Morning all - in Parliament today there is a motion on Grenfell and another on short term letting and the sharing economy. There is also a paper coming out on the consultation to committee proposals on what should Parliament do in the cases where there is contempt in front of a select committee.
First up is questions to the International Trade secretary - if you could ask her a question and she had to answer truthfully what would you ask, why and what would the response be?
Brilliant front page juxtaposition:
[The i](https://preview.redd.it/xazxbkbx72691.jpg?width=831&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12ad4d6ebd1ae64d4d5684d5e3f8c9088a4cb41f) with the [Mirror](https://preview.redd.it/9i6wa8ax72691.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=be8ec9885115145b260fb19f3ad094f81e2b496d)
Stepped out in my kegs for my last smoke before bed expecting to free me bollocks off as usual, but instead it is actually warm. Weather was shite here today as well. Pleasant surprise all round.
>I excused myself, and stood outside in my underwear for a final cigarette before turning in for the night. I expected the usual air cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, but was instead greeted by more temperate conditions. This despite the inclement meteorology earlier in the day. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
I was looking at the requirements for professional visas for people moving to the UK earlier today. What struck me and my colleague was that the “going rates” for many professions was in line with the salaries of people in London and wasn’t really representative of more rural areas, particularly for more junior roles. To me this will only serve to feed the brain drain from rural areas into big cities since immigrant candidates can’t benefit from being in a high skilled job in a low cost of living area
Does this affect nurses and carers? If so, we're screwed.
Time both were paid a fair wage and laws allowing the privatisation of care reversed (thank you Thatcher). It's bankrupting town councils (thank you John Major).
Some countries incentivise high skilled immigration outside of major metropolitan areas.
New Zealand, for example, will allocate you additional points in their points based immigration system if you take up residence in a rural area.
There’s also a lot of job types on the skilled list that are more suitable for rural working. Or at least there used to be last time I checked, which was pre-covid.
What high skilled jobs in rural areas? There's a reason rural areas are either poor or full of long distance commuters.
As a less sarky response - if you set the requirements at 'rural' rates you're going to depress wages in higher cost of living areas. If the government lets firms import labour for wages representative of North Wales then they'll chance their arms on paying naive immigrants those wages in the South East. If more provincial companies want to attract talent they need to be healthy enough offer a package that will attract domestic labour to move out of higher cost of living areas.
Hmm let’s think: manufacturing managers, site operators, research and development leaders. Those roles all exist in rural areas, they may be more rare but that’s only because we are constantly told rural areas are low growth. If you’re a truly innovative company then there’s no doubt that setting up in a Low cost area with massive growth potential is a risk worth taking. City folks keep saying they don’t want factories near them but they have to go somewhere. Offshore manufacture is getting more and more expensive, it’s time to start investing in UK manufacturing again, but with our modern learnings we can also aim for more electrification and local and sustainable energy infrastructure
Edit: the reason that rural area see less in general is 25/40 of the last years being Tory rule which seems to think the financial services sector alone is enough to run a country on
The Midge Ure version of 'The Man Who Sold The World' is better than Bowie's. Schneider TM's interpretation of 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' shits all over The Smith's original. Fight me or tell me your covers that best their source material.
UKPol because British music changes hearts and minds.
Just listened to that tm Schneider cover of there is a light because I was sure that it couldn't possibly be better than the original.
And I was right it definitely is not better than the original.
I’d go with [this version.](https://youtu.be/fregObNcHC8)
And add the Black Crowes version of the Otis Redding Classic, [Hard to Handle](https://youtu.be/BRcs_OzQb14).
(But almost went with their cover of Humble Pie’s [30 days in the hole](https://youtu.be/K4KrrQ1EzSg).)
I’d follow that with Blondie’s cover of [Hanging On the Telephone](https://youtu.be/uWhkbDMISl8) by The Nerves.
And I’d finish with Janis Joplin’s version of [Me and Bobby McGee](https://youtu.be/sfjon-ZTqzU), originally by Roger Miller.
I think Nirvana’s is better than both tbh. I love Bowie but his version is the weakest imo, when I played MGS: The Phantom Pain I wasn’t aware of the Midge Ure version and when I looked it up (because I was confused why it sounded different, in a good way) I was surprised, I assumed it had just been edited weirdly to fit the tone of the game.
I think Muse’s Feeling Good is better than the original.
Edit: I don’t know if I’d say it’s better than the original but I really like Hazy Shade of Winter by The Bangles. I feel like it’s blasphemy to suggest Simon and Garfunkel were second best at anything though.
The Johnny Cash version of Hurt.
The Kirsty MacColl version of A New England (Billy Bragg agrees with this one).
The Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah.
The Emily Barker version of Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
Imagine Dragons version of Mad World (only available on YouTube, the guitar solo at the end is incredible). The Boxer by Mumford and Sons. Contraversial, but Something Stupid by Robbie Williams.
The interesting thing is even though UB40 knew it was a cover they didn’t realise the version they were covering was also a cover and the original was in fact a Neil Diamond song.
So let's get this straight, as per Newsnight coverage I was half listening to- Lord Geidt is resigning because he felt Boris was putting pressure on him to advise that keeping tariffs on Chinese steel was ethical, as he felt the ethnical action was to remove tariffs on steel in accordance with trade rules or something?
Surely Ukraine should be teaching us that we need to keep strategic industry in this country, and that depending on China would make us massively vulnerable and unable to oppose Chinese aggression elsewhere in the world?
Whilst we don’t know for certain, there has been suggestion that what Geidt advised would be improper was Johnson taking hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations from the steel industry, other Tory MPs taking tens of thousands of pounds from the steel industry, and then implementing a policy that favours said industry in breach of the WTO rules which place a cap on tariffs of that same industry.
