WTF is happening in the UK?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5281 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Nov 06, 2022 6:27 pm

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5282 Post by Boac » Mon Nov 07, 2022 10:35 am


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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5283 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:48 am

When is a strike not a strike?
"Thousands of rail workers have spent the weekend doing nothing on full pay after the RMT union called off a series of national strikes at a few hours’ notice.
"In the days ahead many rail staff are likely to remain idle, with significant parts of Great Britain deprived of trains."
Another added: "The strike was called off yet there are still no trains running. So, rail workers get a day off on full pay. Well played, comrades."

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5284 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:35 pm

Bank of England blames early retirement for surging inflation
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ates-bank/

The longer they go on blaming the wrong things, quite deliberately in this case, the worse the economic situation will become.

Remind me how well the BoE inflation forecasts worked out.
Oh yes, all the last five were horribly wrong.

Not that what the UK does amounts to a hill of beans when Biden has been busy pumping money into the US economy (whilst pretending not to), basically in an attempt to buy the midterm elections.
https://www.knowledgeleaderscapital.com ... -spending/

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5285 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:42 pm

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:35 pm
Bank of England blames early retirement for surging inflation
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ates-bank/

The longer they go on blaming the wrong things, quite deliberately in this case, the worse the economic situation will become.

Remind me how well the BoE inflation forecasts worked out.
Oh yes, all the last five were horribly wrong.

Not that what the UK does amounts to a hill of beans when Biden has been busy pumping money into the US economy (whilst pretending not to), basically in an attempt to buy the midterm elections.
https://www.knowledgeleaderscapital.com ... -spending/
At least, some, other than the politicians, were benefiting, in the short term.

PP

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5286 Post by Woody » Tue Nov 08, 2022 9:27 pm

Gavin Williamson has resigned again as a Government Minister, I believe that it’s for the third time , didn’t anyone notice that he was incompetent in his earlier positions ~X(
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5287 Post by TheGreenAnger » Tue Nov 08, 2022 9:33 pm

Woody wrote:
Tue Nov 08, 2022 9:27 pm
Gavin Williamson has resigned again as a Government Minister, I believe that it’s for the third time , didn’t anyone notice that he was incompetent in his earlier positions ~X(
He was fireplace salesman of the year once, apparently! An oily, deluded, unpleasant tick! Good riddance.
In an extraordinary interview with Channel 4 News, Anne Milton accused Williamson of using MPs’ mental and physical health problems against them, collecting “salacious gossip” about their “sexual preferences” and on one occasion telling her to give an MP with financial problems a cheque and tell them: “I now own him.”

According to Milton, who stepped down as an MP in 2019, the former chief whip sent her an email in response to a female civil servant’s inquiry about why a minister had to change travel plans to attend a vote, saying: “Always tell them to **** off and if they have the bollocks to come and see me. **** jumped up civil servants.”

She added: “It’s an image he cultivates. I think he feels that he’s Francis Urquhart from House of Cards.”

Downing Street had said Sunak believed that the MoD bullying allegations against Williamson were serious, and was considering whether further action should be taken against him. It has not yet responded to the allegations in the Channel 4 interview.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... williamson
It is perhaps the greatest testament to Gavin Williamson’s mastery of the baser political arts that three separate prime ministers have seemingly found him indispensable despite his striking record of ministerial mishaps and, at times, sheer ineptitude.

Further evidence of Williamson’s political antennae comes from his parallel habit of backing winners: he was an early supporter of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, proving invaluable in marshalling support among Tory MPs.

The same fundamental paradox has, however, emerged under all three: Williamson is seemingly much better at acquiring ministerial roles than carrying them out, with the exception of being chief whip.

May was so impressed by the South Staffordshire MP as chief whip that she promoted him to become defence secretary, a role in which he visibly struggled. May then sacked him after she concluded he had leaked sensitive telecoms information from a meeting of the national security council.

Williamson bitterly complained he had been wronged, while May’s aides were equally adamant the evidence of the leak was watertight. As it turned out, less than three months later Johnson returned him to the cabinet as education secretary.

While it is possible that Michael Gove was an education secretary more disliked by teaching unions for his breakneck programme of schools reform, Williamson is almost universally seen as the least-competent modern occupant of the role, and he was dismissed by Johnson last year. Even then, Johnson handed Williamson a knighthood six months later.

The list of Williamson’s moments of ministerial ignominy is long, even before the recent days of controversy over allegations of bullying and expletive-laden messages to fellow MPs.

