The Express are running a poll entitled "Do you think the Brexit deal needs renegotiating?" - and below is a clever little llnk to the poll, created by someone on Twitter (or X as it's called these days) - a link that bypasses the website, thus avoids giving them clickbait income and doesn't allow them to track those who vote. Totally beyond me how it works - but I suspect it's giving them a result that they don't want. https://xd.wayin.com/display/container/dc/1027cc06-0f02-47ad-9b4b-d4f5f4a976ae/entry
"The UK has been fined €32mn by the EU’s top court for allowing pleasure boats to use lower-tax red diesel in a case that lawyers say sets a precedent for future disputes. The European Court of Justice imposed a higher than expected penalty in a warning to the country that although it has left the bloc, it is still bound by some of its rules because Northern Ireland remains in parts of the EU single market." Did the Tories realise this, and just plough ahead anyway - or did they simply not know what they were doing? I plump for the latter... https://archive.ph/vo313
Now we have Tories telling Tories to stop lying. Fat chance... https://news.sky.com/story/dishones...sh-calls-for-rules-to-stop-mps-lying-12976524
Just catching up on the news, I see that Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, has stated that “The numbers are definitely worse than what I faced in the spring. Our debt interest is likely to be £20bn to £30bn higher this year than we predicted." Why does the Prime Minister keep telling the country that that his plan is working and everything is on track?
For the same reason that he can get away with telling the country that his policies will reduce the NHS waiting list, yet the list has just risen to a record level yet again.
Bernie Ecclestone found guilty of fraud, gets a suspended jail sentence and has to pay HMRC £652m. According to the director of HMRC's fraud investigation service, this followed a "complex and worldwide criminal investigation...HMRC is on the side of honest taxpayers and we will take tough action wherever we suspect tax fraud...Our message is clear – no one is beyond our reach." I'll bet there a few denizens of the House of Commons & the House of Lords laughing into their subsidised drinks over that last bit. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/12/ex-f1-boss-bernie-ecclestone-pleads-guilty-to-fraud
I don't know what opinions others hold regarding the Israel/Gaza problem, but for me this video shows the folly of the UK - and Western - leaders' 'Stand with Israel' stance. Not to mention Braverman's plan to criminalise displays of support for Palestine. The amount of support for Palestine shown in this suggest that the conflict could easily spread beyond its current confines. Another world war looming?
We've got the same thing here in Germany BB. Because of its past Germany has the feeling it has to stand by Israel whatever happens - well i don't stand by Israel. I cannot stand by an Apartheid state which has systematically oppressed the Palestinian people in the way Israel has done for about 70 years. I don't condone the actions of Hamas - they have been horrendous, but Israel has provided the water in which they can swim by its own state terror ignored by the West for far too long. And for far too long we have suppressed all criticism of Israel through fear of being labelled anti Semitic and Israel has been hiding behind that.
Yep, they're defending land that isn't theirs, and getting away with it. Despite Hamas not acting right. It could become WW3 there.
Tory values. They spend £500k transporting a lettuce to & from Australia, then act like a Poundshop Ryanair when bringing British citizens home from a war zone - and drop them off miles from home.
I am finding that watching the news coming out of Gaza and Israel to be almost too painful to watch. The politicians of the area, and from further abroad, have a lot to answer for. With Hamas receiving funding from Iran and Russia, they have taken over in Gaza from a government that doesn't have money, or the muscle to control a terrorist organization. Israel has a warmonger at the head of its government and lots of support from abroad, especially from the USA. So I am thinking of the non-political ordinary men, women and children who are caught up in this inhumane mess. Starving them out of their homes, or telling hospitals to move critically ill patients unless they want a bomb on them, is not something I ever expected to see. When will the world grow up?
Let's have a little joke about something while a statement on a serious issue is being made, seems to me to be the depths to which members of the government have sunk.
The Peter Bone case is another reminder that, since 2019, there have been more Tory MPs suspended for sexual misconduct than voters convicted of ID fraud. According to an ex-member of this forum, Bone was a great MP.
I share your feelings Frenchie with a couple of reservations - firstly there is no proof that Russia is funding Hamas. Russia certainly benefits from a localized war restricted to Gaza but if it opened up on several fronts it could get very difficult for them to maintain their influence in the Middle East. This is why Putin is trying to act as a peacebroker between the two sides - Russia also has economic interests with Israel, and it is remarkable that Israel was one of the countries initially reluctant to criticize Russia. My horror is that the mood within Israel (or at least its government and army) is the wish to collectively punish the Palestinian people. I cannot imagine where they think 2 million people can go to get away from their bombs, nor can I imagine it is in the minds of the Israeli government that any refugees would ever return once having gone - to Israel it may have a touch of ethnic cleansing about it. I just do not know how far the Israelis can go in the direction of war crimes and apartheid measures before the West stops brushing their crimes under the carpet - and they have been doing similar things to this, of and on, for the last 70 years.