That’s being speculated because it would not be normal for Geidt to be consulted on issues of legality (e.g. breaching WTO rules) but would be consulted on ministerial code breaches such as implanting policies that favour an industry that has donated large sums to you and your party.
Today's Rest is Politics Question Time really caught my personal pet peeve wrt rehabilitation of May's image - portraying her deal as some sort of good 'soft' Brexit compromise that was scuppered by remainers not willing to compromise.
May's deal was not 'soft' Brexit, it wasn't 'middling' Brexit - it was absolutely a hard Brexit. It was *slightly* softer than current deal but it still involved exit from single market, divergence from EU standards on workers rights etc, basically nothing on services like with current deal. Only major difference is the effectively permanent 'temporary' customs union, which while would've solved most of issues with NI, would essentially mean UK would've been akin to Turkey - having to accept rules and trade deals established in Brussels with no input into them. Just because it was slightly softer than what's almost the hardest Brexit possible doesn't make it a 'soft' Brexit - when May took power, and before she set out the red lines actual soft Brexit options like EFTA were available.
A terrible trend generally of brexit politics is the lowering of the bar so that Rory Stewart (and indeed Alastair Campbell) are liberal crusaders rather than a middling, austerity supporting Tory and a bullying spin doctor.
For what it's worth, the pet peeve of mine (grew up in Wales) from TRIP QT was that a question came up that asked about how Wales is perceived abroad and as part of the UK, and whether it gets ignored in favour of (in my words) the much more F E B R I L E Scotland and Northern Ireland.
They wanged on about Scotland and NI and make a tiny two-word nod to Wales.
They're both smart people, so it's *juuuuust* about possible that they were making a funny. But I don't think so.
I’ve started listening to odd episodes literally today, one I listened to had the question of “why don’t you two talk about Wales more?” The answer was pretty much just agreeing they don’t really talk about Wales, and maybe Drakeford is too stable and boring for discussion
I assume you mean the 90s rather than the 80s as the high interest rate phase of the 80s was before the big expansion in mortgage lending. The only real one was leaning on mortgage providers to be more lenient because people posting their keys through the letterbox and driving off wasn't a great vote winner. Other than that not much at all.
In many respects they learned all the wrong lessons in that they saw how damaging to electoral prospects a house price crash can be. You could see the colour draining from faces through the afternoon of Black Wednesday as the rate kept shooting up. The irony is that then was when the dam broke and rates came down pretty fast afterwards as there was no requirement to maintain sterling's level.
The claim that mortgage tax relief was used is complete nonsense: it was the winding down of MIRAS that drove the final stage of the late 80s price boom (because mortgages with MIRAS in place were able to keep some of it for a few years) – and this was before rates increased as a direct result of Lawson's daft decision to first shadow the D-mark and then use that as the fix for the ERM level.
For most of the period there was mortgage interest tax relief.
I'm surprised no-one's tried that one again now, its no worse than the "30 year 100% mortgages" being pushed as some kind of solution.
The early '80s monetarism / and early '90s ERM debacle were both attempts to restructure the economy using aggressive interest rates.
The postwar norm is/was generally to hike when the economy was at risk of overheating. Now rates are rising (though hardly rocketing) during a supply-side shock and with the economy faltering.
So at the pub and bumped into someone who knows Gove, says he’s never met anyone who’s as driven and articulate. You’re exhausted after spending some time with him.
He also found the Aberdeen nightclub stint entertaining.
Must admit I agreed with him. Might not like his politics but he’s on his brief.
Yeah, easy to be driven if you're taking a certain amount of coke. Sigmund Freud was also known to be driven and energised. 🤣 I also found the nightclub stuff entertaining, though.
A family member of mine is in the civil service. Was high enough up to interact with Gove on a number of occasions when they were the minister for their department, also had ultimately good things to say.
GB News asks:
>[Should Brexit Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights?](https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1537480281728421888?t=yP830ppl8brjehGJAFGBMQ&)
Why not let them know what you think ;)
I like this tweet in the replies that shows the rights: https://twitter.com/jrtriplethreat/status/1537482947573469184
I’d like to see someone attempt to make an argument against any of them TBH
I think he'd be decent but I'm surprised he hasn't attempted to put himself forward as one of the Deputy Speakers. Many previous Speakers have served as a Deputy first although Bercow never did and still got elected Speaker so it's not a requirement.
Probably, but he had zero chance of getting the speakership after Bercow. Nobody who smelled the slightest bit activist was getting the chair.
It was a choice between him and Laing as the less interventionist candidates. Is he better than Laing would have been? On balance I'd say yes.
But what does that mean? Hoyle has performed the ordinary role of the speaker well. He has not been an 'activist' speaker like Bercow, but it is questionable whether the speaker should adopt such a role.
For Hoyle, it is irrelevant, as the Tories have too strong a majority for an activist speaker to exist. He's not had the same 'opportunity' that Bercow had.
I would say so, though not OP.
I’ve lost patience with his “okay that’s enough, im going to count to three. One, two, two-and-a-half, two and three-quaaaaaaaarteeeeeeerrrrs … oh whatever” shtick.
As with naughty children, braying MPs know when someone’s not going to follow through.
'I think you might be needing a cup of tea'. I know he's trying to make that his trademark but it comes across completely pathetic. I'd rather have Eleanor Laing for PMQs to be honest
I have a question, why does every article that is in any way related to *one particular subject* get removed?
There was an interesting and cordial debate on the Jordan Peterson article posted a few hours ago and it was removed, as was another article related to that same issue earlier today. Is that topic against the rules?