As defence secretary, many worried that Williamson’s much-reported comment that Russia “should go away and should shut up” perhaps indicated a politician lacking the necessary gravitas for the job.

While Williamson’s tenure in education was made hugely difficult by the impact of Covid, he nonetheless showed minimal aptitude for making things better, most notably with the debacle over A-level grading in 2020, when he initially stood by the controversial system of computer algorithm and teacher assessments, before an inevitable U-turn.

Williamson even made his own contribution to the Johnson-led controversy over extending free school meals for poorer children, telling a newspaper he had held a Zoom meeting with Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United footballer and anti-poverty campaigner, when he in fact met a different black sportsman, Maro Itoje, a rugby player.

For all this, Williamson’s more terminal political downfall appears likely to come as a corollary of his greatest talent: as a politician even his foes accept is brilliant at gauging support levels, knowing secrets about everyone and everything, and using the various levers at a whip’s disposal to exert pressure.

Williamson has visibly enjoyed this reputation, gaining his first beyond-Westminster renown as a chief whip who kept a pet tarantula called Cronus in a glass box on his desk.

“I don’t very much believe in the stick,” Williamson joked at a May-era Conservative party conference. “But it’s amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.”

What has emerged in recent days is the sense that Williamson’s evident enjoyment of the inevitable menace of a whip’s role can, critics allege, spill over into bullying, abuse or just plain pettiness.

One of the most damaging recent claims is the fact that Williamson not only sent furious messages to Wendy Morton, who filled the chief whip’s role under Liz Truss, but did so because he could not believe he had not been invited to the Queen’s funeral.

Born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Williamson had a comprehensive school education before getting a degree in social science at the University of Bradford and working in business.

One role involved working for a North Yorkshire-based fireplace manufacturer, a job he left after a relationship with a female junior colleague jeopardised his marriage – yet another embarrassing detail to emerge during his ministerial career.

He became an MP in 2010, aged just 33, soon becoming a parliamentary private secretary – an unpaid aide – to several ministers, then for David Cameron, yet another prime minister for whom he made himself invaluable.

Williamson’s big break came when Cameron resigned after the Brexit referendum, and he attached himself to May, promising he could deliver the MP numbers for her to win.

This is the other knack he has been able to take advantage of: like Johnson and Sunak subsequently, May is not a natural networker or schemer, and badly needed someone else to fill that role. Williamson has filled this very particular, politically lucrative niche three times now. Four, however, might be a stretch.
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5288 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Nov 08, 2022 9:45 pm

didn’t anyone notice that he was incompetent in his earlier positions?
In what way would he stand out from his colleagues? :D

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5289 Post by Woody » Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:34 am

In what way would he stand out from his colleagues? :D
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5290 Post by Boac » Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:04 pm

Does Sir Gavin expect an invite to the coronation, do you think?

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5291 Post by Woody » Wed Nov 09, 2022 5:22 pm

Gavin Williamson is the 80th minister to have resigned of been sacked in 2022. If this were a school it would be in special measures. If it were a company it would be in administration.
That’s actually quite an impressive statistic :))
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5292 Post by TheGreenAnger » Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:15 pm

The boss of the English National Opera has hit out at a plan which would force it to move out of London and have its funding cut.

It comes after the Arts Council England said it would cut the company's £12.6m annual grant from 2023 and instead give it only £17m over three years if it relocates out of the capital, possibly to Manchester.

The ENO’s chief executive, Stuart Murphy, told the BBC that the Arts Council plan was “insane and absurd” and said it simply was not doable.

“We spoke to people that the Arts Council hadn't bothered to speak to in Manchester, from across the opera world, and our staff - and it's just not doable,” he said.

“These are people who've been in the company for 40 years. It takes a long time to train to be an opera singer. We can't just close down in one area and start in another.”

He said that the plan had come as a massive shock to staff at the famous cultural institution because it had been doing everything the Arts Council had asked.

“It came as a massive surprise to us because our report card from the Arts Council says we're doing an amazing job,” he told the broadcaster.

“It reminds us that one in seven of our audience are under 35, that a fifth of our singers are ethnically diverse, that our average ticket price is a quarter of that of a normal opera house and we give free tickets to under-21s.

“And we do these amazing things like ENO Breathe with the NHS that happen right across the country.

“So we've kind of done everything that was asked of us and more, even by the Arts Council's admission.”

The ENO, currently based in the London Coliseum, is now fighting the plans and backing a petition set up by opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel, which has more than 17,000 signatures.

The ENO is one of the capital’s two opera houses, alongside the Royal Opera House.

An Arts Council spokesperson said: “We require English National Opera to relocate the core of their work to another part of England if they wish to continue to receive regular public funding from us.

