UK Politics Omnishambles: Page 93 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

UK Politics Omnishambles

jones

You're starting to sound like the yanks who remember Obama and Clinton fondly.
Starmer needs to fuck off. That's literally the only thing he could do worth anyone's time

Captain

No, because Blair actually facilitated real change at all levels. As an example I went to a bog standard comprehensive primary school in the latter 80s/early 90s - you didn't even have a pencil available. Everyone with any academic ambition went to secondary school outside of the borough. During his tenure a massive amount of those issues were fixed.

The NHS as well - waiting times dropped, beds were available etc.

Policing and criminal justice was fundamentally changed for the better by things like the Stephen Lawrence enquiry.

This isn't theoretical, this is actual lived experience.

Say what you like about the negatives of his tenure, and rightly so, but that was the best government of my lifetime by a country mile.

jones

I'm not going to argue with you over domestic issues, I've never lived in the UK. I'll say though that sounds like a rose tinted view of what he's done in his time, I have family in London who (while agreeing with some surely) wouldn't speak in terms as glowing as yours. I'll appreciate though that he's followed in Thatchers footsteps not long after so he probably wins the "best government award" by default.

The reason I made the comparison to Obama and Clinton is because none of that matters if its offset by the atrocities Blair is directly responsible for. I don't know if people don't know or appreciate the role he's played in for a number of wars, especially his opus magnum Iraq 2003 but literally nothing could ever weigh up that loss of life elsewhere.
I grew up in a borough without any secondary schools at all (they recently relocated one so the largest of six boroughs has now one out of 29 secondary schools) but even if the best schools in the world were brought to me or my children that wouldn't excuse the mass murder conducted and facilitated abroad.

Captain

The conversation and what I disagreed with was the assertion that Blair is/was (like) a Tory. Absolutely not.

And it's not just schools - I'm fairly certain that your kids being 'safe' on the street or receiving adequate health care would move the needle somewhat. It's an accumulative function - we can all say one thing wouldn't matter to us, but the stacking of those things is important and the facts are that every public service improved greatly under that cabinet, even when controversial decisions were made.

Blair's story is in the public domain, we don't have to rewrite it. We all know the terrible shit his administration did. However, and especially after the shitshow of the last 15(?) years of conservative government, we can say with some authority that the idea his cabinet was Tory is nonsense.

Mirth

Finding the narrative around increasing in pay quite interesting, a reversal which is portrayed as a 'crisis' rather than a well deserved correction. Some of it is Covid, of course, but the trend started in 2018.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/29/so-whats-so-wrong-with-labour-shortages-driving-up-low-wages?utm_source=pocket_mylist

The Guardian would never run with this piece a few years ago but Barry down the pub has been harping on about it since 2004.

JazzG

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-59693102

Tories have held this seat for over 200 years! Beginning of the end for Boris? He's been under huge pressure for weeks now and quite clear that even Conservatives are running out of patience with him. All these leaks about lockdown parties and his general handling of COVID and other party issues has been a shambles. This By Election doesn't take place if they don't try to save their mate Patterson!

I know a few Tory supporters who have been sick of him for a while, some even said don't really see him as much of a Conservative either. Lots of talk of his wife and her team having control which is probably true, supposedly she pushed Dominic Cummings out of the door. Quite clear he hasn't got control of the party, would be a remarkable turnaround if he survives this!

Also interesting that a couple times now Lib Dems have taken seats of Torys, the voters more happy to vote tactically and give them a seat than Labour. Labour still have a lot of work to do.

goon

If he does go, hopefully it's Liz Truss who gets his spot. She would wipe them out at the next election.

jones

Julian Assange on his 1000th day in Belmarsh for exposing the war crimes of Bush and Blair while the latter is to be called Sir Tony from now on.

Textbook definition of a banana republic minus the republic part

Burnwinter

The UK e-petition to rescind Blair's knighthood looks likely to reach over a million signatures ... getting up toward commensurability with the number of lives he helped destroy in Iraq.

jones

Burnwinter wrote:
The UK e-petition to rescind Blair's knighthood looks likely to reach over a million signatures ... getting up toward commensurability with the number of lives he helped destroy in Iraq.

*the number of lives he helped end in Iraq. The number of lives he touched negatively is in the tens of millions.

Burnwinter

Yes. The official body count from acts of that war alone is under a million, the count of deaths of distress far higher, the human cost of subsequent conflict so vast as to be hard to calculate and ongoing. We dub thee Sir Tony.

KingslandBarge

This business between the Met police, parliament and Boris is looking very suspicious and corrupt. The guy has a tyrant gene for sure, slithering out of every course of justice headed his way. Is this a political favor being returned from Cressida Dick? I hate having to keep up with this, just want this scum gone

JazzG

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61083402

Both should resign for this, fuckers kept everyone else locked up while having fucking parties themselves.

goon

I don't even care so much about the morality of it, that these guys are hypocritical scumbags is not exactly news. But it's the sheer incompetence, logic or common sense apparent in in their decision making.

RocktheCasbah

Think the Tories would do well to remember they have been lent a lot of votes up in the north. They would also do well to remember that, despite appearances, this is not that conservative a country. There were only around 130 Tory MPs remaining in the HoC following the 2001 election, for example. I know the situation is different now, with Scotland having been largely taken by the SNP, but - given the last two years of trauma - I can't see the electorate not delivering a bit of a shock to the Prime Minister.

But I might be being overly optimistic.

jones

So the UK's really sending (non Ukrainian of course) refugees to Rwanda now, the most densely populated country in Africa of all places.

Mirth

Rwanda and the UK have a weird relationship - iirc Rwanda’s the only country that joined the commonwealth despite never being a British colony. Don’t think any other country would enter into this arrangement

Anyway I suspect it’ll fizzle out much like the garden bridge or any other grand plan the government comes up with - they lack basic competence to see it through. They figured they’d copy paste Australia’s policy without putting in any leg work.

jones

Not denying that Rwanda's relationship with UK is dodgy Mozambique is also part of the Commonwealth. They're also part of La Francophonie and some Muslim state level organisations without having many Muslims or speaking a lick of French, often the case with many African rulers that they look for proximity with other nations for legitimacy.

The couple articles I've seen so far said there would be first flights in the coming week. The UK aren't the first to do something like this mind, Denmark made a similar deal like that with Rwanda and Israel has been pushing black Ethiopian Jews to Eritrea and Sudan for years. However Israel is also running an apartheid regime relatively unbothered, no surprise they get off scot free for this too and Danish governments in recent years have that Australian quality of being comically racist and evil without anyone taking notice. The EU is technically doing the same thing for more than a decade with their Frontex missions in the mediterranean

With the UK the feedback obviously will be different, I obviously hope you're right about it failing but with Johnson Patel and Kagame introducing it it may become a kickstarter or catalyst for others to follow

Big Willie

Cost of living crisis: Minister says people could 'take on more hours' at work or move to a 'better paid job' to protect themselves from cost of living surge

Rachel Maclean wrote:
We have often heard in the past when people are facing problems with their budgets that one of the obstacles - and it may not be for everybody - is about being able to take on more hours or even move to a better-paid job.

What a time to be alive. So all people need to do to make ends meet is to get better paying jobs? Why didn't anyone think of this before?

Qwiss

Be richer stupid!

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