WTF is happening in the UK?

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ian16th
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2261 Post by ian16th » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:23 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:30 am
I can see the titles now "Operation Kano
214 Sqdn based tankers in Kano for one of the none stop trips to SA.

The brave guys who deserved the medal were the ground crew based in Kano, they twice flew across the Sahara in a Beverley!

I was scheduled to be in that party, but for some reason I didn't go. :-bd
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2262 Post by barkingmad » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:24 pm

Ta TGG, I personally hate getting up early after 42 years in professional aviation where the bedtimes and rising times bore no relation to the sleep requirements of this pathetic specimen of ‘A’ level bonobo chimp partial evolution! :O3

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2263 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:06 pm

What precisely were the stowaways' demands?

Why did they make a crisis out of a drama?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2264 Post by Boac » Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:11 pm

£40 a day, hotel room, good food, trips to football stadia - nothing much really.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2265 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:12 pm

They got pissed off when the crew tried to herd them all into a single cabin and lock them in for the arrival at Fawley.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2266 Post by Woody » Mon Oct 26, 2020 6:43 pm

When Labour and The Brexit Party join forces against the Government, you know that the world is weird =))

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2267 Post by Boac » Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:32 pm

If the next group of cross-channel RIB travellers should 'hijack' the vessel, will the SBS be again called upon?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2268 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:05 pm

Amazon gets on ‘secretive’ UK government panel on post-Brexit supply rules while benefiting financially from own ‘advice’ – report

Online retail giant Amazon is ensuring a lucrative future in UK government contracts, guiding a “secretive” Cabinet Office panel on making policy on post-Brexit procurement of goods and services, a fair tax advocate has revealed.
The US internet behemoth, whose CEO Jeff Bezos is said to be the richest man in the world, sits on a panel set up by the UK Cabinet Office to make binding decisions on public sector procurement post-Brexit, the Fair Tax Mark’s Paul Monaghan told UK outlet the Mirror on Sunday.

The Cabinet Office refused to supply minutes from two 2020 meetings in which Amazon representatives were present with Lord Agnew, minister for efficiency and transformation, the Mirror claimed in its report. Amazon reps were also said to be present at a pair of 2019 meetings alongside Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who has since been appointed culture secretary.
“The manner in which Amazon is embedding itself into national and regional public procurement in the UK has long been cause for concern,” Monaghan explained, adding that the company’s presence on this “secretive” panel tasked with setting government policy going forward is “truly frightening.”

Amazon appears to have benefited quite massively from the business advice it has given London, having secured 82 central government contracts over the past five years, worth a total of £225 million ($293.5 million). It runs the central marketplace in which local councils buy supplies via an exclusive deal. And its apparent guiding hand in post-Brexit policy seems to fly in the face of PM Boris Johnson’s pledge to change procurement rules to favor smaller local firms after the UK leaves the EU.
Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the British Trades Union Congress, called out the retail giant’s “exploitative business model” and slammed London for “rewarding” its misdeeds with “a seat at the table on an influential Government board advising on public procurement, on top of the multi-million-pound Government contracts it [already] receives.”
The Fair Tax Mark, which rates businesses on the transparency of their tax payments, has previously accused Amazon of dramatically underpaying UK corporate taxes. Last year, Amazon UK Services paid just £14 million ($18.3 million) in taxes on total in-country sales of £10.9 billion ($14.22 billion), part of a pattern of behavior the group has described as “aggressive” tax avoidance by American Big Tech firms.

The group’s complaints about Amazon will be familiar to the Americans whose jaws dropped upon learning the megacorporation effectively paid no US taxes at all in 2019, even netting a fat IRS rebate. This year, the firm paid a scanty $162 million in US taxes on 2019 earnings of $13.9 billion – a fraction of the federal corporate tax rate of 21 percent.
Neither Amazon nor the Cabinet Office were willing to comment on the arrangement when asked by the Mirror, though the Office defended the panel in a general sense as “an important part of our engagement as we look to improve procurement rules.”

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2269 Post by Boac » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:11 pm

So, which governmental person is in Amazon's pocket, then? Is Argar excused this time?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2270 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:20 pm

Which ones aren't?

I bet they'd like to know why they aren't. I guess that's why the story got leaked.

Moral of the tale: if you want to stop leaks about gumment corruption, bribe more of the higher scrotes so that none of 'em will squeal. Seemples.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2271 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:27 pm

Boac wrote:
Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:32 pm
If the next group of cross-channel RIB travellers should 'hijack' the vessel, will the SBS be again called upon?
If the next group hijack a cross-Channel ferry, then they too will receive the well rehearsed attentions of the 'beakies.

I shall happily provide our forum with a minute-perfect prediction of the timing and method of execution of such an assault, Just as I did with this recent one. ;)))

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2272 Post by Boac » Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:50 pm

Well done, indeed, Sir, but I asked about Ribs, not ferries!

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2273 Post by barkingmad » Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:19 am

Another missive dropped by the Branch Covidians’ pigeon;

A reader has emailed us to let us know about a massage she hoped to get, but has had to postpone due to the masseur being a bit of a chin-wobbler.