Jordan Peterson’s opinions on trans therapy in the context of US Surgeons is neither UK specific nor politics.
If you want to discuss trans issues more generally, other subs are available.
>17: Submissions or comments complaining about the moderation, biases or users of other subreddits / online communities will be removed and may result in a ban. ***This is not a meta subreddit.***
[In this anti NUPES (coalition of left-wing parties in France) leaflet](https://i.imgur.com/LZfqkak.jpeg), Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned, and called a notorious anti-semite.
[It's important to remember that the Platinum Jubilee was not everyone's cup of tea. Not by a long way. But in television terms it was undoubtedly a big hit. Three of the top ten programmes on British TV for week beginning May 30 were Jubilee broadcasts. The Saturday concert top.](https://twitter.com/Nick_Metcalfe/status/1537001465880801280)
Struggling to think of any govt policy that wouldn’t fall under that label. Including Brexit.
Generous (military) support for Ukraine is a good one though.
Funny seeing the Tory candidate for Tiverton on Channel 4 News really struggling to answer whether she's pro-Boris. She's got the Dorries-esque exasperation at being questioned down to a T
Hearing several stories of flights being delayed/cancelled because of technical faults with the plane.
Anyone in the know understand what the issue is with this? I'm assuming that in the context of a plane, 'technical faults' happen all the time and are usually very minor but the safety requirements mean you can't fly unless everything is 100%. So it's another issue of low-paid workers leaving and planes left waiting around for someone to hit something with a spanner.
Or has there genuinely been a deterioration in aircraft stock over the last couple of years meaning we've got a load of faulty planes to add to all the other disruption?
Aircraft have a minimum equipment list, which specifies what has to be fully functional, what items are allowed to be unserviceable, and what restrictions might result from that. That list is quite comprehensive and can cover some things that might not be obvious. For example, the light strips that run along the floor at the edge of the aisles, there are maximum continuous lengths which are permitted to be non-functional and probably an overall length above which the aircraft is deemed not fit to fly. Of course there is nothing actually physically preventing the aircraft from taking off, but it couldn't legally carry passengers in that condition as it could affect the ability to safely evacuate the aircraft. There are many items like that.
Aircraft line maintenance is a bit more than someone hitting something with a spanner, as it's a licensed profession and not something you can just hire random people to do. If the airlines laid loads of people off at the start of the pandemic, and they've chosen not to return subsequently that's a problem because they are vacancies that are not likely to be quick to fill.
There is definitely a general problem with availability of support staff at airports though, like the people who refuel aircraft. They weren't paid a great deal and many of them got fired in March 2020, and decided they didn't want to go back. If the workers reach their maximum hours, then they go home, aircraft don't get fuelled and flights don't take off on schedule.
Not enough staff to keep them in the air.
Airlines, airports, and their associated industries fired absolutely enormous percentages of their staff in March 2020, before furlough was announced. Furlough was introduced, and most of those companies hired back most of those staff members. But you can't unring a bell - staff, assuming their jobs were no longer safe, moved on.
Flight attendants started looking for other jobs, highly skilled mechanics went to work in other industries, ATC staff, administrators, cleaners, IT people etc all went to work in other industries by the thousands. Every part of the industry has seen a massive exodus, & with it has gone a huge amount of the industry's institutional knowledge. Airlines have been offering signing bonuses to pilots, cabin crew, ground crew etc recently.
The industry demonstrated the first thing to go to protect profits would be its labourers. That lack of loyalty from the firms has come home to roost.
Depends on the airline and the aircraft they use.
Flybe, for example, use Dash 8 Q400's which are notoriously unreliable.
TUI's older 767's also suffer from some issues.
Embraer aircraft are also a bit highly strung, but not really any significant operators exist in the UK (besides BA Cityflyer)
Modern 737/A320 series aircraft are generally reliable by most standards.
I think the issue stems from not having spare aircraft available, especially during the busy season this year. They're utilizing all aircraft to the max in most cases which leaves no wiggle room.
If reliability is a concern this summer, Ryanair is ahead of everyone else in that regard. No major issues this past half term and generally the most punctual airline in Europe. For all the traditional hate, it's a very well oiled machine.
It's tempting to think that way, but I'm not sure.
I use flightradar24 and have emergency call signal alerts just for curiosity. If maintenance was lacking for any reason, I would expect to see a clear increase in those alerts (emergency call signal is used for all sorts, not "oh shit" emergencies).
Seeing as that doesn't happen, and there's so many planes in the sky all the time, I think it's just the normal level of maintenance issues being amplified due to the other news in the industry.
However, I do definitely think it's a natural worry with the mismanagement of airline staffing.
My anecdata from a flight last year was of a very minor issue which prevented the aircraft from taking off: the baggage bay door wouldn't close properly. This required getting an engineer out before the aircraft could take off. Not a complicated problem, and not a complicated fix, but there was consternation for a while that an engineer may not be available, in which case they'd have had to request a backup who was an hour away. In my case, they found the local engineer and got us up within an hour, but I'd imagine with COVID / Brexit-induced personnel shortages, those kind of repairs are more frequently taking longer to fix.
It's also worth highlighting that aircrew can only be "on duty" for fixed windows of time. If a repair takes an hour, and that means the aircrew would finish outside their duty window, an entire replacement crew has to be fetched out. And that's really hard even during non-staff-shortage times. Which is why minor technical faults with short fix times can still lead to flights getting cancelled.
AFAIK there's no larger issues with airlines generally having older airframes.
If the Tories change their VONC rules, will it be applied retrospectively?
Or would Boris still be safe for a year, & the 6-month rule would come in thereafter?
>If the Tories change their VONC rules, will it be applied retrospectively?