"We raised Manchester as an option and English National Opera initially received that idea positively.

“English National Opera's future is in their hands - at this early stage we have announced our funding plans for the next three years, and now we hope to engage in detailed planning with them.

“This would involve English National Opera reshaping their business model and finding a suitable location outside of London."
- London Evening Standard

Perhaps the Arts Council HQ should be moved from Manchester to Scunthorpe!

This government is laughable and totally incompetent.

I would rather see the ENO in Belem than be ruined due to this malignant government caprice!

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5293 Post by Boac » Fri Nov 11, 2022 5:16 pm

Apparently 'Quasi' Qwarteng is now saying he TOLD the Truss the budget was wrong and it wasn't really his fault. You know, I would have expected him to resign if she pressed ahead - wait - she did, he didn't. 2-faced idiot.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5294 Post by OFSO » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:29 am

An Outbreak of Matt Hancocks -

I turned off my phone and radio
got rid of my tv
ran barbed wire around the house
yet still i am not free

matt hancocks in the sitting room
matt hancocks in the loo
matt hancocks in the kitchen drawer
i don’t know what to do

there’s six of them beneath the stairs
in the fridge another ten
my house is getting overwhelmed
by underwhelming men

i think i may have lost my mind
i see them every place
just yesterday i stroked the cat
she had matt hancock’s face

filled gaps in all the skirting boards
laid poison in the hall
set traps involving bits of cheese
but nothing works at all

matt hancocks haunt my dreams at night
wake up screaming yet again
my mind is getting overwhelmed
by underwhelming men.

- Brian Bilston

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5295 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:33 am

OFSO wrote:
Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:29 am
An Outbreak of Matt Hancocks -

I turned off my phone and radio
got rid of my tv
ran barbed wire around the house
yet still i am not free

matt hancocks in the sitting room
matt hancocks in the loo
matt hancocks in the kitchen drawer
i don’t know what to do

there’s six of them beneath the stairs
in the fridge another ten
my house is getting overwhelmed
by underwhelming men

i think i may have lost my mind
i see them every place
just yesterday i stroked the cat
she had matt hancock’s face

filled gaps in all the skirting boards
laid poison in the hall
set traps involving bits of cheese
but nothing works at all

matt hancocks haunt my dreams at night
wake up screaming yet again
my mind is getting overwhelmed
by underwhelming men.

- Brian Bilston
:-bd =)) :YMAPPLAUSE:
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5296 Post by barkingmad » Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:20 am

Today we had the usual list of politicos and civilian hangers-on basking in the warm light of the Cenotaph ceremony.

Do any here in O-N think the ceremony would be improved by the exclusion of current and former Prime Ministers, US ex-presidents and any other civilian and politician from our governing assemblies who are the ones who sign off on sending the young out to die on their behalf?

Keep it to a military populated affair, retired veterans and current civilian services personnel would also be allowed provided their actions, current or since leaving active service, have never exacerbated the tendency to have a nice little (proxy) war, which seems to have an approx once every decade cycle.

Gotta keep the military-industrial complex in healthy order.

Just thinking aloud... ~X(

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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5297 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:18 pm

The person mentioned is seeking forgiveness. He is trying to get back into Government. If he wants forgiveness there are better ways of so doing.

One who springs to mind is Leonard Cheshire in atonement for his necessary actions in WW2. Another is John Profumo. Neither sought public forgiveness but atoned by their actions.

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The great British battery farce

#5298 Post by TheGreenAnger » Mon Nov 14, 2022 10:17 am

The woes of startup Britishvolt should shock the UK out of its Brexit self-delusion

Fake it till you make it has been the guiding maxim of British government policy for national renewal since Brexit. Don’t be a declinist remoaner, they say, instead enjoy the feeling of being a science superpower, an innovation hub, a global player, a new fount of regulation, and watch those entrepreneurs go, go, go. See them thrust into new markets as those great trade deals open up the world to British ingenuity.

In reality, the country has gone from hero to zero in a few months. The bankers are clamouring to slow the economy by pushing down wages and for cuts in public expenditure.

This is the context in which we should understand the sorry story of Britishvolt. The startup was formed in 2019 to build batteries for electric cars in the UK. It was first to be established (with promise of government subsidies) in south Wales, and then in Blyth in Northumberland, again with large subsidies promised. Three years later, it is considering going into administration amongst other options.