“A while ago, I decided a Close Contact Service (a massage in old money) would not go amiss – all that tension induced by our Dear Leaders required some sorting out. But the person recommended to me was closed due to Covid. Imagine my delight when yesterday I received an email telling me she was opening up again next week. I really should know by now not to get so excited about the prospect of doing Something New.

Her Covid T&Cs have made it impossible for me to go and see her. Perhaps I was an idiot to expect a relaxing, pampering session. These T&Cs are dictated by the rules for Close Contact Services. The conditions are:

* I must wait outside and can only be allowed into the building when she collects me (there is no shelter outside this building)
* I must wear a mask throughout my time with her and can only take it off again when I leave the building
* She will be in full PPE and will do the massage wearing plastic gloves (not my idea of fun)
* I must not touch any surfaces and will be given a plastic container to put my possessions into but it would be best if I brought nothing with me
* I must wash my hands (why is this necessary as I’m not allowed to touch anything?)
* A window will be kept open throughout the treatment (to make sure I freeze to death if Covid doesn’t get me first)
* I must scan the NHS Test and Trace QR code when I enter the room (fat chance, as the app is not on my phone, nor will it ever be)
* All stair bannisters, door handles and bathroom surfaces will be disinfected before I arrive (no light switches? Oh dear)
* A 30-minute gap is left between appointments to clean and ventilate the room (marvellous – more people Following The Science)

So, there you go. Another treat which will have to wait. And this might be a while, as I see that the Sodom And Gomorrah Enterprises (SAGE) are threatening again that the Second Wave will kill me. One good thing about this is that it will make a massage superfluous to requirements.”

No no chance there of a happy ending then? But I do like the decoding of the SAGE acronym, sooh appropriate for an organisation which is well and truly shafting the UK populace! =))

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2274 Post by ian16th » Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:22 pm

Cynicism improves with age

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2275 Post by barkingmad » Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:28 am

In the light of the imminent lethal proposed UK shutdown for the dark month of November, it is likely that some may be feeling suicidal.

Perhaps knowing there are folk out there with sensible intelligent attitudes towards the plague might alleviate these dangerous thoughts so I post this link, from which you may take your choice of non-panicked discussions about WTF is happening...;

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cH ... 1ub3JtYWw=

Alas, during the forthcoming lockdown I will still be unable to use this new planet as a staging post in order to return to my own planet. =))

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2276 Post by barkingmad » Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:12 am

Some more commentary from the Covidians on yesterday’s farce;

“Talk about a cock-up! Downing Street originally briefed that the Prime Minister would be holding a press conference on Monday to set out plans for a second national lockdown. Then someone leaked the details to the press, meaning Conservative MPs had to read about the plans in yesterday’s papers rather than being told about them by Boris. In an effort to minimise the damage, Downing Street brought forward the announcement to 4.30pm yesterday. Then moved that to 6.30pm. And, in the event, the Wizard of Oz didn’t appear from behind his curtain until about 6.45pm, even though Downing Street had been warned by the BBC that it had to start at 6.30pm because they weren’t going to move Strictly.

As one Conservative minister told the Times‘s Matt Chorley: “The incompetence is another level. Is this a deliberate destruction of the Tory Party? People only vote for us because they think we don’t care, but are competent. Lose the competence and we’re ****. We’ve lost the competence. And we are f***ed.”

And let’s not forget the PM scoffed at Keir Starmer’s call for a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ three weeks ago and described a second national lockdown as the “nuclear option”. Pitch rolling, Boris-style.

Rather implausibly, after Witless and Unbalanced had unveiled graph after graph of doom, Boris claimed to be optimistic about the medium and long term and tried to get the dour-faced Patrick Vallance to second that, which he reluctantly did. The reason for this optimism? Vaccines, obviously, but also a rapid testing programme that’s due to be rolled out in the next few days. Boris promised whole towns – nay, whole cities – could be tested at a stroke, with the help of the British Army. The Times has more on this plan, which is stage one of the Prime Ministered fabled “Moonshot”.

Not sure many people will be convinced that upscaling the NHS Test and Trace programme, which has proved completely ineffective to date, is a silver bullet.

He also said, rather ominously, that the Army would “help” people to self-isolate. Does that mean purpose-built quarantine facilities, like the kind they have in New Zealand? Let’s hope the buffoon just misspoke.

Towards the end of this rambling stream-of-consciousness, Boris said we’d need to observe the old mantra that was rolled out in March: “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” Bit of a shock, that, given how many people who needed urgent care avoided hospitals last time round, with catastrophic consequences. Did Boris just pull that out of his hat at the last minute?

Chorley put together the following timeline of other assurances made by the Prime Minister:

Mar 19th: Turn tide in 12 weeks

May 17th: “Near normality” by end of July

July 17th : “Significant normality” by Christmas

Sep 9th: “back to normal by Christmas”

Oct 23rd: “some aspects of our lives… back to normal” by Christmas

Oct 31st: very different and better by spring
The word “omnishambles” doesn’t quite fit the bill here. Nor does “*****-show” or “cluster-f***”.

