has funded the free parking ends at the end of this month
What stumpyjon said is very true. They have free parking at Scottish hospitals anyway but my experience of Glasgow QE hospital is that it's an absolute shitshow. Totally unorganised and overfilled and no enforcement of bad parking.
Maybe when building some/any of the fourty hospitals they should build them next to train stations or bus terminus and have a subsidised rate on all public transport for NHS staff.
Our local prison has all the free parking you could ever want.
I see Chris Grayling has been appointed Chair of the Int committee. we're either being gaslighted by this govt, or some-one's got a very dry sense of humour, I can't decide which if I'm honest.
Well, the previous MP proposed had the audacity to vote against the government on one vote (to keep a promise she made to farmers when she was a minister), and so a replacement had to be found. If Grayling's sole skill is to back the government no matter what, then that's the only criteria for the role now. Same goes for the top civil service role relating to this brief... the only skill and knowledge now required is to nod through everything Johnson and Cummings sneeze out, even when contradicting themselves. I'm in the rare position of being entirely in agreement with Theresa May about how dangerous that is for the country. Oh, and don't mention Russia.
As ever, perfectly summed up by Marina Hyde. I eagerly await John Crace’s take on Failing Grayling continuing to fail/fall upwards
Chris Grayling's track record? There is no track: just a stretch of scorched earth
DomCum knows exactly what he's doing with that appointment. He's just openly taking the urine at every opportunity just to see what the reaction is. More than ever, it's all just a 'how clever am I?!?' game to him now.
Maybe when building some/any of the fourty hospitals
Do you know what these 40 hospitals are and where? Parking is unlikely the be a major concern for many of them almost a third of those forty announced are cottage hospitals in Dorset.
More worrying than Graylings ongoing buffoonery is this. Joris is planning a shake up of the NHS to give the government more power and direct control
Because I’m sure we can all agree, after the events of the last few months, that allowing number ten to directly control the NHS would be a marvellous idea which would benefit us all
Boris Johnson plans radical shake-up of NHS in bid to regain more direct control
From that article:
Ministers are also keen to “clip Simon Stevens’ wings”, sources said. There is a widely held view in the government that he enjoys too much independence, and frustration that his arms-length relationship with the DHSC means that Hancock has to ask rather than order him to act.
So it's basically a power grab as Hancock couldn't get to play as he saw fit. A bit like getting a new trainset for your birthday but your dad has the controller and won't let you turn the speed dial past 4.
Maybe it's part of the blame-dodging game? They can blame the current setup for the hospital failings then come out saying 'It's ok, we have full control now so you don't have to worry!'.
The NHS may have it's many failings (among many, many benefits) but there is no way that letting it become a directly controlled government plaything will make things better.
Surely its time to declare shenanigans on this bunch of muppets...
I'm sharpening the bristles on my broom in anticipation...
Do you know what these 40 hospitals are and where? Parking is unlikely the be a major concern for many of them almost a third of those forty announced are cottage hospitals in Dorset.
Converted houses, offices, commercial premises and porta cabins providing a fraction of the health care provision an actual hospital usually does. Stir in some private sector and shazam!
I doubt we will ever see fourty of them either.
Obvz doing something right...
Surely its time to declare shenanigans on this bunch of muppets…
Call shenanigans all we like. It used to be that getting caught out would cause them to stand down.
These days the response is a shrug as they carry on regardless. We're basically powerless for the next 4.5 years.
Don't forget, they know this too do will be using those 4.5 years to erode and power we might have.
Remember that BBC drama "Years and Years"...
but there is no way that letting it become a directly controlled government plaything will make things better.
Pretty much everyone agrees that the Lansley reforms of 2012 were a shit show. just about the only half decent thing to come out of them was NHS England, which was supposed to be the arms length body step up to stop the NHS being a political plaything. Pretty much everyone* understands that what the NHS needs is funding and management stability, not constant top-down reform. Go back to the Covid reporting and see the negative press being circulated about NHSE and how it's "failed". I don't think I've spoken to anyone who doesn't understand that it's going to be the fall guy for the lack of govt action in the first couple of weeks of March
*Apart from this govt, obvs...**** sake.
Obvz doing something right…
controlling the media.
