Historically the arms industry has been found to be generous in its interactions with decision makers and their agents.
Weapons-grade Chumocracy. I’ll bet Dido is getting a gun license as we speak so she can be instrumental in procuring the next tranche of anti-sub choppers via a Swedish banana importer.
And these are the people that voted for hungry kids and cheered when nurses didn't get a pay rise.
It's also only about the third or fourth time that the government has announced some sort of cyber force. Makes me wonder how much of this is just people in government relaying on the general public having a short memory for historic spending.
It’s nice that the Tories are going to spend money on ways of killing people. It’s a change from their usual policy of killing people through not spending money.
Brilliantly put. However, this whole announcement is a dead cat to distract from the EU negotiations going nowhere and 'us' committing ourselves to utter chaos and turmoil in January.
Boris just loves to think BIG, completely unviable plans. Bridges ranging from the inner city garden to 20 mile sea crossing. Airports in rivers and being Prime Minister. All complete pie in the sky nonsense. As soon as Cummings is out of door he's free to announce whatever he dreamed about during his afternoon drunken nap.
A moon shot bridge into space. Just Boris on the vino again.
I wonder how much they will try and claw back from benefits for those out of work (soon to be huge numbers),on in-work benefits or disability to pay for this?
The money tree will most definitely be lost of you are on their expendable list and managed to survive Covid...
Wasn't Dominic Cummings about to bring a 'hard rain' on the MoD procurement processes etc? Interesting that this is announced as soon as he leaves.
It’s nice that the Tories are going to spend money on ways of killing people. It’s a change from their usual policy of killing people through not spending money.
Superb, and needs wider publicity
Indeed - but the thread prize goes to:
Weapons-grade Chumocracy.
Coffee keyboard interfacing has occurred.
Wasn’t Dominic Cummings about to bring a ‘hard rain’ on the MoD procurement processes etc?
Little Marky Francois (whatever happened to him?) famously threatened the military that Dom was going to come and 'sort them out'
Lets just take a moment to remind ourselves of the look of terror that threat provoked
Incredibly for Penfold, prior to his daft threat, he actually had a valid point about the MOD spaffing billions of quid on stuff that never sees the light of day
That Mark 'where could he be' Francois clip is remarkable.
It shows an already grotesquely fat little bastard visibly getting fatter on his own pomposity over the course of a few seconds.
Hopefully the reason he seems to have disappeared is that someone in the dirtier side of the military has done a 'Markov' on him with a brolly.
But in actual fact, we all know the real reason....
Just to correct the misapprehensions about Field Marshall François - he's still on top secret manoeuvres.
Can't say more otherwise I'll get a Markov.
How much of that extra spending will be to protect Tory MPs when the reality of Brexit job losses and massive economic crash hits?
What are the odds that Boris will continue to show confidence in Priti...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55007122
After all - what's the harm in a little bit of bullying.
Space Force............some lord or other paid over a hundred grand a year to have his intern hit page refresh (Internet Explorer 8) on the SpaceX website once a week.
Last weeks deep dive Kingsman, Matrix and Moonraker.
space force, blaah.
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something, about time they get back to close up naval engagements.
Mikkel
Free Member
space force, blaah.
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something, about time they get back to close up naval engagements.
tbf this will play incredibly well with that 40% brexity base (well the Navy bit), territorial waters, our fish, The Falklands!, the days of empire
Its cummingseque in its targeted nature
(of course itll all never happen)
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something
manufacturing lasers that act like the Star Wars weapons is next to impossible to the point where I'm not going out on much of limb to say it won't happen in my lifetime
Except it is bullshit. This is the MoD and the Navy we are talking about here. They built a 21st century air defense frigate that was ridiculously expensive and stopped working in warm water (like The Gulf). I think they are still being fixed and that only adds to the half billion pound price-tag they had.
Or maybe they will go on the one remaining aircraft carrier we run and will be ready by the time the F35s we ordered are actually delivered. In ten years.
MoD procurement is horrific and slow, and expensive because the requirements always change and that's just money in the bank to the contractors, most of whom either had senior staff in the MoD, or who send senior staff back to the MoD. It is literally _not_ in their interest to fix that problem.
I'm struggling to think of what a future war will be like, but having laser guns on what remains of the navy is not likely to be a high priority for anyone but the navy. And BAE Systems
@allanoleary I thought exactly the same thing, aside from it being another story to stop people talking about corrupt PPE spending, what better way than to sort out your CV for Feb 2021 when life gets a bit tough and you need a change of scenery after all Westminster is so 2020.
