WTF is happening in the UK?

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Boac
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3501 Post by Boac » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:00 pm

FD - a difficult decision. The old 'fail-safe' was Lib Dems, but I cannot see that being any good now. It is, I think, almost time to see if Starmer can get it right. Can we be in a worse position? Certainly this bunch of pocket lining, economy destroying Tories needs to go. They are re-playing "You've never had it so good" except an awful lot of people just are not. I think Bottomley sums it up. (That's the MP, not some new Hancock gimmick :)) )

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3502 Post by FD2 » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:24 pm

They certainly are, on the whole, a bunch of incompetents - I think that is Bunter's lack of leadership and poor judgment in choosing the wrong people for the important jobs and not having any clear direction to point them in! It seems to be an old management method of doing nothing in the event of a crisis and hoping it will solve itself. If Labour ever got its act together it would be like the end of the Conservatives brought about by the machinations of Alistair Campbell.

Here in NZ we have a Labour government which is introducing a lot of serious dodgy changes by stealth. No one could have handled the initial Covid crisis better at the start but she failed to vaccinate her people and is now desperately trying to make up time against a large block of people who are unwilling to get a jab unless there's a sweetener of some sort attached. The daily TV bulletins have turned from briefing sessions into party political broadcasts to try and prop up her share of the vote. The virus will be right through the country in another few weeks - which won't endear her to the voters, after being told zero Covid was the only way to tackle the plague here. There has also been a lot of piss poor organisation or lack of by the local health boards in organising the vaccination programmes, which took a long time to ramp up to speed.

She has a great natural charm and that was what won her the second election after displaying it over the mosque shooting victims and their families but we now have what Douglas Murray has described as a 'water melon' in her second term - green on the outside but red inside. Kiwis are naturally generous folk but they now have something they didn't vote for.

If I still lived in the UK I would be very angry about the incompetence at the top of this government but personally can't see a division ridden one formed by Keir Starmer and crew as an alternative - yet!

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3503 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri Oct 08, 2021 7:23 am

It seems to be an old management method of doing nothing in the event of a crisis and hoping it will solve itself.
Actually that is often the better course of action.

Remember
Reagan... "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. ".
As I think you said, Boris was dealt a pack of cards from which to pick his Government. He is also using some Subs from the other place.

I think Brown had the right idea, Government of all the Talents.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3504 Post by AtomKraft » Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:50 am

In my view, the last Labour Gov't was more right wing than the preceding Tory one.
This Tory Gov't are more left leaning than any of us expected.

I think either lot, faced with this Covid situation would have got themselves into the same place by the end of it. Had it been the other lot, they'd probably have done a few things better and some different things just as badly. The left have their own problems to deal with.

The Red Tories & the Blue Tories have between them made a giant cock of the UK- and having done so, it's hard to see how they could ever fix it. It's partly the fault of our electoral system, which discourages any Gov't from planning beyond the next election.

I think the next few years are going to be particularly sticky, but there's really no excuse.

Humbler Countries are better run, and happier places to live.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3505 Post by OFSO » Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:42 am

Protesters glued themselves to the roads again this morning and motorists had to wait while they were unglued. Why don't the police just put cones around them and leave them there to rot?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3506 Post by Undried Plum » Fri Oct 08, 2021 11:00 am

Image

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3507 Post by ribrash » Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:05 pm

OFSO wrote:
Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:42 am
Protesters glued themselves to the roads again this morning and motorists had to wait while they were unglued. Why don't the police just put cones around them and leave them there to rot?
Why don't the police add proper glue and leave the to ***** and piss their pants for a few day.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3508 Post by Boac » Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:37 pm

There is a good argument for removing selected 'glue-ins' to allow some sort of traffic flow whilst leaving the others in place to contemplate their navels, whilst preventing their 'friends' to remove them.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3509 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:50 pm

Have you any of you chaps ever had the will, energy and the courage of your convictions to go out and actively protest in favour of something you believe in, or against something that you feel is wrong in the world, or this country?

While I don't agree with the modus operandi of these folks, I do take my hat off to them for all the attributes I noted above. Democracy dies in societies where cynics, the slothful, the despairing, the institutionalized, or the grumpy old curmudgeons, prevail! :p =))
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3510 Post by OFSO » Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:29 pm

I once attended a ban-the-bomb demo (my excuse is that I was very young at the time) and got on a coach stuck in London traffic, handing out leaflets to the strange but enthusiastic occupants. As I got off the bus the conductor/guard/ward told me that they were inmates from an asylum* on a day out.

