Bojo on the brink....

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ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

For those of you not keeping score . . .

Liz Truss (whom I have seen repainted as 'Dim Lizzie' and 'Thick Lizzie' - I like that last one - it has a ring to it) is bonkers. The whole campaign is taking on the gloss of a US presidential election when the job of a PM is most decidedly NOT the same as a president. There is no separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches - they are on one side of the same coin. I remember when Tony Blair talked about the Blair Administration - I cringed then, but I do not suppose he started it.

Yesterday morning Liz Truss said she would appoint regional pay boards for civil servants outside London and thereby save £8.8 billion a year. The theory was that because the cost of living is so high in London, civil servants who are currently on a single pay scale could have their salaries reduced if they lived in Manchester or (Oh! The Humanity!) Cornwall or Wales or some other bleak outpost of civilization. It was pointed out to her that the whole civil service annual salary bill was £9 billion so a reduction of 97% seemed a little far-fetched. The only way her arithmetic would work would be if the whole public sector - i.e., civil service plus police plus teachers plus nurses - would be subject to these cuts in pay.

Tory MPs of course were furious - some of them even have consciences despite their best efforts to place them on a shelf in a cool dark place where they can be retrieved at the end of the working day - because, well, these people vote. So in less time than it takes to say 'If you don't like my principles I have others' Thick Lizzie revoked: (From the Guardian:)
Truss abruptly withdrew the policy on Tuesday, little more than 12 hours after it had been floated, claiming in an awkward interview that it had been “misrepresented”.

“There has never any intention to affect teachers and nurses, but I don’t want to worry people, I don’t want people to be concerned, so I am being very clear that we will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards,” she told ITV.

Asked if the move was a U-turn, she said: “I’m someone who is honest and upfront, and I do what I say I will do, and I am being clear, I will not be doing that.”
Alarmingly, she is apparently 34% ahead of Rishi Sunak - who has at least a veneer of competence - in the opinion polls among the 1% of Tory voters who also have the means and the incentive to actually pony up the annual £25 ($30-ish) to be a real live (I use the word loosely) member of the Party. But in a hypothetical race between the disgraced Boris Johnson - who, BTW, has just started his summer vacation - you'd think that as he will be out of a job in just four weeks he might have postponed that little jolly - these are the poll results:

Image

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by BoSoxGal »

The British love to oppress and steal from brown people, but no fucking way do they want to have one at the helm. The whiter and slimier, the better! Dumb as rocks is just a bonus.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Of course that (racism) is a factor, but I really do not think that is the main reason Sunak is behind Truss in the polls. The clue is in that last poll I posted - despite everything: his amorality, his lies, his sheer turdishness, they still want Johnson. And the big strike against Sunak is that his resignation as Chancellor (= CFO) is seen as the precipitating event for Johnson's ousting as PM. And an element of the Tory faithful will never forgive him for that. So if they can't have BloJo they will take the one who claims to be his heir.

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Rishi Sunak promises new leadership for the UK, but that doesn’t seem to be attracting enough support from the Conservative “selectorate”, so this is what he is promising today: he will double down on the failing Prevent strategy, by pivoting to targeting “Islamist extremism” and those who “vilify” the United Kingdom.

This would require some agility, so Sunak promises to widen the already fuzzy government definition of extremism – criticised widely for being too expansive – to encompass those who “vilify our country”.
BSG, looks as if Rishi's 100% Brit imperialist after all! Maybe he'll use his USA permanent resident card to skip town if he loses


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... leadership
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Sue U
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by Sue U »

We are living in the stupidest timeline.
GAH!

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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Sue U wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:32 pm
We are living in the stupidest timeline.
Truer words have never been posted.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Burning Petard
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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I admit I am a news junkie. I went cold turkey for the six months after Nine-Eleven, then fell off the wagon and worked my way up to my old dosage--about two hours on-line and two hours of tv and at least another hour on radio. I posted this here because mostly I am looking for hits of politics.

I am in therapy for another condition (grief) that may or may not be aggravated by my addiction. My Therapist has asked if I could limit it to a half hour a day. I am gonna give it a try. I don't count this place, but will try to avoid the threads that are obviously about politics/current events. But it means no Gail Collins, Paul Krugman or Jim Wright

Snailgate.

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Sue U
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by Sue U »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:59 pm
Sue U wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:32 pm
We are living in the stupidest timeline.
Truer words have never been posted.
This show sucks. Fire the writers, cancel the rest of the season!
GAH!

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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Burning Petard wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:44 pm
I admit I am a news junkie. I went cold turkey for the six months after Nine-Eleven, then fell off the wagon and worked my way up to my old dosage--about two hours on-line and two hours of tv and at least another hour on radio. I posted this here because mostly I am looking for hits of politics.

I am in therapy for another condition (grief) that may or may not be aggravated by my addiction. My Therapist has asked if I could limit it to a half hour a day. I am gonna give it a try. I don't count this place, but will try to avoid the threads that are obviously about politics/current events. But it means no Gail Collins, Paul Krugman or Jim Wright

Snailgate.
I am a fellow sufferer of this condition and recently my therapist suggested the same. Some days I comply, other days I don’t. It definitely makes a huge difference when I limit my news consumption - I feel much better on the days when I tune out as much as possible. I’m working on both c-ptsd and prolonged grief disorder and find that the anxiety that is triggered by the news these days tends to trigger anxiety related to trauma and grief. Basically it is hard to work the mindfulness steps that best treat these issues when you are bashing your brain with new toxic input several hours each day.