@willard A fair few of my former Navy colleagues went straight to defence contractors after their 22yrs, when you already know the kit it's a short step into a new job.
I’m struggling to think of what a future war will be like
I'm not, we've seen it, it was 2016 and the other side* won.
*Russia, that is. Not the silly little twerps waving plaggy union jacks (made in China) that think they won. Obvs.
What are the odds that Boris will continue to show confidence in Priti…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55007122
After all – what’s the harm in a little bit of bullying.
Isn't it practically a badge of honour for this shower to break the ministerial code?
A bit like ASBOs for teenage delinquents 'back in the day'?
So Priti Awful was indeed guilty of bullying but it's not her fault as she's just so horrible to everyone all the time that it's not for her to know when it becomes bullying.
That's all cleared up then
Move along now. Nothing to see here
https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/1329752894107750400?s=20
I'm not surprised he's resigned. Whats the point in being an advisor if everything you say is ignored as Johnson doesn't think that any rules actually apply to him and his mates
It's a tricky one. One one hand, there's an independent report which says that she's a bully. On the other, our prime minister, who has been sacked twice for lying, says that she isn't.
On the other, our prime minister, who has been sacked twice for lying, says that she isn’t.
I believe the defence used was it was inadvertent which seems to be his standard defence against law breaking. A rather radical break with the traditional approach that ignorance of the law was no defence.
The UK really is just a Banana Republic.
They clearly all think that none of the rules actually apply to them and they've packed in even making any attempts to cover up their flagrent cronyism and corruption
The UK really is just a Banana Republic.
They clearly all think that none of the rules actually apply to them and they’ve packed in even making any attempts to cover up their flagrent cronyism and corruption
Yep. They've broken the unwritten contract that you had to at least pretend to be governing in the interests of the people. They've eroded this country's decency and democracy, which is ironic given their traditional and more elderly support consider themselves so damned pious.
So Boris hammers the labour party for not taking action over the antisemitic investigation Patel has been proven to be a bully his response... oh its fine! The guys an absolute joke shame on all you people who voted for this! Bullies are scum of the earth and ruin peoples lives! Dealings with complaints and ministers shouldn't be handled by their own political party it should go to an independent group aka a tribunal where a decision is made.
At least we know who Cummings gave his secret dossier on Boris Johnson to when he left...
He is absolutely shameless.
My mate Paul, who's a teacher, pointing out the obvious message that this sends out to bullies from the Prime Minister
https://twitter.com/teacherwriterPJ/status/1329776750084169728?s=20
And here is my lickspittle tory MP defending Priti (in between re-tweeting anything about Corbyn to keep the faithful happy):
https://twitter.com/markjenkinsonmp?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
As he is a special breed of ex-kipper tory, I am hoping he is feeling a bit conflicted...
so let me get this straight...”she’s too stupid to realise that she was/is a bully, so I’m going to let her off” is the explanation Boris's going with...
Fabulous
The times when Government gave any sort of pretence at governing for the people has long gone.
Basically anything goes: ride roughshod over scrutiny, legal matters (unless you're trying to find a legal loophole to exploit for your own gain), tell barefaced lies.
Not even trying to hide the corruption and cronyism, it's just beyond belief. This is the kind of thing you look at in some backwater nation with a GDP of about 1/100th that of the UK. Although the way the UK is going, we'll soon have a GDP about 1/100th of what we used to have...
TBH, throwing money around in a massive stimulus package will be exactly the right thing to do, once we stop making an arse of covid and once we stop destroying jobs with brexit. Any day now i'm sure.
(the green package though, the bits I've looked at are a farce. Like, the "new money" for the national parks is less than has already been taken out of their budget under the last tory governments. That's even assuming it's all delivered in one go, which I doubt it will be- more likely it'll be "over 10 years" or whatever.)
willard
Full MemberExcept it is bullshit. This is the MoD and the Navy we are talking about here. They built a 21st century air defense frigate that was ridiculously expensive and stopped working in warm water (like The Gulf). I think they are still being fixed and that only adds to the half billion pound price-tag they had.
