The news thread

[TDYER63]

27 minutes ago, exile said:

'Peppa the Pig' would have been as useful an answer.  She just spouts 'high wages, high growth' whatever the question is.

The thing is, she was almost as awful in the leadership debates/interviews, but still they chose her.

 

26 minutes ago, King Of Paisley said:

What on earth did 80,000 blue rinse, cosseted Daily Mail readers that are Tory members ever see in her?

Tory leaders remind me of my passport photos. You think the current one is hideous till it comes to renewing your passport then the old photo doesn’t look that bad by comparison. 

[Orraloon]

4 minutes ago, thplinth said:

I can't be bothered checking through the history but has there ever been a non-white leader of the SNP?

No. But you already knew that. I'm not sure a non white person has ever stood for the position? Could be wrong on that one though?

[thplinth]

 To be fair to the Tories they brought us our first female PM in Thatcher. 

And our second in May and our third in Truss....

So that is more woke than the SNP and Labour.

But I have to say the Ladies are having a collective shocker in their first three outings. 😀

[Orraloon]

6 minutes ago, thplinth said:

 To be fair to the Tories they brought us our first female PM in Thatcher. 

And our second in May and our third in Truss....

So that is more woke than the SNP and Labour.

But I have to say the Ladies are having a collective shocker in their first three outings. 😀

Also to be fair, the men who slotted in between those ladies (oh fuk there's an image I'll find difficult to get out of my head) haven't done too well either. It's a sad reflection on the level of ability, of Tory leaders, when Cameron turns out to be the best of the lot. 😂

[thplinth]

42 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

No. But you already knew that. I'm not sure a non white person has ever stood for the position? Could be wrong on that one though?

That is not helping the optics here. 😉

Do the SNP still ban men from running as an MP/MSP candidate? Female only shortlists (unless of course you are a trans woman).

You could argue there is a lot of prima facie evidence here of institutionalized discrimination in the SNP. I mean at least the tories don't hate men AND blacks. 😀

Edited October 15, 2022 by thplinth

[Orraloon]

5 minutes ago, thplinth said:

That is not helping the optics here. 😉

Do the SNP still ban men from running as an MP/MSP candidate? Female only shortlists (unless of course you are a trans woman).

You could argue there is a lot of prima facie evidence here of institutionalized discrimination in the SNP. I mean at least the tories don't hate men AND blacks. 😀

😂

I would say there is probably "institutionalized discrimination" in every political party on the planet. Also in every walk of life and almost any institution I can think of. 

I come from the old school thinking that "positive discrimination is still discrimination".  

[aaid]

49 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

😂

I would say there is probably "institutionalized discrimination" in every political party on the planet. Also in every walk of life and almost any institution I can think of. 

I come from the old school thinking that "positive discrimination is still discrimination".  

I suspect that the guy who is decrying the “institutionalised discrimination” was also up in arms about the women only shortlists in constituency seats and the ranking of BAME and disable candidates.  That’s an interesting clue though, “institutionaliZed” the US-English version.

He changes his mind so much that it’s almost a mental defect.

[Ally Bongo]

96.2% of Scotland's population is white

Does that put into perspective why the National Party of Scotland has never had a non white leader ?
 

 

[thplinth]

1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

I come from the old school thinking that "positive discrimination is still discrimination".  

Yeah that is because it is.

But I see we have two middle aged white males attempting to gammonsplain it all under the carpet. Statistics and lah-di-dah spelling points...pfffft! sounds like white boy privilege talking to me.

I was thinking, to balance it out, let's ask Kanye West if he want to be FM. He supports 96.2% of the population, unlike Nicola.

[aaid]

35 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

96.2% of Scotland's population is white

Does that put into perspective why the National Party of Scotland has never had a non white leader ?
 

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the next leader wasn’t a Scot of Pakistani heritage. 

[exile]

"Getting to the front of the kebab shop after a night out but you haven't decided what to have"

 

 

[Hertsscot]

23 hours ago, Orraloon said:

The colour of her skin, maybe?

Maybe, although you can't discount that Sunak might have appealed to some older Tory women with his exotic looks, like some good looking Bollywood star. Leaving race aside, a simpler explanation would be that Truss gave them the more right wing agenda they clamoured for. The fact that at some level there was an echo of their beloved Margaret would undoubtedly have helped as well.

