UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

[Kopstar]

@redalways

@Kopstar

By proportion Labour MPs have been convicted in far greater numbers.

Generally, or for sexual assault?

I was talking generally - those who have received custodial sentences. I haven’t looked at how that may differ on the types of criminal behaviour. Might check later.

[Noo_Noo]

@Kopstar

@Noo_Noo

@Kopstar

It’s also doublespeak. EU: We’re not going to change the protocol but we’re prepared to negotiate.

Well, the UK want to negotiate the movement of goods with parameters more suited to what is happening on the ground. This is no longer some theoretical paper exercise, it now has real life data to feed back into improving upon the whole regulatory environment. Seriously, it’s insane to think that what was agreed in writing when everything was an unknown should not be subject to review and adjustment once the realities can be better understood. This is a classic case of eu bureaucratic officiousness and a determination not to give ground hindering actual mutually beneficial progress.

My understanding is this has been allowed for in the protocol. What’s winding the EU up is the constant tough guy bull crap served up by a government posturing to its hard right wing support and being surprised that this has taken a step towards a united Ireland.

At the end of the day the UK signed up to a deal that put a border in the Irish sea and immediately decided to renege on it as if it was all part of a plan. Which it was and much was known. I don’t blame the EU for dragging their heels here. Let the UK trash its reputation as a trustworthy nation to deal with and see how that goes.

The EU doesn’t need Truss’ cheese and apples or Boris kippers.

So, therefore, counter to the express provisions of the protocol.

The protocol prepared and drafted by the UK government. The deal that no British PM would sign but Boris did. Maybe they didn’t think about it?

[Noo_Noo]

@redalways

Raw sewage in rivers to go unchecked | News | The Times

This is a Times article about the government rejecting the requiring of water companies to measure the sewage that they pollute the rivers with.

Worth looking up Fergal Sharkey (the good heart and teenage kicks) on Twitter or wherever on this.

[Iftikhar]

Would someone please give me a simple summery why UK wants to scrap the Irish Sea Protocol?

[Noo_Noo]

Because it requires checks on goods between the UK and Northern Ireland but no checks between the Republic and Northern Ireland. It is a border in the Irish Sea.

In response trade between Rep of Ireland and Northern Ireland has increased significantly while Northern Ireland can’t get sausages from the UK.

This has pissed off Unionists but they were also sold a kipper by Boris

[Iftikhar]

@Noo_Noo

Because it requires checks on goods between the UK and Northern Ireland but no checks between the Republic and Northern Ireland. It is a border in the Irish Sea.

In response trade between Rep of Ireland and Northern Ireland has increased significantly while Northern Ireland can’t get sausages from the UK.

This has pissed off Unionists but they were also sold a kipper by Boris

But I thought the reason for the sea border was that the Irish didn’t want a hard border.

[Kopstar]

@Iftikhar

@Noo_Noo

Because it requires checks on goods between the UK and Northern Ireland but no checks between the Republic and Northern Ireland. It is a border in the Irish Sea.

In response trade between Rep of Ireland and Northern Ireland has increased significantly while Northern Ireland can’t get sausages from the UK.

This has pissed off Unionists but they were also sold a kipper by Boris

But I thought the reason for the sea border was that the Irish didn’t want a hard border.

Nobody does, so they say, and the EU don’t want to have to have the headache of protecting the integrity of their own market.

[Noo_Noo]

The Unionists do, to a point so that they can be more joined to the UK rather than Ireland.

The protocol has put Northern Ireland in a fantastic position where they are effectively part of the EU as far as trade goes but it has obviously, as if no one predicted pushed them further away from the UK both politically and in trade.

UK and Northern Irish MP’s are now acting surprised that the deal that no British PM could sign has done exactly what people said it would.

This was always the fundamental problem with Brexit.

[Livvy]

Adam Jogee

[Noo_Noo]

Cost of living. What the fuck are the government doing, or not doing as the case may be?

They seem to be sitting on their hands which is causing havoc and even killing businesses. They are apparently the party for business. The strategy makes no sense at all. Are they clueless? What are they afraid of?

[RedWhippet]

I always liked Ed Miliband. It’s a pity that they took him down with antisemitic slurs when he was Labour leader.

[Mascot]

@RedWhippet

I always liked Ed Miliband. It’s a pity that they took him down with antisemitic slurs when he was Labour leader.

My partner worked for him in the civil service. Said he was a really decent man. Everything he did was led by a sense of fairness and equality. Sharp contrast with the the Tories she later worked for.

Sadly the right wing press were able to dismantle him because he ate a bacon sandwich in a funny way. That’s the uphill struggle facing every labour leader in this country, and why shit like Beergate needs to be seen in context of this.

Ironically, a couple of weeks after the bacon sandwich fiasco, David Cameron was caught eating a hotdog with a knife and fork.

[RedWhippet]

@Noo_Noo

Cost of living. What the fuck are the government doing, or not doing as the case may be?

It doesn’t affect their interests so they aren’t interested.

Do you have an example of price changes in the UK? In Germany there has been a big increase in the price of heating fuel, diesel, petrol, LPG, cooking oils. This is mainly due to the Ukraine war but it is causing a secondary hit on electricity and general food prices (in fact anything that relies on diesel to move it).

Obviously, food and heating will hit lower income people proportionally more as a percentage of their household budget. There has actually been a reduction in the cost of virtual and durable products but those tend to be more of a middle class staple.

I know the writer Jack Monroe has been working on the ONS to produce a bare-basics inflation guide. I’m interested to see what the results of that are.

[Kopstar]

On 5Live they just relayed the fact that inflation is 9% for the general population but 11% for the lowest income groups.

Utility costs have increased by 70% in 12 months

[RedWhippet]

@Kopstar

Utility costs have increased by 70% in 12 months

Ouch! The figures I’ve found for Germany were 17.7% for electricity and 41.8% for gas. Heating Oil is 144% up (I had that in Scotland one time and short term rises like that are not uncommon). That’s a lower percentage but energy is typically expensive in Germany anyway.

[redalways]

@Mascot

Ironically, a couple of weeks after the bacon sandwich fiasco, David Cameron was caught eating a hotdog with a knife and fork.

Awkwardly, I’d do that…

[RedWhippet]

@redalways

Awkwardly, I’d do that…

I have to do it with burgers if I get them in a UK pub. Burgers used to be hand-held convenience food that you could hold in your hand and fitted conveniently in your gob. Now they appear to be modelled on something from a Scooby Doo cartoon.

[redalways]

I mean, I do that with burgers and sandwiches too…

Says a lot about the voting population if something like that can sway them…

[Kopstar]

@Mascot

Ironically, a couple of weeks after the bacon sandwich fiasco, David Cameron was caught eating a hotdog with a knife and fork.

And that’s not even the weirdest thing he’s done with pork.

Allegedly.

[aussielad]

@Kopstar

@redalways

Something’s rotten in the halls of Westminster…

It’s been putrid for centuries.

Sounds about right