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As a white relatively well off man I'm sure there many public bodies, charities, NGOs, and many other types of organisations I've never had to even think about.
Have you spoken to other white wealthy men about it? If they say cutting the funding isn't a problem then it mustn't be.
The instinct to immediately bring up a Jewish organisation in a discussion that's sod all to do with Jews is...an interesting one. 🤔
I felt it was more relevant than discussing donkey sanctuaries.
Also, Tell Mama was explicitly modeled on the CST and provides similar services. And yet only one is facing being shut down (and it's the one that receives a fraction of the funding). So more than a little relevant, wouldn't you agree?
But if you want to accuse me of being antisemitic then go ahead. I am accusing the government of pandering to Islamophobes afterall.
i'm always intrigued by people who come on here and have sod all to do with mountain biking.
I just don't get what all our resident lefties have got against donkeys
Hahaha...... comparing a donkey charity with a charity set up to help the Muslim community live free from fear of far-right street crime is just a bit of banter, innit binners?
You're just "having a bit of a larf", no offence intended, of course.
The classic bigot defence. Jim Davidson would approve. I bet you struggle to understand why miserable joyless lefties have a problem with Jim Davidson's hilarious "Chalky" character, dontcha?
Why so angry? You sound to me like one of Horse Supremacists I’ve heard about
It is quite remarkable how quickly the pretend centrists were first converted to tory ideology and now full blown knuckle dragging racists. Just goes to show the maga cult is not confined to the US.
Here we see binners celebrating with his new found friends having left the pub where he learns all the important political inside information.
It is quite remarkable how quickly the pretend centrists were first converted to tory ideology and now full blown knuckle dragging racists. Just goes to show the maga cult is not confined to the US.
And the fact that they don't even notice it because they don't have a position other than whatever Starmer-might-do. Sod the utility.
Anyway, let's see what happens in Mike Amesbury's seat in the first Starmer byelection.
It's funny every Centrist repeat act was talking up a Reform meltdown whilst a Labour MP was literally beating their own constituent up and ultimately triggering a by-election.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/10/mike-amesbury-resigns-as-mp-triggering-byelection
"Anyway, let's see what happens in Mike Amesbury's seat in the first Starmer byelection."
Do you think it will deliver a knockout blow to Starmer's reputation as an election winner? Or do you think Kier can still make a fist of it?
Reform are the bookies favourite to have the Runcorn by-election
would be nice if the reform meltdown blows up their chances but Amesbury has gifted farage a golden opportunity , the current polls plus an imprisoned MP equals the best chance reform has
Im assuming that the by-election will be held with the locals in May, 7 weeks can be a long time in politics.
candidate selection will be critical for both parties & whoever wins a lot of nonsense will be spun in the press
What's nuts is that the Tories dont even factor into the discussion !
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/disabled-benefits-welfare-pip-reeves-kendall-b2712297.html
Well yes you would have thought so but it won't.
Because literally no one is talking about this down your local pub, so thankfully it doesn't actually matter.
Plus your bleeding heart Tories were spending too much money on this sort of thing anyway. Time to get tough and prove to voters that they don't need to vote for Reform to stop this disability woke nonsense.
TBH the sort of thing above isn't much of a surprise.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the previous Labour government alter unemployment benefit based upon forced participation in shelf stacking and likes for big chain stores.
They also compulsory purchased loads of terrace housing in working class areas (after running the areas down and paying peanuts for them 9-30K) to sell to their chosen developers, who queued up to offer front handers for a slice of the pie. Not to mention selling small land parcels from council estates, along side right-to-buy (a Tory idea) further diminishing existing stock and ensuring no further public hosing could be built on the land, as private housing now occupies the space!
It's not just the Tories who are shithouses.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the previous Labour government .......
Blimey, how much has the political centre shifted that I now have to defend the Blair-Brown years?
The Labour governments of 1997-2010 were not noted for being austerity driven, on the contrary actually. In contrast the Tory-LibDem coalition and Tory governments of 2010-2024 are very much associated with austerity and its devastating consequences.
What we are now witnessing is more and new austerity from a recently elected "Labour" government, and the consequences will of course be devastating, eg it has been claimed that the cut in disability benefit will push 700,000 into poverty.
What the Blair-Brown governments had to deal with was Margret Thatcher's legacies. One of those legacies was the fact that because her policies pushed UK unemployment to over 3 million she desperately tried to manipulate the figures. She decided to redefine "unemployment" as specifically being on "unemployment benefit".