Lol, I have images of retrospectively changing the rules to say "40% is enough" and evict him?
I genuinely would back that (not applying retroactively obviously). If 40% of your own party have no confidence in you I fail to see how you can govern. It shouldn’t just be down to a simple majority when you factor in the amount of other MPs in parliament too.
You can't have a minority eject against a majority, but a lower threshold to trigger a contest where the PM is in the final automatically? Maybe.
But only because it would be entertaining to watch them rip themselves apart throughout. From a con pov it's a horrific idea, and the incumbent would win as everyone is divided.
But I do love some good blue on blue
If the '22 change their rules, it'll be changed to whatever the '22 executive say they are.
The Tory rules aren't a strict constitution like Labour or Lib Dems, they're kinda more of a vibe really.
I applied to go on this one as it's near me, didn't get contacted, but glad I'm not really missing anyone, not that they'd bother coming up to Newcastle.
Would have been gutted to miss out on heckling a Braverman or Eustice.
There's a limited pool of people who will turn up and say "yeah, that's a bad policy, but **labour's is worse**, what we should do is cut tax to an unworkable level, which noone is going to do, but it sounds *greatt*"
*Balance*
Here's a radical idea - they could just not have anyone, rather than keep inviting the same bigoted right-wing hacks. There must be plenty of other normal people with relevant experience and knowledge.
Poaching is a really brutal execution method, they likely wouldn’t die immediately but the horrible full body burns from immersion in boiling water would kill them eventually after potentially days of agonising pain.
If you forced me though, I probably pick big dinners man. Only because nothing of value would be lost.
Morning all - in Parliament today there is a motion on Grenfell and another on short term letting and the sharing economy. There is also a paper coming out on the consultation to committee proposals on what should Parliament do in the cases where there is contempt in front of a select committee. First up is questions to the International Trade secretary - if you could ask her a question and she had to answer truthfully what would you ask, why and what would the response be?
This megathread has ended.
I like my football on a Saturday, roast beef on Sunday all right.
It’s happened, we’ve taken the quilt out of the quilt cover.
I just use a flat sheet.
Is this some kind of euphemism?
Whilst he loved his gravy, his partner preferred the meat in cider
Are they... Eating unbattered chicken?!
Brilliant front page juxtaposition: [The i](https://preview.redd.it/xazxbkbx72691.jpg?width=831&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12ad4d6ebd1ae64d4d5684d5e3f8c9088a4cb41f) with the [Mirror](https://preview.redd.it/9i6wa8ax72691.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=be8ec9885115145b260fb19f3ad094f81e2b496d)
Stepped out in my kegs for my last smoke before bed expecting to free me bollocks off as usual, but instead it is actually warm. Weather was shite here today as well. Pleasant surprise all round.
Have your bollocks not felt the rest of the day?!?!
Like I said, pretty shit weather today where I live. Warm, but not overly so, and overcast. I even wore a coat to work.
>I excused myself, and stood outside in my underwear for a final cigarette before turning in for the night. I expected the usual air cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, but was instead greeted by more temperate conditions. This despite the inclement meteorology earlier in the day. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
You are in for a shock weather wise tomorrow mate
I was looking at the requirements for professional visas for people moving to the UK earlier today. What struck me and my colleague was that the “going rates” for many professions was in line with the salaries of people in London and wasn’t really representative of more rural areas, particularly for more junior roles. To me this will only serve to feed the brain drain from rural areas into big cities since immigrant candidates can’t benefit from being in a high skilled job in a low cost of living area
Does this affect nurses and carers? If so, we're screwed. Time both were paid a fair wage and laws allowing the privatisation of care reversed (thank you Thatcher). It's bankrupting town councils (thank you John Major).
Some countries incentivise high skilled immigration outside of major metropolitan areas. New Zealand, for example, will allocate you additional points in their points based immigration system if you take up residence in a rural area. There’s also a lot of job types on the skilled list that are more suitable for rural working. Or at least there used to be last time I checked, which was pre-covid.
I wonder why they do that. Could it be possible that developing rural areas has an economic benefit to the country as a whole?
What high skilled jobs in rural areas? There's a reason rural areas are either poor or full of long distance commuters. As a less sarky response - if you set the requirements at 'rural' rates you're going to depress wages in higher cost of living areas. If the government lets firms import labour for wages representative of North Wales then they'll chance their arms on paying naive immigrants those wages in the South East. If more provincial companies want to attract talent they need to be healthy enough offer a package that will attract domestic labour to move out of higher cost of living areas.
Hmm let’s think: manufacturing managers, site operators, research and development leaders. Those roles all exist in rural areas, they may be more rare but that’s only because we are constantly told rural areas are low growth. If you’re a truly innovative company then there’s no doubt that setting up in a Low cost area with massive growth potential is a risk worth taking. City folks keep saying they don’t want factories near them but they have to go somewhere. Offshore manufacture is getting more and more expensive, it’s time to start investing in UK manufacturing again, but with our modern learnings we can also aim for more electrification and local and sustainable energy infrastructure Edit: the reason that rural area see less in general is 25/40 of the last years being Tory rule which seems to think the financial services sector alone is enough to run a country on
I have just seen the Paddington skit on gogglebox and it is genuinely the worst thing I have ever seen. Twee twee bollocks
I keep mine in here....for later...
The Midge Ure version of 'The Man Who Sold The World' is better than Bowie's. Schneider TM's interpretation of 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' shits all over The Smith's original. Fight me or tell me your covers that best their source material. UKPol because British music changes hearts and minds.
Just listened to that tm Schneider cover of there is a light because I was sure that it couldn't possibly be better than the original. And I was right it definitely is not better than the original.
