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I agree. I know what the rules of the house say, but if the rules are not fit for the purpose intended then the rules need changing.
It is abhorrent that the person telling the truth is the one that is censured while the liar is protected.
Don’t you just hate it when your funny joke gets stuck to the end of a previous page, no one is likely to see it there. ☹
I went, I saw, I laughed. 👍🏼
I agree. I know what the rules of the house say, but if the rules are not fit for the purpose intended then the rules need changing.
It is abhorrent that the person telling the truth is the one that is censured while the liar is protected.
So much this - an MP, or the PM, should be called out properly for lying, and be made to publicly account and explain it when caught out.
Much as I hate those Change petitions, I'd like to see this debated in Parliament
It's all right - we're having a corruption crackdown!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57923588
Oh wait - it's not actually in this country... Bugger.
S’alright… back at home we’re appointing a guy who was in an exclusive club with both Johnson and Cameron to have oversight over their dodgy dealings… I’m sure he’ll be thorough.
That Dawn Butler video is interesting. It's the kind of thing that ought to be quite big news, but if the papers make a fuss, then they draw attention to de pfeffel's behaviour, so it's more likely to go largely unreported, no...?
Of course it’ll hardly be reported because…
“Boris Johnson is a liar” is not news.
It wouldn’t damage his reputation one bit anyway. He was elected after trying to sideline parliament and make the government above rather than answerable to parliament. His supporters won’t care if he lies at the dispatch box one bit.
Yeah, I fear you're right again, kelvin... 🙄
It would be more news-worthy/attention-acheiving if more opposition MPs did it, say if each of them gave one of Johnson's lies & called him a liar & then got expelled, would there be anyone left that day. If all that happens is they get expelled for the rest of the day then they should be doing at every opportunity they get multiple times.
A bit of fun for a bit, but that's the game Johnson plays.
I can't remember the exact explanation but I heard that the PM gets away with lying due to the phrasing of his replies whereby the answers he gives, whilst lying in the ordinary real world, don't necessarily count as lies in the house. He answers the question but obviously in non-committal and obtuse ways. Answering the question's words but not the actual question.
He does that as well. But also tells simple and direct lies.
As has been said, Johnson's supporters don't care about his lies. Many will also care even less about him being called out on it by a black woman, in fact I expect more than a few will be pleased that he's winding up such a person leading to her getting expelled (btw I'm not suggesting she was actually would up and did this from lack of self control).
Say what if Starmer got himself expelled for doing it... I can somehow see such a thing damaging him more than Johnson.
I'm a bit concerned that the much of the general flak is directed at Johnson himself, rather than his cabinet and the government (as in all Tory MPs) which are allowing this to continue. He serves a useful purpose for the party in this sense, and can be replaced when necessary.
So, does anyone know if de Pfeffel has responded to what was said in parliament yesterday?
Has anyone tackled him on it? Or is he hiding in a fridge again...?
Do we reckon he is properly self-testing and/or getting PCR tests this week unless he feels really unwell?
Do we think he would tell the nation if he was infected now, after being so ill early on the pandemic, even if this time it was mild?
Very much doubt the latter, at least.
We’ll he’s off on his hollybobs now, so I doubt we’ll here from him until September
The twunts that like Johnson like that he's a liar. They fancy themselves a bit like him. Bit of cash in hand, bit of a shag on the side etc. What a lad, never did anyone any harm etc.
****ing morons.
it's worst than that though, it's we know he's lying and we don't care, not one iota, we don't give a shit, we're ok an our house value is through the roof and we're doing ok and we don't care about anyone else.
it’s worst than that though, it’s we know he’s lying and we don’t care, not one iota, we don’t give a shit, we’re ok an our house value is through the roof and we’re doing ok and we don’t care about anyone else.
And thus 'we' are a nation of tiny tories with two tiny t's.
Selfish, parochial little tupenny ha'penny snobs. Perpetually afraid of swarthy foreign types who they have never seen in their village/suburb. Still hanging on to a vision of a country where the straightness of the stripes on your lawn confers 'rank' on the cul de sac.