The word to describe this level of incompetence has yet to be coined.“

Will we be ‘toasting’ the Tory Party in 2024 or sooner, if any of the electorate are still alive and/or considered sane enough to vote? :-?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2277 Post by barkingmad » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:19 pm


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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2278 Post by Boac » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:35 pm

Cannot sign number 1 - 80% is too high.

Good luck with Number 2. Don't forget - petitions are a waste of time.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2279 Post by barkingmad » Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:50 pm

"Don't forget - petitions are a waste of time."
Fairy Nuff, as are General & Local Elections, then howzabout a letter to your MP forecasting his lack of a future if he/she votes in favour of the Lockdown 2.0?

Something along the lines of;

"Dear Member of Parliament,

This week you will be called upon to authorise a second lockdown across England. As your constituent, I urge you reject this proposal on the grounds that lockdowns are ruinous to lives, livelihoods and liberty.

Lives are lost when other medical services are suspended. Lives are ruined by depression and domestic violence which accompany lockdowns. Livelihoods are destroyed and countless families impoverished with future generations left to bear the costs of this ruinous policy. Liberty is suspended as the government rules by decree. Parliament is sidelined and its constitutional role seriously diminished.

Lockdown is not only a cruel and blunt instrument for dealing with COVID-19, it is singularly ineffective. That’s why we are facing a second lockdown so soon after the first. We’re told that hospitals are about to be overwhelmed. But how much confidence should we have in epidemiological models when their forecasting record to date has been so poor?

Evidence from around the world reveals no correlation between lockdowns and coronavirus fatalities. In fact, Peru, the country with the highest fatality rate also had one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns. By contrast, Sweden, which had no lockdown has suffered no excess deaths this year. A policy of “focused protection” for the vulnerable offers a viable alternative approach to a second lockdown.

We have reached a critical moment in our country’s history. If you truly care for the health and welfare of the nation, or are concerned about the future of Parliament, our constitution and liberties, you must reject this second lockdown.

Yours (in despair?)"

Or even stronger, if you don’t fancy that one, here’s an actual letter a reader has just sent to his MP, Gareth Davies, the member for Grantham and Stamford (Con).

"Sir,

I am writing to you as my representative in Parliament, as a resident of Bourne, to urge you not to vote in favour of the planned second Lockdown from Thursday.

The effects of Lockdowns are well known. They’re so negative that even the WHO now advises against them with Prof David Nabarro, special envoy to the WHO saying precisely this in an interview with Andrew Neil on Spectator TV. Our PM even described Lockdowns recently as the ‘nuclear option’ when responding to the Leader of the Opposition’s call for a ‘circuit-break’ recently.

Being furloughed and having to make ends meet on 80% salary as a single-parent of two children was bad enough in March, April and May but will be impossible over the coming month with Christmas approaching. And of course it won’t just be the coming month, will it?

I appreciate the low case rate in South Kesteven compared with elsewhere in the UK May afford me and others here a perceived misunderstanding of the situation nationally, but it doesn’t take long using the government’s own Covid Dashboard to see that what SAGE members are saying doesn’t square with reality. Tier 3 measures being introduced in Greater Nottingham from last Thursday, for example, despite the persistent and sustained fall in cases there from the start of the month is a good case in point. The same for Liverpool & Merseyside and the majority of boroughs in Manchester.

I have never had time for conspiracy theories but I am now fully on board with the likelihood of sinister work at play. All these discredited models by SAGE scientists still seem to curry favour with the PM, who has undoubtedly been ‘got’ early on, following his fight with COVID-19.

Why is SAGE’s reasoning behind their models kept secret? Why is SAGE conflating cases with infections when the two are far from the same?

To be clear, if you vote for this atrocious, unnecessary and legally dubious further grab of our liberties, I – like many others I know – will never vote Conservative again.

You may consider time is on your Party’s side with just under four years before the next General Election, but the lockdown-caused deaths will be ‘slow burners’ for all to see, taking place over the forthcoming years with highly publicised cancer, heart-related and mental illness deaths played out before your, and all your constituents’, eyes, from which there will be no going back.

If the good people of South Kesteven see thousands of unnecessary excess deaths reported with as much gusto as the press has with reminding us of the daily case/death rates for years and years, there is every chance that this Tory stronghold will turn red in the same way the Beast of Bolsolver would never have thought he’d see his constituency turn blue.

Yours sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXXXX"

Free to cut & paste and only takes a few minutes to blast off and cause them some possible sleeplessness, on the principle of "nothing ventured-nothing gained"?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#2280 Post by Boac » Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:57 pm

howzabout a letter to your MP
Equally a waste of time. Unfortunately, as I have posted, my MP, being a 'shoe-in' BoJo mate (and ex UKIP), doesn't answer queries/letters (and is friend of Dodo's).

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