Off Topic Politics Thread

I think it’s time we protested against the “Honours for Favours” in the Hounours lists, or bin them altogether.

I’ve not been against them previously as there are some very deserving awards given out, but the knighting of Nick Clegg is so blatantly a ‘returned favour’ for forming the coalition a few years back, that it is nothing but abuse of that system in my eyes. I know it’s gone on for years, but for me that’s the straw on the camels back.

 

One of my mates, Rob has been honoured for incredible work he has done in the local community, he helped put together a community park and has raised thousands and helped thousands. He is a full time dad and has a full time job. How he unselfishly then devotes his time for others (i cant find the words) fully deserving of recognition.

The rest of the honours are a joke, as you say honours for favours and pop stars etc. So no honours for the Grenfell firefighter heroes but there was for Barry Gibb. Nothing against Barry Gibb, someone who made millions from his industry and maybe he has done work for good causes but just seems random.

There is a rumor that officials at Buck Pal when deciding who will get honours contacted Pelligrino to see what method he used for team selection.

 

People like your mate should get it. All day long.

 

My Aunt has an MBE for services to the Community . she was a carer , she is not wealthy , lives in an ex council house on a modest estate , but she is a very kind hearted Woman who has helped many in the local community , she also did it after she had retired , so for free .

Nick Clegg , I want to puke !

 

Some individuals of real integrity here;


Hundreds of people are recognised every year in the New Year’s honours list, but not everyone is so eager to welcome the gesture from the Queen.

Danny Boyle, Jon Snow and Stephen Hawking are among the celebrities to have shunned the offer or an MBE, OBE or CBE. But they’re far from alone.

Here is a list of 29 famous faces who rejected a gong:

The film director didn’t mince his words when he spoke about turning down an OBE in 1977.

Ken Loach, whose films centre on social issues such as poverty, homelessness and benefits, told the Radio Times in 2001: “It’s all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest.

“I turned down the OBE because it’s not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who’ve got it.”

The director and master behind the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony revealed he turned down an honour because: “It’s just not me”.

Danny Boyle said it did not feel right to accept the award when thousands of people were involved in the planning and execution of the highly-praised opening ceremony.

He told the Radio Times: “I also thought it was wrong, actually.

“You can make these speeches about ‘this is everybody’s work, blah blah blah’.

“And you’ve got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it’s the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people.

“I don’t know whether I’ll ever get invited back to the Palace.”

Jim Broadbent said in 2012: “I was offered an OBE a couple of years ago, but I said, ‘no’, and turned it down.”

The actor said that the honour should be given to those who help others.

He said: “I’m not that comfortable with actors receiving honours, partly because I think they ought to go to those who really help others.

“Besides, I like the idea of actors not being part of the Establishment.

“We’re vagabonds and rogues, and we’re not a part of the authorities and Establishment, really. If you mix the two together, things get blurry.”

The renowned journalist has declined an offer of an OBE, reportedly because he believed that working journalists should not take honours from those about whom they report.

He said: “I tried to find out why I’d been given it and was unable to get a clear answer or, indeed, to find out who had proposed me.”

Liverpool FC’s first black player turned down an MBE last year saying that his “ancestors would be turning in their graves after how Empire and Colonialism had enslaved them”.

Howard Gayle was nominated for the honour for his campaign work with Show Racism the Red Card.

He wrote on his Facebook page: “This is a decision that I have had to make and there will be others who may feel different and would enjoy the attraction of being a Member of the British Empire and those 3 letters after their name, but I feel that It would be a betrayal to all of the Africans who have lost their lives, or who have suffered as a result of Empire.”

Hillsborough campaigner and academic Professor Phil Scraton rejected the offer of an OBE in the Queen’s 2016 New Year’s Honours list, citing how successive governments reneged “on any kind support for the families in getting to the truth”.

Scraton has been widely praised for snubbing the honour, which he said would not be “fitting” for him to accept.

The academic said at the time: “I feel very strongly that for many years the successive governments refused to take seriously the issues that we raised in those early reports and in Hillsborough: The Truth.”

He added: “I think that many of the people who are involved in offering such honours have been part of that process and I feel very strongly that I could not accept an honour now that these issues have been resolved in the way in which they have.”

The poet made a public refusal to collect an OBE in 2003.

Writing in the Guardian at the time, Benjamin Zephaniah explained why he refused to be appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire.

He wrote: “Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought.

“I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.”

 

The East Coast Railway Line, a failed franchise that was returned early to be run successfully by the Labour government, before being resold by the Tories, is being returned early again.
Current owners, Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin (10%), have been granted permission to return the franchise early, which allows them to escape an agreement guaranteeing “premium” payments of £353million in 2020, £460million in 2021, £560million in 2022 and £645million in 2023 in taxes.
£2billion that could have been put to so many good uses, just being written off! Really?
“Luckily” for Stagecoach, their share price shot up 15%, seemingly as a reaction to this.

 

Stagecoach own all the main buses in Lincoln too these days. No buses uphill after 6pm at night!!! and a fifth of the population live uphill.

 

To steal a phrase from Mock the Week.
If the answer is 44,000, what is the question?

 

And the answer we are looking for, is.

According to Home Office figures, how many times were fire fighters called out to deal with medical emergencies, in 2017.
This equates to 120 times, per day, when there was insufficient ambulance cover to deal with emergencies that included cardiac arrest, strokes, heavy bleeding and fits.
That is one hell of a responsibility to put on fire fighters who do not have the qualifications or the training to deal with the incidents they are are sent to deal with.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/firefighters-with-just-six-days-11783335

 

That’s crazy. Mind you, a lot of the “emergencies” ambulances get called out for are things that could be dealt with if there were more GP’s or even better, poly clinics like they have in France.

 

Government reshuffle taking place today and tomorrow. Fingers crossed that all will be sacked and replaced by a packet of crisps. At least they have a positive effect on society.

(except Prawn Cocktail. Disaster)

 

Cheese and Onion please.

 

Chris Grayling was appointed Tory party chairman, but that has been changed after about 10 seconds. Brandon Lewis instead. Rumour has it that Grayling couldn't organise transport from one department to another properly, because he is such an incompetent twit.

 

Just caught the usual bollocks being spouted on the politics programme. What bugs me is they, and the BBC insist on saying Daimian Green "breached ministerial guidelines" instead of "he was caught lying". It's like his re-integration is already underway, pah.

 

Hm. Think I've had enough of cheesey politicians.

 

Tory MP, Rebecca Pow, is well up to date with current affairs, stating that Margaret Thatcher is “her living political hero”.
Good to know that the country is in safe hands.

 

Probably got stuck in a privatised lift.

 

I do like watching this guy’s spoof news reports.

Extreme bad language alert (the C word at the end).

 

The re shuffle continues. Surprisingly no one wants the dwp role.

Pleased our health is still in the capable hands of Jeremy Hunt.


Breaking News: May asked to explain some of her choices but still on the phone to Pelligrino.