United Kingdom VII: Taking Pride in Your Success

[Soundwave]

That's brill, still nothing for us locally and we check every day without fail.

Thanks
Hopefully you won't be too far off now
To be fair I never checked at all & was just waiting for the call, so surprised its come so early

Fingers crossed for you

Neil

[teddymeow]

I'm the only one in my family (including in-laws) who hasn't been vaccinated.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Ah good. So we can't protest and now we can't challenge them in court either.
Is this Russia?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56442162

Edit: Next step will be to start cataloguing 'undesirables' and getting them to identify themselves.

[Asura]

Ah good. So we can't protest and now we can't challenge them in court either.
Is this Russia?

Starting to wonder how people at this point in the slope in prior eras felt. Because it's not like none of us care, it's that we simply can't do anything.

I'm not sure I'm ever voting again; I've literally never voted for a winning party.

[Soundwave]

All jabbed
Had the AstraZeneca vaccine
In & out in minutes literally like a revolving door
Check in, get a form, see Dr who asks some questions, go to cubicle tell them which arm you want it in, jab & away you go to get your card & sticker & out the door

Will get a call to book 2nd jab when due

Nothing to it
Arm is a little tender where it went in but ok so far

Neil

[Asura]

Tonight on Twitter; people are screaming #DefundtheBBC because the presenters, finally, rightfully, sniggered at an MP happening to have a massive Union Jack in their room when they appeared on a webcam.

As if, if you went round someone's house and they had a massive prominent Union Jack on a wall indoors, you wouldn't start to be concerned about the company you're keeping.

Honestly these people want the country to be like the USA, where the flag is a weird saintly emblem, and you have to have one in every classroom. It's ridiculous. I love my country, but obsession with nationalistic symbols is, to me, associated with a certain kind of society that we do not want to emulate.

It's MPs at it again. Having a flag visible at all times. Using pithy three-word phrases over and over. They think you're an idiot. They think you're all idiots. They think you can be manipulated so easily.

[Brad]

I completely agree it's a ludicrous display. The Queen and Union Flag being used to distract from Tory evilness. I also think the BBC should be defunded for impartiality on both sides. I don't see them as left or right, just amateurish and not something I'm going to pay for.

[QualityChimp]

Thursday, 19 March, 2020
Boris Johnson says Britain can “turn the tide” of coronavirus in 12 weeks. He promises to “ramp up” testing to 250,000 a day.


The Government tables emergency legislation to give police power to detain people suspected of having Covid and to impose £1,000 fines on anyone refusing a test.


Dominic Raab says the Foreign Office is “striving every sinew” to help a million people who are trying to get home to Britain after complaints that diplomatic services are not offering prompt help.


A £3bn fund is to be used to move elderly people from hospital to the community. The Department of Health publishes detailed discharge advice. There is no requirement to run a Covid test on everyone being sent home, but if a test has been conducted, the results should be included in documentation the patients take with them.


The Bank of England cuts its base rate to 0.1%, the lowest ever.


Rural communities urge city dwellers to stay away as Londoners start to decamp to second homes. They say their health services and village shops cannot cope with the influx.


Covid deaths: 36; total: 194

[QualityChimp]

I completely agree it's a ludicrous display. The Queen and Union Flag being used to distract from Tory evilness. I also think the BBC should be defunded for impartiality on both sides. I don't see them as left or right, just amateurish and not something I'm going to pay for.

"The BBC is a relentless problem for politicians because it's impartial and the best news outlet in the world. It employs some top-class journalists who rigorously hold politicians to account. As a result, politicians of all parties attack it. The BBC is not perfect and sometimes it gets things wrong because it's run by human beings. Politicians, it is also important to remember are also human beings, should be allowed to complain if they feel they have been misrepresented.

There is a line, though. If you wage all-out war on the BBC, you're attacking out only impartial news organisation. If you trash them, because you don't like the questions they're asking you, you do lasting damage their ability to report the truth. Whenever a political movement goes to war with the BBC, ask yourself why. It's usually because it cannot stand having the truth told about it."
Matt Forde - Politically Homeless.

He then goes on to talk about how Alex Salmond was asked two questions by Nick Robinson. When he answered one, but not the other. When Robinson pointed this out, he was accused of heckling and booed by an audience of Salmond's fans. The next day, 4000 Scottish Independence supporters marched on the Scottish BBC headquarters demanding Robinson be fired.

This is from the chapter "Rise of Political Bullying", which is an apt title when the BBC is axing The Mash Report, making presenters apologise, yet the new head has donated over £400,000 to the Conservatives, who in-turn threatened to take away Channel 4's licence when Boris Johnson refused to join their debate on climate emergency.

Every politician must be called to account and when the hosts of a lighter-hearted breakfast news show notice a trend for Tory MPs to have a flag in their house, it's the same level of humour as looking at the books on the shelves in the background.