Tosspots.
A nation of Terry and Junes, Margot and Jerrys, with the occasional Tom and Barbara (who still wear a mask in the supermarket).
No wonder we are an international laughing stock.
Or is he hiding in a fridge again…?
Fridge time.
Has anyone started a petition yet to debate whether or not Handjob's personal emails should be scrutinised?
I'll happily sign that one.
They're shitting themselves about what links any halfway decent investigative journalist could make, given that shifty little turd's lack of gumption.
Danny, you're on your holibobs so...turn phone off and enjoy yourself.
johnson and his polyps will still be here after your 6hr return journey.
holibobs
Close, but no cigar.
Unfortunately your use of that term has irked me.
Un or de-irk yourself.
You are en vacancies avec la famille.
I could have used vacation but that is loathemsomelly (new word?) american.
As for cigars...left or right hand roll? Virgin thigh or not?
As for cigars…left or right hand roll? Virgin thigh or not?
Left hand, because I like to live dangerously.
The thigh should belong to the sassiest, cheroot-smoking, tequila-slamming bar girl in town.
Jon Craig (Sky News) has penned a nice piece about Boris. A handy summary of the last two years...
https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnsons-two-years-as-pm-a-casual-relationship-with-the-truth-and-a-disdain-for-the-rules-12362437
That Jon Craig piece is excellent.
To mix the metaphors, there's a few boots going in (New European etc). You do wonder if he's being set up to carry the can if certain matters hit the fan. Their lead is narrowing even with silence from the loyal opposition. Prehensile Handcock's email account is safe for the moment but what else or who might come out?
I reckon he’s on on slippery Ground if freedom day goes Pete Tong,opening the barn doors on experiment U.K. and f’orf on holiday doesn’t seem to be the smart move.
it’s odd times thou, and seems unfair that Gove gets special media treatment.
Anyway what was the eventually outcome of BJ sneaking off to isolated from chequers ,was that within the guidelines.(my mate thought about isolating at his caravan but thought that wouldn’t really be cricket.)
I see the Public Accounts Committee report has come out after the summer recession started. Expect a lot more stuff to come and be mussed/forgotten
Johnson is a ****.
Johnson is a ****.
Yep. And the pillocks love him.
Crazy isn't it?
So today Johnson proposes "offenders chain-ganged in Hi-Viz publicly paying for their crimes" for antisocial behaviour.
Does that include loud altercations, and neighbors fearful of assault? I wonder
What an arse the man is.
More government by soundbite. Thats tomorrow's Mail and Telegraph headlines sorted, stoke the culture war a bit more with a prod to the lefties, then promptly forget you ever said it.
Anyway... if he wants to address anti-social behaviour, maybe he should look to making absent fathers take responsibility for all their illegitimate kids?
if he wants to address anti-social behaviour, maybe he should look to making absent fathers take responsibility for all their illegitimate kids?
Genuine question as it keeps coming up - do we know that he doesn't?
Anyway, can't help thinking that investing in early intervention, education and vocational opportunities etc etc would be more effective than punishment after the fact. But won't make the headlines in the Tory rags, obviously.
I've predicted it on the Brexit thread, but I'm willing to bet cash that the Tories will go into the next election with a headline policy of Capital Punishment.
do we know that he doesn’t?
What do the grown up kids have to say about it?
We don't know about the younger ones... and I'm glad the press haven't gone into that to be honest. Whether they'd be quite as thoughtful of the offspring of other politicians... I'm not so sure.
He did go to court to deny he was the father of one of his kids (on the record), and the rumours are that he has done the same again for another child of his (this time kept off the record).
He did
go to court todeny he was the father of one of his kids (this ended up on the record due to a court case brought by the child's mother), and the rumours are that he has done the sameagainfor another child of his (this time kept off the recordthis also came up during the same court case).
Editing myself there... what I has said wasn't correct.
Thanks kelvin, he really is an all round bellend
Theres a good reason he's always moaning about being skint.
