I think killing his own nephew with his own hands is not a Victorian overlay. Or starving peoole to death in Corfe Castle. Hated by rhe barons and his own subjects. So bad that the Barons invited the Dauphin to replace him. Easily our worst monarch.
I always disagree with this. He very much humanises the jew and gets many of the best lines. The nazis loved the play, true, but only heavily edited versions could be shown.
Shakespeare's politic's are fascinating. My Mum used to love going for a day out in London and we would always go to The Globe for her birthday. We were the only ones in our family who liked Shakespeare. Seen quite a few of his plays up there and it is clear that he had an agenda. Would recommend The Globe unreservedly.
Trump’s ex Laura Loomer is outraged as Leo is going to continue the inclusivity and general opposition to anything Trump stands for.
I must admit to getting caught up in the moment when Pope Bob was announced. I may now be a Catholic Atheist, but years of indoctrination doesn’t go away overnight
Saw an article about the new Reform UK leader of Kent County Council. Her two main priorities appear to be - 1. Banning anything but the Union flag and St George's cross from Council premises. 2. Creating a local DOGE in Kent County Council because 'we are going to let the auditors in and take a leaf out of Elon Musk's book'. Then some blurb 'finding out where money is being spent' - Councils are already required to publish their detailed accounts annually, so maybe just do that instead of spending money the Council doesn't have on expensive auditors only to discover that Social Care exists. Kent on the verge of bankruptcy by the way. 4 years until the next election in Kent, lets see how that goes for them. I do not predict good things.
I can't speak to Kent specifically but I think you'd be surprised by how much money councils spunk up the wall on outsourcing contracts that just don't offer value for money and how rampant corruption is in some areas. Aaron Bastani is quite good on this. I'm reasonably sure he found that where he lives (Portsmouth maybe?) the cost of installing a new zebra crossing is over £100k.
Councils have no choice but to outsource pretty much everything from collecting rubbish to filling in potholes. This is down to decades of underfunding by central government, beginning in the 1980’s by guess who, leading to nearly all direct labour being laid off. The corruption comes in the exorbitant charges by the contractors, although I am sure that some individual councillors are tempted by kickbacks. The solution is to allow local authorities to replace council tax with local income tax and re-employ all the bin men, road gangs, and gardeners that used to keep the place looking nice.
I think anyone who's read Private Eye over the years is well aware of the apparent lack of accountability and (imo) vast amount of money wasted on vanity projects and rotating leaders/advisors in local government. My confidence in the big brains at Reform sorting this out is nil. Indeed I predict the creation of special, well paid posts for our new councillors to deal with such issues. Maybe a 'pothole czar' or 'head of common sense' is on the horizon. I'm a bit annoyed the careers master at school never made me aware of the opportunities available through working in local government. Apparently 3,906 council officials received more than £100,000, with 1,092 receiving over £150,000 in 2023-24. worth a look - https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/t...ouncil_bosses_received_over_100_000_last_year
25 years ago I started working for a Southampton council owned training company that drew down government funding for organising NVQ training for hundreds of youngsters. Every year we would be asked to give places and funding for X amount of council apprentices, based on that year’s need. That was back in the day when the council directly employed chippies, sparkiest, brickies and painters and decorators to carry out repairs and renovations on council properties. I guess with the selling off of the council house stock and the introduction of housing associations the need to employ their own people ceased and has been replaced by contractors charging exorbitant fees. Simple jobs like changing a plug socket or shaving a few millimetres off the bottom of a door would cost no more than the hourly rate of the employed workers but now each job probably runs into several hundreds of pounds. Returning to the old ways would probably save councils money in the long term.
The last sentence though suggests that any prediction of "not good things" would be at worst a continuation of the past who knows how many years anyway? Agree on the first bit however everywhere has published accounts, even government but it often takes an audit from outsiders to find out where the money is really going and not what it says on paper.
Must admit I’m rather surprised at the lack of comment regarding the ongoing conflict / disaster in Gaza. Of course I’m not really a proper poster, just pop up with hopefully some humorous occasional & definitely sarcastic comments but what’s going on over there is beyond belief & the human suffering & death rate is just unbelievable. The world seems to be turning an eye & similar here? Don’t mean to be aggressive or stick poking but the lack of, for a political page seems bit strange? Ps. Said before, I always look forward to you guys insightful comments on all subjects.