People frothing at the mouth at this egregious display of anti-Tory bias need to have a good look at why they're getting upset - is it because the BBC presenters overstepped the mark, or they're overly defensive?

It's also interesting to note that it was Charlie Stayt who asked the question, not Naga Munchetty, yet she was hounded by Guido, Lawrence Fox et al and she has had to apologise for liking Tweets about it.

Remember when Trump tweeted that four congresswomen should "go home"?
Remember when Dan Walker asked Munchetty for her experience of being told to "go home", and she explained she had also had that said to her and it was always racist?
The complaints were specifically about Munchetty, not Walker.

I suspect the same people complaining about Munchetty being "woke" are the same people who praise Morgan for "telling it like it is", then moaning about cancel culture whilst avoiding Sainsbury's for having black people in an advert.

[QualityChimp]

I should mention that I'm really enjoying the audiobook of Matt Forde's Politically Homeless.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Politically-Homeless-Audiobook/1529412803

It's been a really interesting listen.
"Part memoir, part behind-the-scenes insider view, Politically Homeless is both a fascinating and funny book for anyone who feels annoyed by the current state of politics. Which should be around 65 million people in the UK alone.

Matt Forde has been obsessed with politics ever since he was nine years old. Raised by a single mum on benefits in inner city Nottingham, he joined the Socialist Workers Party as soon as he could, foisted issues of Marxism Today on innocent bystanders and attended his first political party conference. From then on, despite some career suicide moments such as chatting to the prime minister at Number 10 while badly drunk, Matt's whole future looked wedded to the Labour Party as he started working for MPs in dingy back rooms in Nottinghamshire.


But then Labour started to fall apart and so did Matt's sense of purpose. With the rise of Corbyn, Brexit and Trump, his love for politics that had been so profound began to quickly crumble.


Exploring themes such as tribalism, the curse of complacency and why some politicians refuse to speak normally, Politically Homeless is a hugely entertaining book of (often hilarious) personal stories and thought-provoking insights into this complicated world. And despite everything, Matt's passion is still there. Through hosting his award-winning weekly podcast, The Political Party (over five million downloads) involving interviews with some of politics' most powerful and notorious figures, including Tony Blair, Nicola Sturgeon, Sadiq Khan, Michael Heseltine, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg, and performing critically acclaimed stand-up comedy shows, Matt has been able to keep enough faith that politics will get better. Maybe."

I'll probably explore the podcast at some point too, but it's all a bit exhausting, being politically aware!

https://soundcloud.com/thepoliticalparty

[Lebowski]

Tonight on Twitter; people are screaming #DefundtheBBC because the presenters, finally, rightfully, sniggered at an MP happening to have a massive Union Jack in their room when they appeared on a webcam.

As if, if you went round someone's house and they had a massive prominent Union Jack on a wall indoors, you wouldn't start to be concerned about the company you're keeping.

Honestly these people want the country to be like the USA, where the flag is a weird saintly emblem, and you have to have one in every classroom. It's ridiculous. I love my country, but obsession with nationalistic symbols is, to me, associated with a certain kind of society that we do not want to emulate.

It's MPs at it again. Having a flag visible at all times. Using pithy three-word phrases over and over. They think you're an idiot. They think you're all idiots. They think you can be manipulated so easily.

Sad thing is a lot can be manipulated, we have a media that pushes a narrative that if anyone other than the Tories are in power then the UK will fail. We've been fed the evils of socialism for the last 5 years from the government and press saying it will bankrupt the UK and its financially irresponsible to run our own services like transport and power. despite this they have spent the last year clapping for the NHS and praising how wonderful it is with no sense of irony.

The masses don't bat an eyelid at the billions spent on broken test and trace systems or dodgy unfulfilled PPE contracts to their mates, then there is the trade and job losses from Brexit and the long term damage ten years of ten years of austerity has done to the UK.

I can't see how things could be any worse for the UK at present. give it five years and no doubt the NHS will be run by Amazon with people turfed out the door for not having NHS prime subscriptions. Nurses and doctors will see you on time based quota system with written warnings handed out to docs and nurses who go over the allotted 2 mins per "customer"

joining a Nurses or Doctors unions will see you being struck off and while wages fall below the poverty line for 99% of the nursing staff Jeff Bezoz will add another few hundred billion to his personal wealth and not even give to ****s about how he gets there and how he adds to his stock pile.

[Neon Ignition]

They think you're all idiots. They think you can be manipulated so easily.

Talking purely from the perspective of the royal 'we' the reason they think that is... well... because... um... they're right

[QualityChimp]

I enjoyed that rant, [MENTION=960]Lebowski[/MENTION].

I could practically hear your keyboard rattle as you angrily gained momentum!

[Lebowski]

I enjoyed that rant, [MENTION=960]Lebowski[/MENTION].

I could practically hear your keyboard rattle as you angrily gained momentum!

NHS Prime FTW



Free delivery, Streaming TV services and a priority place on the kidney transplant list.

[Neon Ignition]

"Decepticonservative you say?"