If you want someone to sign NDA's as a condition of any legal settlement, then thats going to cost you big-time.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/21/boris-johnson-fathered-child-affair
"Thirdly, it is fanciful to expect the public to forget the fact that the man who is said to be the claimant's father, and who is a major public figure, has fathered a child after a brief adulterous affair (not for the first time). Nor are they likely to forget the outline facts of the story including the identity of the mother."
He's 'virtue' signalling to the prats again with a typical 'squirrel'.
Who's been caught with his cock out now - whilst awarding public money to the cock recipient's family members?
If you want someone to sign NDA’s as a condition of any legal settlement, then thats going to cost you big-time.
Maybe its the other halves who want it kept secret?
'tough on crime' nonsense is a pretty standard gimmick for parties that see themselves struggling in the polls, and while Tories still have a lead its more than halved in a few weeks, with Johnsons personal approval ratings tanking
I don't think it's just a "squirrel"... more about stirring up support amongst people who might be wavering after they got the football stuff so wrong. Someone somewhere misjudged the amount that the "turn them back at the beaches" and "stop helping others, look after our own" stuff would bleed into support for attacks on black British team members for standing up against racism. Most "it's the foreigners causing all this" Brits are fully behind young British black players. They don't see them as outsiders trying to disturb "our" way of life at all, they see them as our boys. So the right wing stuff needs reinforcing now in other, safer ways. Which means some showtime events around asylum seekers and criminals... while behind the scenes making a complete mess of the issues surrounding both, by hamfistedly reforming and defunding the criminal justice and asylum systems.
the Tories will go into the next election with a headline policy of Capital Punishment.
Nah I reckon it will be 50,000 more police officers or some other made up figure, which they won't be held to and will be forgotten a month of two later. The old white knight trick has worked before and it will work again.
Cut the budgets, staff and generally make things worse, then step in like heroes to fix it!
In the same way that a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day, even Dan Hodges has got the measure of this one
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1419994995638120450?s=20
I'm sure that Priti Patel will presently be focus-grouping public floggings
Christ! We've got a whole summer of this kind of shite to look forward to, haven't we?
But the liberal Left will now scream “Chain gangs!!!! You monster!!!”
I don't think anyone has said anything like this though have they? The only outrage is just at yet more meaningless 'arsehole-signalling'.
I don’t think it even really matters any more, this far into the present culture war
As long as the Daily Heil’s readership can get behind is as the kind of thing that ‘upsets the snowflakes’ then job jobbed
I don’t believe for a single second Boris Johnson has any intention of doing anything about this. It’s just tickling the tummy of their hang’em and flog’em base.
It’s also worked as a dead cat to distract from them also proposing more stop and search and racial profiling
Is a squirrel the same as a dead cat? I can't keep up
Is a squirrel the same as a dead cat? I can’t keep up
I believe a squirrel is a totally unrelated distraction whilst a dead cat is a sort of sacrificial 'scandal' which is 5% of the magnitude of the true scandal that is really going on.
So saying '40 new hospitals' is a squirrel because it is utter unbelievable bullshit.
Whereas Matt Hancock with his sweaty little mitts all over some tart's buttocks is a dead cat, because the real story is the billions of quid he (and the likes of Truss) have dished out to their mates during a pandemic. A pandemic where every pound will be essential to the recovery, but billions have already been embezzled.
I may be wrong. But this current lot are such a bunch of incompetent crooks the distinction is probably lost on them too. But stick a Union Jack on it and say Labour like foreigners and the lumped proletariat will vote for you, so **** it and make hay while the sun shines.
BBC not impressed anyway
BBC News - Crime: Boris Johnson's claims checked
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57987932
anyone that thinks hes a good prime minister or has done a good job needs to get in the sea 😉
It's interesting that nobody in the police force was consulted about any of the new lawnorder legislation and initiatives at any point, but various journalists were kept in the loop.