So among other things Thatcher categorised a lot of people as being on disability benefits and not included in the official unemployment figures. Whatever the rights or wrongs of it Labour decided to deal with that legacy. What the current "Labour" government are doing is not in response to government benefit/unemployment policies introduced 40 years ago.
You've only got to look at the seething illiterate logic of Liz Kendall. She shouldn't be in charge of anything more than bog roll. Lliz Kendall hasn't a got a ****ing clue other than what she's been told about finances. She would be better off in Reform. "It's not working for tax-payers." She says. No impact assessment as far as I know. Another clueless shit-face policy from the stupidest people at the stupidest time.
Nothing about what Labour is doing here will be anything less than a disaster and is absolute evidence of a right-wing idealistically failed set of cruel bean counters.
Labour have done bugger all for the vulnerable so far of any merit - apart from attack them.
This will be a massive fail (it's a small amount of government money in reality). Given the current feeling of people sinking to the bottom amongst Labour supported energy rises and other financial kicks - this will probably take them lower in the polls.
Once again for the incalculably stupid - the government is not restrained by amount of £££ it needs. Looking for cuts like this on the vulnerable will absolutely do no good. It has no savings account and all government spending is new money. Like Musk with DOGE - Kendall is simply removing money from the economy. There is no return now on that money for anyone.
It will also shrink the economy as money is removed.
Grown-ups, sensibles etc appear to have zero critical thinking or political analysis on these issues other than their ideological purity to follow shrinking the state - despite what the real 'needs' might be.
I am sure the Starmer fan boys will be along in a minute to tell us why going after disability benefits is the right choice amongst all the choices they could be making.
before Rone decides to try to bore us to death again...if im lucky he'll post a helpful youtube video which agrees with him
do you think that Universal Credit has been a success? do you think that PIP is a well targetted and essential lifeline?
do you think that the current employment rates be that youth, gig economy, remote/hybrid, double hatting childcare are a) good b)sustainable c)have knock on positive impacts on education, justice, health?
How about you actually share your views before demanding everyone else shares theirs. I am sure you have a point to make or are you just trying to bore us to death with inane questions.
I still want to know why none of the usual suspects are prepared to justify their own uncomfortable prejudices and isms.
Why do you all hate donkeys and want to see them suffer, eh? WHY?
The double standards are frankly disgusting
The stats are quite shocking. One in 8 young people not in education, employment or training is abysmal. Three or four kids out of every classroom straight onto the scrapheap - what a disaster.
The precipitous rise in the forecast cost of out-of-work benefits is also alarming.
Even if we did fire up the old crystal dome and spray some newly created cash around the place, that would be nothing more than a sticking plaster. These stats show an underlying problem - a humanitarian problem, a social problem, whatever you want to call it - that a responsible government should try and solve.
I trust Labour to have a proper look at it and come up with a fair plan that addresses it from all angles. I know they've already done some things with work coaches. Perhaps some more things like that. Increasing the minimum wage, check. Continuing their good work to improve working conditions should also help. But sometimes you do need a bit of stick to go with all the carrot, it wouldn't surprise me.
The challenge of course is to make sure that stick never lands where it shouldn't - something the Tories never cared about.
Tory policies with performative cruelty being spotlighted as a virtue.
Or
Tory policies with a mutter of "we're really sorry to have to do this".
It's not much of a ****ing choice, is it?
Centralist bastard Labour Party - backing paid miscarriage bereavement leave - they should be ashamed of themselves.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyjd18l0y3o
The stats are quite shocking. One in 8 young people not in education, employment or training is abysmal. Three or four kids out of every classroom straight onto the scrapheap - what a disaster.
Yes indeed. And you're right this is a social issue, but cash would help a great deal. Get more teachers, get the teachers the resources and training they need to help kids. Get families more help. Get more facilities to give kids and parents more opportunities and better lives. You do need a proper compassionate intelligent joined up approach, but that takes money. Humanity is something that needs money investing in it.
Centralist bastard Labour Party - backing paid miscarriage bereavement leave - they should be ashamed of themselves.
I'm sure you think you're making a point.
Centralist bastard Labour Party
You prefer devolved government?
I'm sure you think you're making a point.
Indeed. Especially since the government agrees in principle. I'm sure there are many things they agree with in principle but lets wait until it's signed into law before we start popping champagne corks.
In addition, the Tories also agree with the proposal despite disagreeing with pretty much everything else in the Employment Rights Bill.
Do people even read the articles they post or do they just scan the headlines looking for one that seems to support their team?
