The state of the UK

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by JimC » Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:08 pm

Central casting could use him as a posh but evil villain...
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Fri Nov 13, 2020 9:58 pm

Casting to type.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Fri Nov 13, 2020 10:50 pm

It really is a total fucking mess. JFCOAPS. Who the fuck is running the f... country. Everything is happening people.
"Wat is het een gezellig boel hier".

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Nov 14, 2020 2:43 am

He was only a functionary, not a monarch.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:49 am

Who was? Who needs a monarch?
"Wat is het een gezellig boel hier".

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by rainbow » Sat Nov 14, 2020 9:54 am

JimC wrote:
Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:08 pm
Central casting could use him as a posh but evil villain...
With a name like that maybe a porn star?
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Nov 14, 2020 12:59 pm

Scot Dutchy wrote:
Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:49 am
Who was? Who needs a monarch?
You implied that Cummings was running the country and that him stepping down left the UK without a leader.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Nov 14, 2020 2:37 pm

That is what the Arse Wonder realised when his girlfriend told him.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:09 pm

It was The Times that first reported that Bojo's missus was interfering at No.10 - implying that she was being treated as some kind of political rival to Cummings and his band of merry blaggards. For those famous 'sources close to the Cabinet Office' to brief the press against Bojo's current squeeze was always going to put the cats among the kittylitter. There's some speculation that Control Freak Cummings has been trying to sideline the mother of Boris's 6th or 7th child, making things difficult for her at home, No.10, and demanding that she checks with Cummings' team before speaking to Boris about anything to do with his job. Apparently the recent doubling-down by the gov on not feeding hungry schoolchildren 'to teach their parents about responsibility' caused a bit of a stinkup in the office. Cummings basically demanded "It's her or me," and Bojo seems to have acted according to type and followed his basic instincts.

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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sun Nov 15, 2020 1:36 pm

What is a bit of corruption between friends: CHUMOCRACY

'Chumocracy': how Covid revealed the new shape of the Tory establishment
Appointments made and contracts awarded during the pandemic have uncovered a web of connections

The great global hope raised this week by news of successful trials for a Covid-19 vaccine interrupted a very British row about the head of the UK’s own vaccine efforts, who was appointed in May and reports directly to Boris Johnson.

As Kate Bingham, chair of the vaccine taskforce, came under sustained scrutiny over the £670,000 budget she had allocated for public relations consultants, attention switched from her suitability for the role to her connections to the Conservative government.

Managing partner of a private equity firm, SV Health Investors, involved for 30 years in pharmaceutical investment, she is also married to a Tory MP, Jesse Norman, who was at Eton at the same time as Johnson, and she went to private school with Rachel Johnson, the prime minister’s sister.

The pandemic’s devastating hold over British life has shone an unsparing light on the country’s defining features: the divide between north and south, the wealthy and less well-off, the vulnerability of black and minority ethnic communities.

The anti-establishment claims of a government led by Johnson and Dominic Cummings were always audacious, and in the appointments and contracts awarded during the pandemic, the shape of a Tory establishment has come into focus. Critics are calling it a “chumocracy”.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by laklak » Sun Nov 15, 2020 2:59 pm

Imagine being named "Dido" growing up.
Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:51 pm

Well she is from the jolly hockeysticks brigade. Too much horse riding; well stretched...

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:01 pm

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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:58 am

Toys for boys are more important than feeding kids in the UK.

Boris Johnson agrees £16bn rise in defence spending
Announcement comes after ministers resisted spending extra money on free school meals in holidays

Boris Johnson has agreed a four-year £16.5bn surge in defence spending at a time when Britain’s public finances have been stretched by the pandemic and a day after it emerged that billions of pounds could be cut from the foreign aid budget.

Experts said the windfall represents the largest real-terms increase in the defence budget since Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and will be partly spent on a National Cyber Force of hackers and a new Space Command designed to protect orbiting satellites and launch its own rockets.

It comes weeks after ministers resisted spending extra money to fund free school meals in the holidays, and days after it emerged that the overseas aid budget is set to be cut by billions, from 0.7% of of gross national income to 0.5%, triggering criticism from senior Tories.

Johnson said he had taken the decision to boost spending on the armed forces “in the teeth of the pandemic” because “the defence of the realm must come first”. The prime minister is also keen to show new US president-elect Joe Biden that the UK wants a strong military capability after Brexit.
Who in the fuck is the UK fighting? Of course his chums will benefit.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:26 pm

Indeed. But of course the figures are misleading. Independent analysis from the IFS shows that the proposals actually amount to £7bn over four years. But still, the question about who are we threatened by and need to defend ourselves against is a good one. However, that's not really the point. The UK arms industry is hand-in-glove with the government and the armed services. If you're a middle-Eastern potentate who wants $10bn worth of tomahawk missiles and $100bn worth of jet fighters to load them onto, you don't just purchase the products but as a condition you have to lease the technical support from the UK. Pilots have to be trained and certified to fly the jets - the RAF can do that for you - and the ordinance has to be maintained - the RAF can do that for you too - and in order to protect the innovations and intellectual property (secrets) that go into developing a Tomahawk missile and its launch system you have to lease the personnel to do that - the RAF again. Even loading the missiles onto the jets you've just paid for has to be done by authorised personnel - from the RAF. So the way to look at this is, quite rightly, as a taxpayer subsidised policy to boost the UK arms industry. Yep, money for his chums.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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