A twitter thread to help remind us who our PM is:
https://twitter.com/snigskitchen/status/1235570762716770306?s=21
And, sadly, I think his popularity is largely because of all this, not despite it… which reflects very poorly on us, the people of the UK.
Another day, another unpublished report...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53375707
No doubt the 'demanding boss' line will gather momentum - bloody snowflake civil servants etc
Another shambles for Johnson at PMQs
admitted he'd not read his governments own report on the 2nd wave
a question about bereaved families was used as the excuse to slip in a scripted joke about underpants........
but he did promise starmer an inquiry of some sort at some point
Did he actively say his own government would investigate it, or is it possible it could be delayed so much that he is actually long gone by the time it ever happens?
As for Grayling as Int Committee, presumably that's aiming to use Grayling's enormous incompetence as a sort of report losing device, to lose the Russia report before it surfaces?
but he did promise starmer an inquiry of some sort at some point
Much like the one into Islamophobia within the Conservative Party that he promised about a year ago and which has never been heard of since.
And even when Reports, Reviews and Inquiries are commissioned and actually happen, they often seem to mysteriously stall between closing and publication.
Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War is a classic example and obviously the report into Russian interference which I'm assuming must say something like "oh yes, when Dominic Cummings lived in Russia, we turned him then, he's actually Senior Advisor to Vladimir Putin".
As for Grayling as Int Committee
https://twitter.com/mirrorbreaking_/status/1283436931737694208?s=21
He even failed at that ?
He even failed at that ?
Just when you think his failings couldn't get any worse, he fails at winning a job contest rigged by the Prime Minister himself.
That's quite a spectacular level of incompetence from both Failing Grayling and Boris Johnson!
9 on the committee; 5 appointed by johnson; 3 by labour; 1 SNP.
Labour member & SNP made it clear they would support Julian Lewis so he voted for himself as well resulting in 5-4 surprise.
Chris Grayling really couldn’t even find his own arse, using both hands 😂
That's hilarious (leaving aside the painful reality that we're all paying his salary) - in a kinder age, he'd lock himself in his study with a loaded revolver and a whisky, but if he tried to blow his own brains out, there's a fair chance he'd miss 🙂
He’ll probably still have managed to spaff a couple of hundred million of taxpayers money in the process.
Is anyone keeping a running total? His ****-ups must have cost about the same as the banking crisis by now?
but if he tried to blow his own brains out, there’s a fair chance he’d miss 🙂
Difficult target, to be fair...
there’s a fair chance he’d miss
and in the process spill the whisky
Ok so apparently the word "winningest" is a thing so do we now have "failingest" too?😁
As in ‘failingest Graylingest’?
Lewis thing is interesting. He is a hard Brexiteer but that likely means he will loathe Cummings.
Marina Hyde last week:
For now, Grayling’s ascent to chairman is expected to be a formality. I very much enjoyed last night’s Guardian headline, “Grayling closes in on role as chair of UK intelligence committee”. Closing in suggests a degree of targeted precision that Chris Grayling’s career does not. The only way Chris Grayling could close in on the intelligence and security chair is if he was actually attempting to close in on the keys to a holiday caravan in Rhyl.
Should read 'Gray Team' surely?
@kimbers That’s going to backfire spectacularly. It’s not going to make Lewis more pliable, and it just makes Johnson look more spiteful and vindictive than he does already.
It gets even funnier
The purge continues. It’s no longer a political party.
Oh, and he was an argent Brexitier, this is no longer about Europe (if it ever really was).
Bloody brilliant! Inept PM thinks he has stitched up the nomination - gets stitched up himself and then acts like a spoiled child and removes the whip 🙂
Not said it for a page or two, but he is a despicable shit of a man.
Al this would make for a really shit tv series. We are in a parallel universe from a few years ago, in sure of it.
About 14% on Rotten Tomatoes?
How mad is Cummings ?
Will they try & remove Lewis from the committee?
He's a brexit true believer, so can't see that going down well, I'm sure anything vaguely bad in the Russia report will be heavily redacted anyway.
Might be more of a problem with Cummings planned cuts to the military
Committee is meeting tomorrow; could be v interesting.
This seems to imply that being on message with the Russian interference is more important than being on message with Brexit. In a government whose raison d’etre (treason d’etre?) is to deliver Brexit. I met Julian Lewis when he was with the Defence Select Committee, and whilst he was known as a maniac, he was also a Russia hawk, and will not be about to hush up anything he feels is harmful to British interests by them.