I try to spend some time each day reading fiction and some time on adult coloring - works great because it engages left and right brain simultaneously and interrupts the spiral of catastrophizing thinking that the wounded brain often defaults to. I also find (weather permitting) that walks in the woods are incredibly therapeutic. Do you have a nice place to walk nearby and/or is that something you can do in your present physical condition? I also sleep much better on days I’ve walked.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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So it appears that Sunak is a major idiot, just like Truss.

Sunak says it was a mistake to ‘empower scientists’ during Covid pandemic
Sunak said during one meeting he tried to voice his opposition to closing schools, saying he got “very emotional about it”. The former chancellor added: “I was like: ‘Forget about the economy – surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.’
Kids not being in school was a major nightmare. And what kind of nightmare would they be dealing with now if they’d killed a whole bunch of their middle aged teachers by forcing them to be exposed to covid in poorly ventilated classrooms 6-8 hours a day?

I feel sorry for Brits. There are no good choices for PM.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I absolutely agree about the no good choices, BSG.

Sunak is trying to have his cake and eat it. He claims he was shushed out when he tried to raise objections. If he is so fucking wet that he won't express his view when he is a part, and a major part, of that government then how the fuck can he expect to be effective as a PM?

We are seeing that sort of revisionist history here too. Of course there were side effects of lockdowns and social distancing and school closures and we see the right threatening to put Fauci in jail when (!!) Trump is re-elected. Pretty much the whole world came to the same conclusions and the same strategy.

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Gob
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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BoSoxGal wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:12 pm
The British love to oppress and steal from brown people, but no fucking way do they want to have one at the helm. The whiter and slimier, the better! Dumb as rocks is just a bonus.

Slavery Abolition Act United Kingdom 1833, 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States1865.

First black MP Peter McLagan, Liberal MP for Linlithgowshire, 1865-1893, 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Gob wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:36 am

First black MP Peter McLagan, Liberal MP for Linlithgowshire, 1865-1893,
Well, Scotland . . . you know.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

Big RR
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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Not only that, but I believe England had a Black Prince before 1400. :D

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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Gob wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:36 am
BoSoxGal wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:12 pm
The British love to oppress and steal from brown people, but no fucking way do they want to have one at the helm. The whiter and slimier, the better! Dumb as rocks is just a bonus.

Slavery Abolition Act United Kingdom 1833, 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States1865.

First black MP Peter McLagan, Liberal MP for Linlithgowshire, 1865-1893, 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator.
So the UK and USA both had a brief period of reconstruction following abolition of slavery and a few black people got to be in positions of power.

Nevertheless a quick Google search confirms that the UK has struggled to have minority representatives in parliament at the same rate they appear in the population until recent years.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/da ... -diversity

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50808536.amp

Not sure how anyone from the UK could say with a straight face that there isn’t a very significant problem with racism still today. UKIP, Brexit, etc. lots and lots of xenophobia/racism in the mix there.

But sure it doesn’t matter that Sunak is a brown person. It’s just that Truss is so brilliant she is irresistible.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Big RR wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:19 pm
Not only that, but I believe England had a Black Prince before 1400. :D
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

According to this there should be 93 POC MPs and there are currently 65. The Guardian piece BSG linked is 8 years old and had 117/27 - not sure why the target number is so different but clearly there has been some progress.

It's worth pointing out that in a 'first past the post' parliamentary system majorities are often exaggerated. So for example if the two major parties were (say) 55% to 45% across the country, it might well be that the representation in parliament would be 75% to 25% or even more one sided, simply because almost all constituencies would return the majority party.

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Gob
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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by Gob »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:34 pm


Not sure how anyone from the UK could say with a straight face that there isn’t a very significant problem with racism still today. UKIP, Brexit, etc. lots and lots of xenophobia/racism in the mix there.
There isn't. What there is is a problem with racism, one which is magnified and blown out of all proportion by the racism industry.
Generally, the most tolerant countries in both studies were Scandinavian countries, Latin countries, and the United Kingdom and its former colonies (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand). In contrast, the least racially tolerant countries (Qatar, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka) tended to be located in Africa and Asia. There were also outliers. For example, although other former U.K. colonies landed near the top of the list, the United States ranked 69th out of 78 countries in 2020, thanks in large part to what is often seen as institutionalized racism in areas including employment, education, and the criminal justice system. On the other hand, Pakistan has several factors that typically coincide with racial intolerance, such as low economic and human indices and notable sectarian violence; however, only 6.5% of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... -countries

BoSoxGal wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:34 pm
But sure it doesn’t matter that Sunak is a brown person. It’s just that Truss is so brilliant she is irresistible.
Neither of which statements is true, an both of which just highlight your ignorance.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Gob wrote:
Fri Aug 26, 2022 6:58 am
BoSoxGal wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:34 pm
But sure it doesn’t matter that Sunak is a brown person. It’s just that Truss is so brilliant she is irresistible.
Neither of which statements is true, an both of which just highlight your ignorance.
So, you're saying that it DOES matter that Sunak is a brown person? That votes against him might indeed be cast because he's not white?

Myself, I'd vote against Truss because who wants a PM named after this:

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For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Re: Bojo on the brink....

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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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