[scotlad]

On 10/15/2022 at 1:25 PM, aaid said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the next leader wasn’t a Scot of Pakistani heritage. 

If it's the person I'm thinking of we're fucked! 😂

[scotlad]

On 10/15/2022 at 10:12 AM, TDYER63 said:

 

Even his bumbling , incoherent Peppa Pig ramble seemed more genuine than Truss. She looks like she has been hypnotised . No passion or belief in her voice. She will never survive in this job.  

The thing that surprises me the most is that people are surprised that Liz Truss is turning out to be a terrible leader. It's been clear for years that the woman is a blithering imbecile, what did anyone really expect? 😂

That said, I didn't anticipate things unraveling as fast for her as they have.

[aaid]

17 minutes ago, scotlad said:

If it's the person I'm thinking of we're fucked! 😂

Tasmina? 😂😂😂

I didn’t say I thought he’d be any good. 

[TDYER63]

6 hours ago, scotlad said:

If it's the person I'm thinking of we're fucked! 😂

😫 please god no. 

Its been said a million times , there really are few candidates capable. Just as well the UK is equally bereft of quality too. 

 

[scotlad]

2 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

😫 please god no. 

Its been said a million times , there really are few candidates capable. Just as well the UK is equally bereft of quality too. 

 

🤣 He'll fancy his chances!

[Orraloon]

So, Hunt is effectively our new PM. Truss gets the job on the say so of a few thousand tory members. But the only folk who have voted for Hunt is a few 'tory grandees". We are no more democratic than China or Russia. 

If this is what the folk who run the money markets can do to a tory government, imagine what they would have done if Corbyn had ever managed to get elected? Of course, the folk who control our finances stopped that possibility dead in its tracks before Corbyn even got a sniff of power. And he wasn't even very radical.

We don't live in a democratic country. They will try to tell us that we get the governments that we vote for. But that's only if we vote for the people who follow the policies which are approved of, by the people who run the financial markets. This is why successive governments (Labour and Tory) have been very happy to pursue policies of increasing debt. Both National debt and personal debt. This one of the ways the big money corporations keep control of power.

The UK is fucked, but some folk are going to make loads of money looting the sinking ship.

[Malcolm]

52 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

So, Hunt is effectively our new PM. Truss gets the job on the say so of a few thousand tory members. But the only folk who have voted for Hunt is a few 'tory grandees". We are no more democratic than China or Russia. 

If this is what the folk who run the money markets can do to a tory government, imagine what they would have done if Corbyn had ever managed to get elected? Of course, the folk who control our finances stopped that possibility dead in its tracks before Corbyn even got a sniff of power. And he wasn't even very radical.

We don't live in a democratic country. They will try to tell us that we get the governments that we vote for. But that's only if we vote for the people who follow the policies which are approved of, by the people who run the financial markets. This is why successive governments (Labour and Tory) have been very happy to pursue policies of increasing debt. Both National debt and personal debt. This one of the ways the big money corporations keep control of power.

The UK is fucked, but some folk are going to make loads of money looting the sinking ship.

 

Action had to be taken or we were at risk of third world style inflation taking hold and collapse in confidence of the government’s fiscal position.  
 

There is no way of dressing this up… it’s going to be a horrific 2023.  People without basic heating and food, government services stripped even further.  Some of the middle classes losing everything when the recession happens, jobs are lost and interest rates through the roof.

I just don’t see any possible alternative.

 

 

[Orraloon]

18 minutes ago, Malcolm said:

 

Action had to be taken or we were at risk of third world style inflation taking hold and collapse in confidence of the government’s fiscal position.  
 

There is no way of dressing this up… it’s going to be a horrific 2023.  People without basic heating and food, government services stripped even further.  Some of the middle classes losing everything when the recession happens, jobs are lost and interest rates through the roof.

I just don’t see any possible alternative.

 

 

The alternative is to have free and fair elections where the people decide what kind of government we want to have. Instead of letting the folk who control our financial systems decide what kind of government we are 'allowed" to have. When we let a few wealthy individuals decide what kind of government we can have we are not a democratic country. 