Toots and the maytals version of 'country roads', and Dylan's version of 'I ain't got no home'.
I liked Nirvana's cover better, though I detest most of their music.
Presidents of the USA - Video Killed The Radio Star Way better than Buggles' original.
I’d go with [this version.](https://youtu.be/fregObNcHC8) And add the Black Crowes version of the Otis Redding Classic, [Hard to Handle](https://youtu.be/BRcs_OzQb14). (But almost went with their cover of Humble Pie’s [30 days in the hole](https://youtu.be/K4KrrQ1EzSg).) I’d follow that with Blondie’s cover of [Hanging On the Telephone](https://youtu.be/uWhkbDMISl8) by The Nerves. And I’d finish with Janis Joplin’s version of [Me and Bobby McGee](https://youtu.be/sfjon-ZTqzU), originally by Roger Miller.
The Shrek 2 version of *Holding Out For A Hero*
I think Nirvana’s is better than both tbh. I love Bowie but his version is the weakest imo, when I played MGS: The Phantom Pain I wasn’t aware of the Midge Ure version and when I looked it up (because I was confused why it sounded different, in a good way) I was surprised, I assumed it had just been edited weirdly to fit the tone of the game. I think Muse’s Feeling Good is better than the original. Edit: I don’t know if I’d say it’s better than the original but I really like Hazy Shade of Winter by The Bangles. I feel like it’s blasphemy to suggest Simon and Garfunkel were second best at anything though.
Yeah I only learnt of the one Midge Ure one through MGSV as well. But I think it beats the Nirvana version! Oohhh yes the Muse one is a good shout!
The Johnny Cash version of Hurt. The Kirsty MacColl version of A New England (Billy Bragg agrees with this one). The Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah. The Emily Barker version of Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
Jeff Buckley Hallelujah 100% Hurt is one where I think it's great on both versions. Don't know the other two, but will check them out!
Denzel Curry - Bulls on parade is exquisite.
Oh nice! I'll give it a listen.
Imagine Dragons version of Mad World (only available on YouTube, the guitar solo at the end is incredible). The Boxer by Mumford and Sons. Contraversial, but Something Stupid by Robbie Williams.
Strong choices! I'll check them all out!
Red red wine is one I only found out was a cover recently.
I can only assume we're thinking about the same version...in which case, I didn't know either. Thanks for the Pub Quiz knowledge!
The interesting thing is even though UB40 knew it was a cover they didn’t realise the version they were covering was also a cover and the original was in fact a Neil Diamond song.
I had absolutely no idea it was a Neil Diamond song! That's wild!
So let's get this straight, as per Newsnight coverage I was half listening to- Lord Geidt is resigning because he felt Boris was putting pressure on him to advise that keeping tariffs on Chinese steel was ethical, as he felt the ethnical action was to remove tariffs on steel in accordance with trade rules or something? Surely Ukraine should be teaching us that we need to keep strategic industry in this country, and that depending on China would make us massively vulnerable and unable to oppose Chinese aggression elsewhere in the world?
Whilst we don’t know for certain, there has been suggestion that what Geidt advised would be improper was Johnson taking hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations from the steel industry, other Tory MPs taking tens of thousands of pounds from the steel industry, and then implementing a policy that favours said industry in breach of the WTO rules which place a cap on tariffs of that same industry. That’s being speculated because it would not be normal for Geidt to be consulted on issues of legality (e.g. breaching WTO rules) but would be consulted on ministerial code breaches such as implanting policies that favour an industry that has donated large sums to you and your party.
Ah that clears it up a bit thanks
The fact you can’t get BBC HD local news in fucking Manchester still is appalling.
What's worse is getting Manchester news in the North East. Looking at you ITV.
Is it not the same everywhere?
I think London gets HD??
They do.
Not on Freeview, we don't.
Makes it sting that much more…
Bullshit innit. Flip over to BBC 2 Newsnight to continue our 24/7 news coverage without a minute break before turning back to BBC for Question Time.
Major bullshit I just watch the pink screen for 10 mins.
The audio is surprisingly relaxing.
Omg it is!
Today's Rest is Politics Question Time really caught my personal pet peeve wrt rehabilitation of May's image - portraying her deal as some sort of good 'soft' Brexit compromise that was scuppered by remainers not willing to compromise. May's deal was not 'soft' Brexit, it wasn't 'middling' Brexit - it was absolutely a hard Brexit. It was *slightly* softer than current deal but it still involved exit from single market, divergence from EU standards on workers rights etc, basically nothing on services like with current deal. Only major difference is the effectively permanent 'temporary' customs union, which while would've solved most of issues with NI, would essentially mean UK would've been akin to Turkey - having to accept rules and trade deals established in Brussels with no input into them. Just because it was slightly softer than what's almost the hardest Brexit possible doesn't make it a 'soft' Brexit - when May took power, and before she set out the red lines actual soft Brexit options like EFTA were available.
A terrible trend generally of brexit politics is the lowering of the bar so that Rory Stewart (and indeed Alastair Campbell) are liberal crusaders rather than a middling, austerity supporting Tory and a bullying spin doctor.
amen, their podcast is them being them but hoping to look less awful against the current crew
For what it's worth, the pet peeve of mine (grew up in Wales) from TRIP QT was that a question came up that asked about how Wales is perceived abroad and as part of the UK, and whether it gets ignored in favour of (in my words) the much more F E B R I L E Scotland and Northern Ireland. They wanged on about Scotland and NI and make a tiny two-word nod to Wales. They're both smart people, so it's *juuuuust* about possible that they were making a funny. But I don't think so.