Its 300 workers are on half pay and the company has been kept going for five weeks with an injection of £5m by one of its owners, Glencore. This is hardly the sort of money needed to change the world, or even Blyth; it is the cost of a house in an expensive part of London. The government has not yet given the company a promised £100m as the advance was earmarked for tooling equipment within the factory, which has not been bought.

Article after article painted a picture of a gleaming gigafactory when there was none, talked about £1.7bn here, £3.8bn there, when the actual investment in the company was, it seems, in the tens of millions. Little was said about the actual batteries, Britishvolt belatedly sent its first sample batteries in September (made at a UK government-funded development facility).

There may be a nugget of innovative battery technology that a great car or battery company could buy. Such companies are already investing many many billions. But that is the point. Arguably battery production is not now a business for startups; it is an industry with huge players, including Chinese firms and global carmakers. The only sizeable battery maker in the UK is a Chinese firm that supplies Nissan.

For the past 40 years UK governments have pursued a policy based on the notion of a British innovative genius that needs to be exploited through the creation of startups. A battery startup was a perfect case, as it has long been claimed the UK is a world leader in battery technology. But, as was pointed out years ago, it is hard to be a world leader in batteries if you don’t actually make them. There was a certain desperation then, not only to exploit battery technology, but to do it with a British firm. Add in the requirements of a car industry turning to electric vehicles, and it looks irresistible. Add Brexit, and you have the making of Britishvolt.

The government has put out grossly misleading statistics about the size of British tech sectors, puffing up the scale of the digital economy by including cinemas, and the space economy by including Earthbound satellite TV stations and dish installers. There was even talk about the UK leading the world into the fourth industrial revolution as it led it into the first.

In a recent speech, Keir Starmer rightly and notably warned against boosterism and fantasies. But when it came to British tech, he did it himself. “The way I see it,” he said, “some nation is going to lead the world in electric vehicles, in floating offshore wind, in new hydrogen and nuclear technologies. Why not Britain?” He claimed that “Britain has an extraordinary genius when it comes to manufacturing”. The country, he said, needs “more innovation, more new technology, more research and development, more unlocking the commercial power of our universities, more specialising in the knowledge-rich industries of the future, and more startups”.

But is this right? There are already world leaders in electric vehicles, floating offshore wind, and hydrogen and nuclear, and none of them are the UK. Isn’t it the case that a strategy of more innovation has been the core of industrial policy for 40 years, with paltry results? Productivity has been stagnant for nearly 15 years.

Labour should resist the strong temptation to try to outdo the government in technological chauvinism. Tech-bro Rishi Sunak would win that contest. The country needs an alternative policy, one more likely to work. The idea of the everyday economy, discussed by the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and mentioned many times by Starmer, provides a key. Let us think about imitating and, if necessary, innovating to improve people’s lives by focusing on the services, public and private, labour- and capital-intensive, that we use, from care homes to the internet. Instead of quixotic dreams of world domination, let us remember that the UK represents between 2% and 3% of global research and development and manufacturing, and there are bigger and stronger competitors out there.

Brexit Britain has faked it but has not made it. Let us hope that a sense of proportion comes to British discourse, and remember that many other nations have at least as good claims to be the homes of scientific and manufacturing genius. Only then will the nation truly succeed.
- David Edgerton is the author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation and professor of modern British history at King’s College London

Without working battery production lines here in the UK, the car manufacturers (what's left of them here) will move production of electrical vehicles elsewhere and so it will go right down through the dependent suppliers etc.
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5299 Post by TheGreenAnger » Mon Nov 14, 2022 11:09 am

TheGreenAnger wrote:
Thu Nov 10, 2022 5:15 pm
The boss of the English National Opera has hit out at a plan which would force it to move out of London and have its funding cut.
The future of opera is in car parks, pubs and on tablets rather than in lavish productions in grand venues, the chief executive of Arts Council England has said, amid a growing row over its removal of funding for the English National Opera.
/:)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/ ... -car-parks

What next? Ballet at car boot sales and Saddlers Wells in bookies?

Where do they get idiots like this - Darren Henley - most likely a total bellend!
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Re: WTF is happening in the UK?

#5300 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Mon Nov 14, 2022 11:30 am

They get them from where it says in his Bio they get them.



Darren Richard Henley
He is a graduate of the University of Hull (BA Hons, politics), the University of South Wales (MSc, management), the University of Buckingham (MA, history of art), Middlesex University (DProf professional doctorate examining the role of the outsider as an agent for change), Buckinghamshire New University (MSc, applied positive psychology) and Henley Business School (PGCert, coaching and behavioural change).

That's six crap qualifications, all from places you've never heard of. And if you have, you wished you hadn't.

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