*Yes, they had them 65-70 years ago...

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3511 Post by OFSO » Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:35 pm

I also did the planning for the "Keine Startbahnwest" demos against the new runway at FfaM. Told the anarchists and spontis to what length the strips of aluminum foil should be cut. Fastening them to pigeon's legs proved difficult, also because due to translation problems they were attached to pig's legs, and as everyone knows, pigs don't fly.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3512 Post by ian16th » Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:52 pm

OFSO wrote:
Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:35 pm
I also did the planning for the "Keine Startbahnwest" demos against the new runway at FfaM. Told the anarchists and spontis to what length the strips of aluminum foil should be cut. Fastening them to pigeon's legs proved difficult, also because due to translation problems they were attached to pig's legs, and as everyone knows, pigs don't fly.
Who is propagating this propaganda?

I worked on many Valletta's and Varsity's that did a fine job of flying.

Edited to add: Thinking of 'the pig', I'll nominate it as a design that worked as advertised, out of the box.
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3513 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:36 pm

OFSO wrote:
Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:35 pm
I also did the planning for the "Keine Startbahnwest" demos against the new runway at FfaM. Told the anarchists and spontis to what length the strips of aluminum foil should be cut. Fastening them to pigeon's legs proved difficult, also because due to translation problems they were attached to pig's legs, and as everyone knows, pigs don't fly.
We need more runways. Just as long as they don't abut my house! :))

I was doing some contract work at the MOJ some years back and a group of hunt supporters picketed the building I was in, in protest at the ban on fox hunting. Now I am totally anti fox hunting, but I protested when the police started to shove these folks around, and move them on by force. I was then mistaken as a hunt supporter, and hustled along by the cops who behaved really badly to all and sundry. I washed up outside a local pub, with a group of these pro hunt folks, and we had a drink together, and I explained my position, and we had a civilised and amicable chat about our perspectives on the subject. If we let this reactionary, incomptetent government, continue on its course, as things stand, we will all (whatever our beliefs) be living in a place closer to the totalitarian kind of state that Orwell warned us all about so many decades ago.
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3514 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Oct 08, 2021 6:03 pm

OFSO wrote:
Fri Oct 08, 2021 4:35 pm
I also did the planning for the "Keine Startbahnwest" demos against the new runway at FfaM.
AFAIR, the runway at FFaM was extremely long.
Taking off in a B707 was just an extended taxi.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3515 Post by ribrash » Fri Oct 08, 2021 6:38 pm

Years back I worked at Capenhurst,British Nuclear Fuels on contract.Overtime was always available on Sat/Sun if you wanted it.The smellies from from ban the bomb or Greenpeace or who ever would often pitch up and camp out side the gates.That meant we had to do 16 hour shifts on double time. Oh happy days.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3516 Post by om15 » Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:06 pm

The Grand Hotel in Scarborough is not quite so Grand these days, the upper two floors are housing Afghan arrivals ( at a large cost to the taxpayer) and the lower floors are catering for increasingly unhappy holiday makers. Having an enquiring mind I thought I would look on Trip Advisor to see how this was working out.

This is a typical review, however there are worse.

Screenshot 2021-10-08 210152.png
Bracing as it might be, I shall give it a miss this year.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3517 Post by 1DC » Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:43 pm

I was in there about ten years ago and couldn't believe what a ***** hole it had developed into, I hate to think what it must be like now.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3518 Post by ian16th » Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:23 pm

I think it was Xmas 1975, our Leeds office Xmas do, was held in the Grand. My over riding memory was that the place was cold and draughty!
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3519 Post by llondel » Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:48 am

To me, the problem with protesters blocking major roads to campaign for action on climate change is a bit like throwing petrol on a fire to try to extinguish it. Thousands of cars sitting there burning fuel while going nowhere just adds more CO2 to the environment for very little gain. It also pisses off the very people they need to support their cause.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#3520 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:01 am

1DC, we were lucky, our conference hotel was the one opposite, now a Travel Lodge. For amusement we watched the fire evacuation at the Grand.

In Grantham we have the Urban Hotel, also cold, draughty and understaffed. At least the whole of it has been taken over. It might even be better when it reopens.

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