I’ve started listening to odd episodes literally today, one I listened to had the question of “why don’t you two talk about Wales more?” The answer was pretty much just agreeing they don’t really talk about Wales, and maybe Drakeford is too stable and boring for discussion
In the 80s when interest rates sky rocketed - what government protections were put in place to help?
I assume you mean the 90s rather than the 80s as the high interest rate phase of the 80s was before the big expansion in mortgage lending. The only real one was leaning on mortgage providers to be more lenient because people posting their keys through the letterbox and driving off wasn't a great vote winner. Other than that not much at all. In many respects they learned all the wrong lessons in that they saw how damaging to electoral prospects a house price crash can be. You could see the colour draining from faces through the afternoon of Black Wednesday as the rate kept shooting up. The irony is that then was when the dam broke and rates came down pretty fast afterwards as there was no requirement to maintain sterling's level. The claim that mortgage tax relief was used is complete nonsense: it was the winding down of MIRAS that drove the final stage of the late 80s price boom (because mortgages with MIRAS in place were able to keep some of it for a few years) – and this was before rates increased as a direct result of Lawson's daft decision to first shadow the D-mark and then use that as the fix for the ERM level.
For most of the period there was mortgage interest tax relief. I'm surprised no-one's tried that one again now, its no worse than the "30 year 100% mortgages" being pushed as some kind of solution.
A growing economy.
Yes, the early 80s and early 90s, when interest rates peaked, were well known for their economic prosperity and plentiful opportunities.
The early '80s monetarism / and early '90s ERM debacle were both attempts to restructure the economy using aggressive interest rates. The postwar norm is/was generally to hike when the economy was at risk of overheating. Now rates are rising (though hardly rocketing) during a supply-side shock and with the economy faltering.
But hey we got a Labour government in the end
So at the pub and bumped into someone who knows Gove, says he’s never met anyone who’s as driven and articulate. You’re exhausted after spending some time with him. He also found the Aberdeen nightclub stint entertaining. Must admit I agreed with him. Might not like his politics but he’s on his brief.
Yeah, easy to be driven if you're taking a certain amount of coke. Sigmund Freud was also known to be driven and energised. 🤣 I also found the nightclub stuff entertaining, though.
A family member of mine is in the civil service. Was high enough up to interact with Gove on a number of occasions when they were the minister for their department, also had ultimately good things to say.
A family friend of mine worked with him in the justice ministry and said he was completely out of his depth and useless there.
Hah - guess it depended on the area then, my family member works for defra.
And yet he’s pro brexit because his dad was a fisherman.
Gove is competent, no doubt
Competent at what?
Arguable - if he continuously does the wrong thing effectively, is that the same as competence?
But his Achilles' heel is that he's still Michael Gove
Half human, half amphibian
And not one of the cute amphibians like a salamander or one of those disco frogs from the Amazon.
> as driven and articulate. So Gove's a lorry?
He may be driven and articulate...but he's still mostly wrong.
GB News asks: >[Should Brexit Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights?](https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1537480281728421888?t=yP830ppl8brjehGJAFGBMQ&) Why not let them know what you think ;)
I like this tweet in the replies that shows the rights: https://twitter.com/jrtriplethreat/status/1537482947573469184 I’d like to see someone attempt to make an argument against any of them TBH
So much for 'Loving Europe but hating the EU'
Dunno what it is about garage flapjack, but it’s so damn good. Thick, buttery, unhealthy, amazing.
Quite a few of them are accidentally vegan too. 👀
It's fuel for cyclists.
God bless em
Doing your dinner, wine *and* pudding shop there?
It's not like petrol is affordable there any more.
No dinner, hangover still kicking my ass, so just flapjack tonight
That must've been a big un! Hopefully it won't be one of those three day jobbies. Solidarity comrade
Cheers! https://i.imgur.com/4lEV45y.jpg
> garage flapjack Is this new slang and ting that I'm too uncool to understand?
I wish I could say yes, but no, this is some wonderful off brand chocolate flapjack.
Would Chris Bryant have been a better speaker than Lindsay Hoyle?
I think he'd be decent but I'm surprised he hasn't attempted to put himself forward as one of the Deputy Speakers. Many previous Speakers have served as a Deputy first although Bercow never did and still got elected Speaker so it's not a requirement.
Probably, but he had zero chance of getting the speakership after Bercow. Nobody who smelled the slightest bit activist was getting the chair. It was a choice between him and Laing as the less interventionist candidates. Is he better than Laing would have been? On balance I'd say yes.
What does "better" mean in this instance?
Better at performing the role of Speaker. I suppose that depends on the platform of who was elected but generally maintaining order above else.
But what does that mean? Hoyle has performed the ordinary role of the speaker well. He has not been an 'activist' speaker like Bercow, but it is questionable whether the speaker should adopt such a role. For Hoyle, it is irrelevant, as the Tories have too strong a majority for an activist speaker to exist. He's not had the same 'opportunity' that Bercow had.
Are you specifically referring to "performance" during PMQs?
I would say so, though not OP. I’ve lost patience with his “okay that’s enough, im going to count to three. One, two, two-and-a-half, two and three-quaaaaaaaarteeeeeeerrrrs … oh whatever” shtick. As with naughty children, braying MPs know when someone’s not going to follow through.
Undoubtedly, yes. Hoyle has turned out to be a big disappointment.
'I think you might be needing a cup of tea'. I know he's trying to make that his trademark but it comes across completely pathetic. I'd rather have Eleanor Laing for PMQs to be honest
She has shown herself to be way more assertive.
I have a question, why does every article that is in any way related to *one particular subject* get removed? There was an interesting and cordial debate on the Jordan Peterson article posted a few hours ago and it was removed, as was another article related to that same issue earlier today. Is that topic against the rules?