Government by Daily Mail editorial
So you end up with the police saying that its a load of unworkable cobblers, as in the case of stop and search its actually the opposite of whats required, but you get a great write up in the press so its all brilliant
As the Independent noted today: this is inevitably what happens when you put a second rate columnist in charge of running the country. All that matters is tomorrows headlines
On the very same day the Times flags up chronic ill-health in the over 40s, it celebrates ‘flaunting curves’ and Johnson’s dirigible daughter in Spanx.
this is inevitably what happens when you put a second rate columnist in charge of running the country
Yep, when Johnson thinks of the telegraph as both his past and future employer, policy making by soundbite.
I imagine the police just ignore what the Fat Blonde Tosspot says because they know it will never happen and will be superceded in a week or two by more inane dribblings.
Just keep off of Priti Nasty's shitlist and wait for some grownups to come along.
The Guardian: Thatcherism is the big Tory scam that still distorts our politics.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/05/boris-johnson-thatcherism-state-taxes-high-earners-poor
^^ Brilliantly written article which says absolutely everything anyone needs to know about Thatcher/Thatcherism.
It is so rare that the enduring Thatcher myth is ever challenged, all the more so by an article like that one which hits every nail on head.
And yet doing so is never less relevant because as the article points out it still distorts our politics and effects our expectations.
Politics is economics, and there are fundamentally no right and wrongs in economic models, just different priorities and expectations.
Thatcher's governments were no less tax and spend governments than other post-war governments (higher in fact) just ones with a different set of priorities.
Ive been saying for a long time that 1979 was the year society died and we became an economy first country. She wasn't interested in looking after neighbours in your street or affordable public transport. Make money for yourself and then make some more money, sod the rest.
Where is the old fly tipped sofa visiting in Jockland then?
I saw two blokes offloading a large fridge in Perth this morning.
The Guardian: Thatcherism is the big Tory scam that still distorts our politics.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/05/boris-johnson-thatcherism-state-taxes-high-earners-poor^^ Brilliantly written article which says absolutely everything anyone needs to know about Thatcher/Thatcherism.
If he’s right, it is literally a policy of helping the well off and **** the not well off. What a sad state of affairs.
It's a good article.
What she did was establish the ‘corporate welfare state’ where private institutions (paying fat dividends to shareholders) become dependent on the state through subsidies, grants, contracts and bailouts. As a prime example; it was due to the way that the rail network was privatised that allowed Richard Branson to refer to running the West Coast Main Line as 'a license to print money', as he hoovered up literally billions in government subsidies to run a private monopoly where actually providing a rail service wasn't really a priority at all.
This reached its logical conclusion during the pandemic with the dishing out of £37 billion for a failed test and trace system to the usual suspects. Every expert was telling them that the money should be given directly to regional health authorities, because it would be far better spent with hugely quicker and better results, as these people were vastly experienced in this field whereas Serco, et al, had no prior experience at all
But their hardwired Thatcherite ideology would simply not let them countenance such a thing
Private good/public bad
And then there’s all those PPE contracts which were just a full on snouts-in-the-trough feeding frenzy…
"This reached its logical conclusion during the pandemic with the dishing out of £37 billion for a failed test and trace system to the usual suspects."
This figure is thrown about all over the place as is "serco have been bunged £37B" but the facts don't support it.
- £37B is the budget not the spend - and it's for 2 years
- As of November last year the total spend was £5.7B with a run rate of <£1B / month
- >85% of the spend is on testing (of which we've done rather a lot compared to most countries)
- in the November spending update, Serco had only received 1.5% of the spend by that point
- for a failing system it's been pretty good at alerting people of contact with someone infected - see "pingdemic" coverage
- contact rates for the "trace" element have risen consistently despite the refusal of many members of the public to answer the calls, share contact history or isolate when told to do so
- the "test" element has seen the UK doing more tests every day than the whole of the rest of Europe put together.
- The UK has done 248 million tests so far - double that off France and quadruple that of Germany
Eh?
You can quote stats all you like, but it's been a total shambles from the off. A nice little earner for some, but a complete shambles none the less.