Why do you all hate donkeys and want to see them suffer, eh? WHY?
You showed yourself to be remarkably ill-informed yesterday which is fine. Most of us were. Strangely you also seem to be completely incapable of using google (other search engines are available).
I'm sure the rest of us were happy to stop talking about it but you seem to be hell-bent on continuing the discussion despite, as you yourself pointed out, no one covering it other than page 14 of the Guardian.
If I were you I would let it go but if you want to continue not explaining your reasoning then you go right ahead. We'll continue pointing out that you're being a bit of a numpty.
I'm sure you think you're making a point.
To be fair you cant expect them to have read the entire article and understood that it is an amendment rather than government led and secondly that the tories arent against it. So let them pat themselves on the back.
Note how a second amendment that NDAs shouldnt be used to silence people is simply "an important issue that warrants further consideration".
In addition, the Tories also agree with the proposal despite disagreeing with pretty much everything else in the Employment Rights Bill.
Not just the Tories, it has wide cross-party support which includes the LibDems and the SNP.
So yes the current government is clearly giving its support to some important issues.
What I want to know though is whether anyone was talking about "miscarriage bereavement" when binners was watching the rugby.
According to loyal Starmer supporter binners this decides whether an issue is important enough to qualify for his support.
What I want to know though is whether anyone was talking about "miscarriage bereavement" when binners was watching the rugby.
I'm sure Binners will post an asinine response.
I see what you did there. Very good
#donkeylivesmatter
BINGO! ........I can finally confirm where binners gets his inspiration from. It's, as I have long suspected, Richard Littlejohn of the Daily Mail.
Richard Littlejohn is a professional bigot who earns his living mocking and ridiculing lefties in his "hilarious" Daily Mail column.
It was you repeatedly going on about donkey sanctuaries in a frankly pathetic attempt to mock lefties and their concerns for "woke" issues binners. I couldn't help thinking to myself "this sounds like pure Richard Littlejohn in his Daily Mail column".
Then my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to google "Richard Littlejohn donkey sanctuary" and yup, bingo, I got a result :
This is the BBC News. There now follows a party political broadcast on behalf of asylum seekers.
Delivered in the same, hand-wringing tone as those daytime TV adverts featuring bedraggled African children drinking dirty water out of polluted rivers, or appealing to you to give £2 a month to a donkey sanctuary, this alleged piece of 'journalism' was in my opinion pure Leftist propaganda.
Presented by correspondent Dan Johnson, with all the credulity of a gullible first-year media studies student intent on a career on the Guardian, it sought to make us all feel guilty over the plight of vulnerable young men banged up on the floating asylum hostel, Bibby Stockholm.
It's all there in a couple of paragraphs binners - your material. And not just the reference to donkey sanctuaries but also "hand-wringing" and "first-year media studies student".
And of course the intent is the same - to push a right-wing agenda.
It's behind a paywall but this link should work :
I don't understand why direct links to archive articles don't work but here is the article :
It should work when copied and pasted on this:
The latest piece of anti-labour fear mongering to be proven completely wrong is the impact of the private school VAT changes on state school applications.
Was always going to be the case. My partner's indepenent school's admissions are at record highs. People with wealth will just find a way to get what they want.
(Hey Labour - now Tax wealth please to recover some of that power and those resources they suck up.)
BINGO! ........I can finally confirm where binners gets his inspiration from. It's, as I have long suspected, Richard Littlejohn of the Daily Mail.
Ha ha. Scratch a Centrist and find a right-winger inside.
"I would have got away with it if it wasn't those pesky kids."
The latest piece of anti-labour fear mongering to be proven completely wrong is the impact of the private school VAT changes on state school applications.
Was always going to be the case. My partner's indepenent school's admissions are at record highs. People with wealth will just find a way to get what they want.
(Hey Labour - now Tax wealth please to recover some of that power and those resources they suck up.)
BINGO! ........I can finally confirm where binners gets his inspiration from. It's, as I have long suspected, Richard Littlejohn of the Daily Mail.
Ha ha. Scratch a Centrist and find a right-winger inside.
"I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids."
Also to the person that quoted me yesterday calling me a bore and defending Labour's trims to PIP etc. Can't be bothered to quote you.
DON'T BE SO GULLIBLE.
Right winger's have been giving us these excuse for years to constantly reign in spending with the excuse of more reform and back-to-work. Etc. Guess what - they simply inflict harm.
Ask yourself a few important questions.
Why is there always money for War?