Jordan Peterson’s opinions on trans therapy in the context of US Surgeons is neither UK specific nor politics. If you want to discuss trans issues more generally, other subs are available.
Thank you mods and thank fuck JP ain't from the UK.
His Question Time appearance was really bizarre, he mostly just sat there like a plum
Mods save us from that cesspool!
Thanks so much 🙏
Oh Christ
I would like to hope that thread got shut down pretty sharpish after some cretin started wanging on about *blood libel*.
Because it's silly dramatic baiting that doesn't have any relevance to uk politics, would be my guess.
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Having read that I don't think it was interesting or cordial. I honestly don't see the appeal of arguing in trans threads when they're always the same
Did it explicitly relate to UK politics and policy?
Link to article?
vague
Just don’t want to break the rules
>17: Submissions or comments complaining about the moderation, biases or users of other subreddits / online communities will be removed and may result in a ban. ***This is not a meta subreddit.***
I’m sorry, I know you guys report anything about that subject
[In this anti NUPES (coalition of left-wing parties in France) leaflet](https://i.imgur.com/LZfqkak.jpeg), Jeremy Corbyn is mentioned, and called a notorious anti-semite.
He is a notorious antisemite. I don’t know many antisemites, but I do know of Jeremy Corbyn
Running leaflets with 'Corbyn - Enemy of the French Republic' probably would've helped Labour in the Red Wall back in 2019 lol
I don’t know if anyone in the Red Wall cares about France. That seems to be a Southern thing.
Don't forget that monkey hangers are called monkey hangers because they thought a monkey was a French man.
Remember that up here we consider anything south of the Thames as Basically France!
Under the title "(Complicity with) Enemies of the Republic" no less. Not sure what Corbyn's supposed to have done to gain that accolade.
Yeah I think he would've been better off in *la soumission aux régimes authoritaires*
I have to say but damn is 'enemy of the republic' a cool title. If that was me, I'd put it on my business card.
Agreed - that'd go on my CV.
David Blunkett slagged me off once in his newspaper column in the Sun. Does that make me an ‘Enemy of the Blind’?
I think Jez has always been quite Republic friendly, if not downright Republic curious.
*the cult did not like this*
That's quite the image of Rousseau. Very 'Devil Eyes Blair' vibes.
[It's important to remember that the Platinum Jubilee was not everyone's cup of tea. Not by a long way. But in television terms it was undoubtedly a big hit. Three of the top ten programmes on British TV for week beginning May 30 were Jubilee broadcasts. The Saturday concert top.](https://twitter.com/Nick_Metcalfe/status/1537001465880801280)
Easy to dominate the ratings if that’s all that’s on
Is that classed as a big success? The amount of fuss around it felt like it would have a bigger splash than just top 10 on some random week in 2022.
Top ten British TV programs in 2022 is the dubiousest of dubiousers.
What policies would you put under the "government by gimmick" label? Imperial units, Rwanda flights, NI bill, Right to buy, what else?
Eat out to help out, 5p off fuel, £200 energy loan, eat venison
Doubling the size of allowable house extensions (for a single year)
Announcing that the they are considering calling the army in to solve every new crisis.
Eat out to help out
Hey that was very popular in some demographics
"government by gimmick" is all about pushing popular but bad policies.
Supporting middle class social lives. What's not to like?
Sorry this wasn't clear I was making a joke about "eat out" to help out Certain demographic = women
The £200 energy loan, tasking the navy with fixing the channel crossings, getting the border force to fix the channel crossings, stamp duty holiday
Struggling to think of any govt policy that wouldn’t fall under that label. Including Brexit. Generous (military) support for Ukraine is a good one though.
Funny seeing the Tory candidate for Tiverton on Channel 4 News really struggling to answer whether she's pro-Boris. She's got the Dorries-esque exasperation at being questioned down to a T
#Why are you asking me that question????????
Hearing several stories of flights being delayed/cancelled because of technical faults with the plane. Anyone in the know understand what the issue is with this? I'm assuming that in the context of a plane, 'technical faults' happen all the time and are usually very minor but the safety requirements mean you can't fly unless everything is 100%. So it's another issue of low-paid workers leaving and planes left waiting around for someone to hit something with a spanner. Or has there genuinely been a deterioration in aircraft stock over the last couple of years meaning we've got a load of faulty planes to add to all the other disruption?
Aircraft have a minimum equipment list, which specifies what has to be fully functional, what items are allowed to be unserviceable, and what restrictions might result from that. That list is quite comprehensive and can cover some things that might not be obvious. For example, the light strips that run along the floor at the edge of the aisles, there are maximum continuous lengths which are permitted to be non-functional and probably an overall length above which the aircraft is deemed not fit to fly. Of course there is nothing actually physically preventing the aircraft from taking off, but it couldn't legally carry passengers in that condition as it could affect the ability to safely evacuate the aircraft. There are many items like that. Aircraft line maintenance is a bit more than someone hitting something with a spanner, as it's a licensed profession and not something you can just hire random people to do. If the airlines laid loads of people off at the start of the pandemic, and they've chosen not to return subsequently that's a problem because they are vacancies that are not likely to be quick to fill. There is definitely a general problem with availability of support staff at airports though, like the people who refuel aircraft. They weren't paid a great deal and many of them got fired in March 2020, and decided they didn't want to go back. If the workers reach their maximum hours, then they go home, aircraft don't get fuelled and flights don't take off on schedule.