British/English exceptionalism again isn't it- we can't build warships and have an army that's suitable for a country of our size, that'd be unthinkable... We have to have the most expensive projects <Clarkson voice> IN THE WORLD, aircraft carriers, the "world's best air defence ship", Type 26 frigates which are so over the top and so complicated that few of the supposed customers for it even considered it and that we cut the fleet size by half so we could afford them, a Trident replacement which will never do anything and which will cost more than anyone will admit, to replace Trident which never did anything and which cost more than anyone will admit...
What we could actually do with, is some more fisheries protection and other inshore patrol vessels, but the PM can't get erect over mere River classes and under. And admitting we need more of this sort of thing and we don't have them would be a criticism of the glorious brexit after all.
Same with nuclear, same with damn nearly everything else, if it's not too big and too expensive for us then it's not worth doing.
Speaking to some Tory voting public sector workers today after they announced the pay freeze and all I got from them was that it was "for the greater good"....no understanding of economics...no idea just how many of us in the private sector earn obscene wages.... all I could think about was this....
Same with nuclear, same with damn nearly everything else, if it’s not too big and too expensive for us then it’s not worth doing.
Transport.
Boring old buses and trains - not interested (BJ got interested for a short time in bendy buses which were shit).
Boris Island Airports, Garden Bridges, cable car - absolutely, let's spaff money against the wall for those. Getting a basic train service though, forget it.
There's a whole load of rhetoric at the moment about levelling up the North - which has a transport infrastructure at least 30 years behind that in London and the SE - and then it comes to Covid and they can't even point to Wigan on a map.
The preferred network for Northern Powerhouse Rail is going through at the moment and you just know that what is put in front of Government (about £40bn) is going to get half of that, bits of line cancelled or abandoned or watered down to little more than the current levels and still be delivered 15 years late.
BJ did however stand in front of a train in Manchester while wearing a hard hat and say "Northern Powerhouse" a lot so I assume he thinks it's all sorted now.
Went in to work this morning to the headlines on public sector pay freeze, came out to find it's ok for ministers to bully us.
You were happy enough to spend 5 minutes clapping us on a Thursday night along with other key workers, but that's **** all use in the real world Boris. It wasn't Ministers who kept the NHS running during its biggest ever crisis, or kept schools open for key workers children, or delivered the furlough scheme.
You shambling hypocritical chancer.
The Tory's are, I'm sure, quietly contented that the pandemic and Brexit is going to provide them with mass unemployment. All the better to push down wages.
Next year is going to be just like the 1980's
Something to look forward to. It was great first time, particularly living in the North
Thing is, my wages and the wages of certain other industries are ****ing sky rocketing - I've never been in more in demand. I'm starting to feel dirty like I'm part of some Tory club now....and yet when I try and tell people I know who are public sector workers that the Tories are ****ing them whilst some of us (including me) run off with all the ****ing money, they don't want to hear.
Then I get exasperated and consider going full mercenary and voting tory myself, might as well try and keep all the cash to myself if public money is going to be pissed up the wall on a no deal brexit.
I don't get it, I've always thought humans had a tendency towards irrational emotionally driven behaviour but I didn't realise just how endemic it was. The midlands and the North have gone rapidly downhill since I moved down south in 2008, when I left it felt like there was a new level of affluence up and down the country. The 90's had felt really poor in comparison, now I've returned it feels worse than it did in the 90s growing up. Instead of maybe 1/10 of the population looking downtrodden and dishevelled it's 1/4 and the amount of homeless people seems to have increased exponentially.
Thing is, my wages and the wages of certain other industries are * sky rocketing
I'd say you're lucky enough to be the exception, not the rule.
The industry I work in (or did do, pre-covid, when there was some actual work) is now utterly and completely *ed. Its all but ceased to exist. Most of the staff in the industry are freelancers who didn't qualify for furlough or any government support, so a lot have had no income since March.
I've seen freelance jobs being openly advertised at minimum wage. This is for something where people generally expect a degree-level qualification. There will be plenty who are so desperate now that they'll have no option but to take that.
I'd imagine, come next year, once you throw Brexit into the mix, there are going to be plenty more sectors in exactly the same position.
I really do think (in the north, at least) we're going to be looking at a re-run of the 1980's under the Tories, and a lot of them will be relishing that prospect
I’d say you’re lucky enough to be the exception, not the rule.
That's what I'm getting at.
The instability and the Tories/Dominic cummings spaffing money at certain private companies for public projects has been an absolute boon for me.