[King Of Paisley]

56 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

The alternative is to have free and fair elections where the people decide what kind of government we want to have. Instead of letting the folk who control our financial systems decide what kind of government we are 'allowed" to have. When we let a few wealthy individuals decide what kind of government we can have we are not a democratic country. 

You've missed out the right-wing gutter press who wield far too much of an influence. The nonsense they peddled about Corbyn and getting Brexit done (which it isn't) will have more than influenced the mass of true blue l, xenophobic malcontents not just in the southern heartlands but in the Red Wall areas in 2019.

[scotlad]

2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

So, Hunt is effectively our new PM. Truss gets the job on the say so of a few thousand tory members. But the only folk who have voted for Hunt is a few 'tory grandees". We are no more democratic than China or Russia. 

If this is what the folk who run the money markets can do to a tory government, imagine what they would have done if Corbyn had ever managed to get elected? Of course, the folk who control our finances stopped that possibility dead in its tracks before Corbyn even got a sniff of power. And he wasn't even very radical.

We don't live in a democratic country. They will try to tell us that we get the governments that we vote for. But that's only if we vote for the people who follow the policies which are approved of, by the people who run the financial markets. This is why successive governments (Labour and Tory) have been very happy to pursue policies of increasing debt. Both National debt and personal debt. This one of the ways the big money corporations keep control of power.

The UK is fucked, but some folk are going to make loads of money looting the sinking ship.

Corbyn's heart was in the right place but was plainly out of his depth - which was also a major factor in his failure - but yeah, he was painted as a radical when really his manifesto wasn't any more radical than that which the SNP were elected on.

Speaking of Corbyn, Truss is getting the same treatment from her MPs as he got from his - and then some - and for precisely the same reason - both of them are vote losers.

By rights Truss should go to the country but her party would surely be decimated if that happened now. So we're in this weird limbo where the economy slithers gradually down the tubes and there's nothing we can do about it for two years at least.

I've no doubt that Truss and Kwartang's "mini-budget" was a ploy to make shitloads of money for their pals; Kwartang might be a lot of things but he's anything but stupid.

[aaid]

57 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

The alternative is to have free and fair elections where the people decide what kind of government we want to have. Instead of letting the folk who control our financial systems decide what kind of government we are 'allowed" to have. When we let a few wealthy individuals decide what kind of government we can have we are not a democratic country. 

I don’t think the current situation is how you’re characterising it.

The financial markets are - whether you like it or not - interested stakeholders in the UK economy and government because they are the organisations which the government borrows from and they make their decisions based upon how big a risk they see and the rewards they expect.   That’s the case for virtually every country in the world which has a deficit, ie, the vast vast majority  

Rather than the markets destabilising the UKG it’s the UKG which announced a fuckwit economic package which destabilised the economy and which the markets rejected and - the reason why Kwarteng had to go - demonstrated their lack of confidence in the individuals concerned. 

It was made worse and the shock was greater because no-one saw it coming.  If these were policies that had been trailed, say as part of an election campaign, the market might not have liked them but the impact wouldn’t have been as severe.

[aaid]

4 minutes ago, scotlad said:

I've no doubt that Truss and Kwartang's "mini-budget" was a ploy to make shitloads of money for their pals; Kwartang might be a lot of things but he's anything but stupid.

I’m not going to rule out insider trading but subsequent circumstances and actions would tend to suggest that Kwarteng is indeed completely stupid. 

[Orraloon]

26 minutes ago, aaid said:

I don’t think the current situation is how you’re characterising it.

The financial markets are - whether you like it or not - interested stakeholders in the UK economy and government because they are the organisations which the government borrows from and they make their decisions based upon how big a risk they see and the rewards they expect.   That’s the case for virtually every country in the world which has a deficit, ie, the vast vast majority  

Rather than the markets destabilising the UKG it’s the UKG which announced a fuckwit economic package which destabilised the economy and which the markets rejected and - the reason why Kwarteng had to go - demonstrated their lack of confidence in the individuals concerned. 

It was made worse and the shock was greater because no-one saw it coming.  If these were policies that had been trailed, say as part of an election campaign, the market might not have liked them but the impact wouldn’t have been as severe.

You would say that, though. You are Mr Establishment. You even constantly defend the bbc as bastions of news reporting.