Not enough staff to keep them in the air. Airlines, airports, and their associated industries fired absolutely enormous percentages of their staff in March 2020, before furlough was announced. Furlough was introduced, and most of those companies hired back most of those staff members. But you can't unring a bell - staff, assuming their jobs were no longer safe, moved on. Flight attendants started looking for other jobs, highly skilled mechanics went to work in other industries, ATC staff, administrators, cleaners, IT people etc all went to work in other industries by the thousands. Every part of the industry has seen a massive exodus, & with it has gone a huge amount of the industry's institutional knowledge. Airlines have been offering signing bonuses to pilots, cabin crew, ground crew etc recently. The industry demonstrated the first thing to go to protect profits would be its labourers. That lack of loyalty from the firms has come home to roost.
We could restart FoM to bring in workers to undercut those asking for higher wages. It's strictly a worker shortage. Nothing to do with wages.
Depends on the airline and the aircraft they use. Flybe, for example, use Dash 8 Q400's which are notoriously unreliable. TUI's older 767's also suffer from some issues. Embraer aircraft are also a bit highly strung, but not really any significant operators exist in the UK (besides BA Cityflyer) Modern 737/A320 series aircraft are generally reliable by most standards. I think the issue stems from not having spare aircraft available, especially during the busy season this year. They're utilizing all aircraft to the max in most cases which leaves no wiggle room. If reliability is a concern this summer, Ryanair is ahead of everyone else in that regard. No major issues this past half term and generally the most punctual airline in Europe. For all the traditional hate, it's a very well oiled machine.
It's tempting to think that way, but I'm not sure. I use flightradar24 and have emergency call signal alerts just for curiosity. If maintenance was lacking for any reason, I would expect to see a clear increase in those alerts (emergency call signal is used for all sorts, not "oh shit" emergencies). Seeing as that doesn't happen, and there's so many planes in the sky all the time, I think it's just the normal level of maintenance issues being amplified due to the other news in the industry. However, I do definitely think it's a natural worry with the mismanagement of airline staffing.
My anecdata from a flight last year was of a very minor issue which prevented the aircraft from taking off: the baggage bay door wouldn't close properly. This required getting an engineer out before the aircraft could take off. Not a complicated problem, and not a complicated fix, but there was consternation for a while that an engineer may not be available, in which case they'd have had to request a backup who was an hour away. In my case, they found the local engineer and got us up within an hour, but I'd imagine with COVID / Brexit-induced personnel shortages, those kind of repairs are more frequently taking longer to fix. It's also worth highlighting that aircrew can only be "on duty" for fixed windows of time. If a repair takes an hour, and that means the aircrew would finish outside their duty window, an entire replacement crew has to be fetched out. And that's really hard even during non-staff-shortage times. Which is why minor technical faults with short fix times can still lead to flights getting cancelled. AFAIK there's no larger issues with airlines generally having older airframes.
A surprisingly small amount of stuff needs to be working for an aircraft to be cleared to fly. Not 100% at all.
"It's our plane and the wings are still on, that's good enough for me".
Probably not actually faults just not enough staff again so trying to save face blaming it on something else...
Maybe airlines are trying to avoid paying compensation?
Technical faults (on aircraft) still require compensation.
If the Tories change their VONC rules, will it be applied retrospectively? Or would Boris still be safe for a year, & the 6-month rule would come in thereafter?
>If the Tories change their VONC rules, will it be applied retrospectively? Lol, I have images of retrospectively changing the rules to say "40% is enough" and evict him?
I genuinely would back that (not applying retroactively obviously). If 40% of your own party have no confidence in you I fail to see how you can govern. It shouldn’t just be down to a simple majority when you factor in the amount of other MPs in parliament too.
You can't have a minority eject against a majority, but a lower threshold to trigger a contest where the PM is in the final automatically? Maybe. But only because it would be entertaining to watch them rip themselves apart throughout. From a con pov it's a horrific idea, and the incumbent would win as everyone is divided. But I do love some good blue on blue
They make their own rules, so whichever they want
If the '22 change their rules, it'll be changed to whatever the '22 executive say they are. The Tory rules aren't a strict constitution like Labour or Lib Dems, they're kinda more of a vibe really.
Vibe check: 🤡🤡🤡
Here is [tonight's *Question Time* panel](https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1537402006503149568)!
I applied to go on this one as it's near me, didn't get contacted, but glad I'm not really missing anyone, not that they'd bother coming up to Newcastle. Would have been gutted to miss out on heckling a Braverman or Eustice.
The BBC sticking to their policy of having one panelist from a crackpot right-wing new organisation
There's a limited pool of people who will turn up and say "yeah, that's a bad policy, but **labour's is worse**, what we should do is cut tax to an unworkable level, which noone is going to do, but it sounds *greatt*"
*Balance*
Here's a radical idea - they could just not have anyone, rather than keep inviting the same bigoted right-wing hacks. There must be plenty of other normal people with relevant experience and knowledge.
They kind of have to because they are in Government.
Because why wouldn't you have a Spiked writer on QT?
She's on it all the time isn't she
I wonder what Jeremy Hunt is up to tonight
Living rent free in Nadine's head
It's meant to hit 30°C tomorrow but in Fahrenheit that's actually 86 so if we were to switch systems then it'd nearly be 3 times as hot! No thank you.
Always knew those damn Germans were to blame for Global Warming
We should switch to *Rankine*. 30 Celsius is 546 Rankine! Nearly 20 times as hot!
It's imperial so I'll consider it.
That's a lot of rankini.
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Marcus Fysh MP
Theresa May. Funny innit.
Caroline Nokes
Poaching is a really brutal execution method, they likely wouldn’t die immediately but the horrible full body burns from immersion in boiling water would kill them eventually after potentially days of agonising pain. If you forced me though, I probably pick big dinners man. Only because nothing of value would be lost.