The only stat that really matters is the number of dead
It should never have been anywhere near a centralised private system. It should have been devolved to regional health authorities (as every single expert, worldwide, pointed out) from the very beginning and their budgets increased accordingly
But that could simply never be countenanced by Thatchers modern-day disciples and their private sector mantra (and crony contracts/gravy train)
As with pretty much everything in this country at the moment, evidence is valued very little, or actively suppressed, while its a cult-like ideology that trumps everything
She wasn’t interested in looking after neighbours in your street
To add a note of accuracy, the full, often misunderstood through being shortened, quote is:
"They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours." – in an interview in Women's Own in 1987
for a failing system it’s been pretty good at alerting people of contact with someone infected – see “pingdemic” coverage
The pingdemic is caused by the app, whi h is separate from test & trace
And the testing labs were run by Delloite services, they took our qPCR machine & kept them unused in a warehouse for 2 months last March, as the outsourced centralised project took months to setup.
The staff to run the machines were intitally volunteers from labs, but the shift system and v poor pay led to huge staff turnover & consistently unreliable system
Decentralised systems used elsewhere eg Germany & s Korea were able to get running far quicker and despite our greater number of tests we were less able to contain our peaks than others, our death rate reflected that.
The tragedy is that the UK had the labs, staff & equipment already running in Universities & research institutes across the country, but the government decided to centralise it all & take the equipment from then & then recruit their own staff on crappy wages, the result was that our labs were well below the standard required
Undercover reporting showed abysmal practices that would get you fired from any lab I've worked in
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56556806
The UK has done 248 million tests so far – double that off France and quadruple that of Germany
perhaps they understand the concept of Test and Trace.
So anyway yeah, the Thatcher myth is based on the Big Lie of 'small government and low taxation'.
If it's said often enough people will eventually believe it.
So successful was it that the Labour Party felt either incapable or unwilling to counter it.
In the case of self-serving Labour politicians such as Blair it simply suited their agenda.
The bloke can't even keep himself dry with an umbrella.
To add a note of accuracy, the full, often misunderstood through being shortened, quote is:
While the longer version paints a somewhat "less" harsh version of the quote. You have to read it in context. Her underlying philosophy was simple, her govt wasn't interested in helping people that couldn't help themselves, either through poverty, ignorance or chance of geography. So If you couldn't "do your duty", the government weren't coming to your aid.
It's still a shitty message.
It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.
By which she meant lobbing a couple of tins of beans into the donations trolley for the local food bank rather than, say, have a functioning welfare state
Don't disagree with those ^^ sentiments but the irony of course is that Thatcher massively increased the role of the welfare state by, for example, creating millions more unemployed and parking those with disabilities on a permanent life on benefits.
She didn't care as long as the super wealthy privileged class which she had married into didn't pay for it and everyone else did.
And of course that those who fell victim to her economic policies were blamed for their own misfortune, not her.
Looks like J5m has been reading fullfact they reckon cost of t&t nearer 20bn
, tho he neglected to mention that 😉
https://fullfact.org/online/37bn-test-trace-spending/
Hes just been in BBC Scotland saying that contracts for an oil field (now being questioned) were drawn up in 2001 and we can't go back on a contract. Obviously international agreements are not nearly as important as 20yeras of oil and gas.
and we can’t go back on a contract.
Well he seems pretty happy to rip up international peace treaties...
"Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether."
According to the Daily Record, the prime minister laughed when he made the reference to Mrs Thatcher, whose time in Downing Street (1979-90) featured the miners' strike of 1984-5.
Mr Johnson is reported to have added: "I thought that would get you going."
**** me....
Even by his standards…
*ing hell!!
Glad it’s something to laugh about. It didn’t look very funny when I was passing Parkside Colliery on the way to school at the time. Not much to laugh about, unless you were one of the coppers bussed in from Essex on premium overtime to come and crack some northern skulls
What an utter * that man is!
https://twitter.com/keir_starmer/status/1423336090157596676?s=21
Dead cat... he knows how various communities feel about Thatcher and the pits.
Trying to win back a bit of Middle England.