Why do the tough calls always apply to the vulnerable?
Why is it a saving - when the government and BoE don't have savings account?
And finally understand all government spending is new money spent into the economy and not reliant on tax take, and our government nearly always runs a deficit to put money into circulation. All government spending is some form of investment.
Good luck with your take on the economy and your mini-DOGE appreciation scheme.
Checks thread for the first in yonks. Still a permanent game of insult ping pong between two known offenders? Oh yeah...
Checks thread for the first in yonks. Still a permanent game of insult ping pong between two known offenders? Oh yeah...
There are multiple other (Trump,Musk, Farage etc) threads with seperate discussions on the same themes where everyone agrees who the baddies are.
This is one of two threads about the Labour party where there is at least some critical debate put forward.
I'd embrace that as a good thing.
Wasn't directed at you Rone and I agree debate is a good thing. It's the to and fro slanging match on every page between the same people that's off-putting.
It's the to and fro slanging match on every page between the same people that's off-putting.
There isn't much of a debate any more. There's one, maybe two putting the counter argument to the multiple 'Labour are shit' posters, and one of them does it in a way that is very facetious and I suspect is to goad just as much as Ernie does with his constant pasting of polls and headlines, or Rone does with their incessant 'but MMT'. Pretty much all of the sensible debate has been driven away by the sneery unpleasantness that comes back.
I don't count Binners, who's clearly on a wind up now, seems a picture of a donkey is even more apoplexy inducing than one of Corbyn at his allotment.
suspect is to goad just as much as Ernie does with his constant pasting of polls and headlines
It's relevant to the topic, regardless of whether you find it inconvenient. Just skip past if you're not interested.
Wasn't directed at you Rone and I agree debate is a good thing. It's the to and fro slanging match on every page between the same people that's off-putting.
No it's directed at me because binners constant and completely pointless posting pictures of donkeys, which clearly has nothing at all to do with debating anything, sounded too much like Richard Littlejohn to me and it triggered my curiosity.
I then discover that binners has actually been paraphrasing Littlejohn. It's all there, donkey sanctuaries, hand-wringing, and first-year media studies students.
But I am somehow culpable because binners has a divine right to mock those who disagree with with him in exactly the same tedious way as Richard Littlejohn does in the Daily Mail unchallenged.
The whole point of binners ad hominems and mocking insults is to trash the thread because he can't come up with coherent political arguments, so very much like Richard Littlejohn then. It would be nice if he used his own material though!
I don't count Binners, who's clearly on a wind up now, seems a picture of a donkey is even more apoplexy inducing than one of Corbyn at his allotment.
That's one option.
The other is that despite professing to be an expert on how charities are funded it turned out he wasn't. To cover his embarrassment about that he started on his donkey thing. Then he started to feel a bit bad about continually making a bad joke about an important service being lost while the highest levels of Islamophobia are being recorded. However, he is one of those people whose ego is so tied up in how their perceived on an anonymous forum for people who supposedly like bikes that his only option was to then double down and continue with his donkey shenanigans into day 2 despite the rest of us being done with it.
binners likes this place because it inflates his ego. As far as I know he's mates with owners which he feels gives him special privileges to swan around posting things that would get others warned. Certainly the mods allow him more leeway. Whether that's a conscious or an unconscious choice I don't know. Hence the fact he's been allowed to troll with his donkey thing for three days now while contributing nothing else to the thread.
I'm sure many on here think he's a character, what with his hilarious sixth former comments and witty pictures. I just think he's a sad middle aged man who is far too wrapped up in what a bunch of internet strangers think of him.
Not that I'm saying I'm that different, but I like to think my self-awareness allows me to pity binners for the fact he's not even aware of his neediness.
Is there any chance we can move on from the donkey thing now?
Donkyist!
I guess that's my answer
Anyway in other non donkey sanctuary related news the United States has slapped 25% tariffs on UK steel imports. So much for Starmer's much vaunted meeting with Donald Trump.
Trump appears to have ignored Starmer on everything from the Ukraine to not imposing punitive tariff measures against the UK, despite being offered a unprecedented second UK state visit.
And the UK government has announced that it will buck the trend (as the EU urgently considers countermeasures) and not retaliate against the US. That should have Trump worried.
UK gov has made progress with Ukraine, despite a very incalcitrant White House. On trade, time will tell if a trade deal comes about, or if the EU approach of retaliation is the right one. Scale is important when it comes to that decision of course, the largest trading blocks and countries can hit the USA harder with tariffs, medium and smaller economies less so.