Not said it for a page or two, but he is a despicable shit of a man.
not said often enough, should be a sticky at the top of every page of this thread.
im perplexed as to how he's not been punched/slapped when out n' about on his arranged factory/shop walkabouts for the tv/press photo opportunities
Too much security, presumably.
This seems to imply that being on message with the Russian interference is more important than being on message with Brexit. In a government whose raison d’etre (treason d’etre?) is to deliver Brexit
Brexit?
The deadline for anything other than total-f-up-Brexit has passed. It's no longer a goal of The Cummings Party. It is not something The Cummings Party need to fight anyone over, in order to stay in power.
The main required attribute of any member of The Cummings Party at this point in time, is simply blind unswerving loyalty and obedience to The Dear Leader Dominic Cummings.
If any member is found
guilty of treason
to be ideologically impure
acting on their own opinion and judgement,
they will be expelled from The Party.
The main required attribute of any member of The Cummings Party at this point in time, is simply blind unswerving loyalty and obedience to The Dear Leader Dominic Cummings.
But Dear Leader Seems to have a goal of some sort in mind, which appears to be achievable within the next 6 months or so. What is that goal? Is it a one way transaction which, once it is done is irreversible ( or difficult to recover from). For him to deliver it requires blind loyalty, but of a particular type, and of a type which does not always tie in with having the UK’s interests as a priority.
Yeah, and levity aside about this epic grayl, select committees exist to hold government to account and are meant to operate independently of whip's offices.
Seems that's all gone now.
The purge continues. It’s no longer a political party.
Something I keep saying to dyed in the wool 'traditional' tories. This is not the party of personal prudence, reliance on family, cricket on the village green etc. It is a kleptocracy masquerading as populist nationalism. They're going to leave us with the political nastiness when they've ****ed off with their payouts.
It's a Parliamentary Committee, which has gone through proper procedures to elect its Chair. While the Tories are welcome to withdraw the whip from Julian Lewis, they can't remove him from the committee.
So they've not only failed to get their useful idiot candidate in place, but by peevishly kicking Lewis out, have created a 5-4 opposition/independent majority on a key parliamentary committee. The very committee which controls the release of the Russia Report which Boris and Dom seem so interested in suppressing. <Slow handclap>
Russia report won't be that interesting & I'm sure Cummings cares little
Cummings angry because he wants big cuts to the military & Lewis will oppose them
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/army-to-be-cut-by-20-000-if-no-10-plan-is-approved-bc2zbqm2h
As the committee was created by John Major - oh, yes! - when he was PM, does johnson have the authority to disband it?
If he does, would he?
It’s pure BoJoCum to withdraw the whip from an MP for not doing the thing that a “No10 spokesman” explicitly said he was not being asked to do.
Indeed. Publicly announce one thing, whilst privately demanding another.
It's almost like the internal workings of an old communist state.
Something I keep saying to dyed in the wool ‘traditional’ tories. This is not the party of personal prudence, reliance on family, cricket on the village green etc. It is a kleptocracy masquerading as populist nationalism.
Exactly.
If he does, would he?
Cummings has now gone full Trump. He believes he is all-powerful and can just do what the hell he likes. He is, by nature a wrecker. He believes he's some kind of revolutionary and that the rules don't apply to him. All the norms of our democracy, that previous administrations have respected, are going to be gleefully torched. They firmly believe that no restrictions should be placed on them.
What's really terrifying is that at the moment they are constrained to some degree by EU regulations, which we are still party to during the transition period. Once we're out of that in January, that's when the fun and games really start. All bets are off. They'll be acting like dictators by this time next year. They're not far off now.
They are already preparing for policy to be sent jointly by the inner 'government' team together with USA interests... with no oversight or even ratification by our parliaments and assemblies. Anyone who voted for this in the name of 'democracy' are about to either be proved to be hypocritical, or mistaken... depending on whether their motives were true.
But Dear Leader Seems to have a goal of some sort in mind, which appears to be achievable within the next 6 months or so. What is that goal? Is it a one way transaction which, once it is done is irreversible ( or difficult to recover from).
Trump was interested in buying Greenland perhaps he is offering a buy three get Northern Ireland free deal?