Off Topic News & Current affairs

Mr Trump is spouting some bile again (what a shocker!)
He's a bit like an American version of IncorruptibleAddick

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56092781

I like the notion of this attack on Mich McConnell being Mr Trump's "lengthiest statement" since leaving office.
Mr Trump doesn't make statements anymore. He just says things.

And I smiled at Mr Trump's assertion that MAGA and America First are 'winners'.
He just lost the election.

Doh!

 

The Don again turns reality on its head. The two primary elections were lost because of him, but he has thrown red meat to his noisy but dwindling band of hard-core followers by blaming Mitch McConnell.

 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz flew to Mexico amid state energy crisis

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56117800

Takes a holiday with his family!
It's a pity Trump's Wall doesn't work quite so well in both directions.

 

Sir Keir Starmer - Socialism 101

The best way for a Labour Government to deliver social justice is to work in partnership with business

That's like saying the best way to get to Heaven is to sleep with the Devil

This is doubtless Sir Keir's definition of 'partnership';
Government says "Do this."
Business says "Yes Comrade Starmer."

 

Starmer is not stupid. He's proved he can run a department, which is more than you can say for most.

 

He doesn't seriously believe voters will buy this "hand in hand with business" line though, does he?

Starmer also says Government should play a bigger part in running the country.
That is Labour talk that I do understand.
When it comes to social care and the like I agree with him too.

But he'll have a hard time convincing anyone that 'bigger government' would not be a return to the bad old days.
Business certainly won't want a Labour Government pushing it around.

 

He's on mission impossible. England is a Conservative country, apart from the major cities.

 

Agreed.

When Labour lost Wales and Scotland, it lost more than it can ever replace.

 

It appears that Uber drivers are split on this ruling. Some use the gig economy to their advantage, others just want a decent wage.

 

Just a general observation;

Anybody who can use the gig economy* to their advatage must have a rather unstable and precarious lifestyle.
A well run and socially just economy is supposed to benefit everybody, at least to some degree.
Not only the middle class, enjoying life's pleasures on the back of a huge sub-class of low paid workers who have almost no rights and always suffer most when there is a crisis such as the credit crunch or this pandemic.


* I f**king HATE the term 'gig economy'.
It always implies to me that people involved in it (dependent on it in most cases) are enjoying the experience.

 

MI6 chief apologises for past ban on LGBT staff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56132336

The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, has publicly apologised for its historic treatment of LGBT people.
Richard Moore said a security bar on LGBT staff until 1991 had been "wrong, unjust and discriminatory".

I don't disagree with that.

But it was also necessary at the time, to safeguard National Security.

It has only been in the last few years (much more recently than 1991 even) that LGBT intelligence staff who had not 'come out' would have been vulnerable to blackmail simply because of their sexuality.
That may not have been 'right', but it was the way things were.

MI6 cannot and never could employ staff who are vulnerable to being blackmailed and compromised.
It's current head should not feel it necessary to apologise for a policy that was necessary at the time it was in force.

 

What am I missing in the story about Facebook stopping news reporting in Oz? As I understand it Facebook uses other news media like the Beeb and Sky free of charge to report news, but now, rather than pay for it they won't report news. Fair enough, so Australians simply log on to BBC or Sky and read the news direct. What exactly is the problem?

 

Agreed.
By the fuss kicked up, you'd think Facebook was the only source of news in the whole world.

Perhaps some very insular, facebook-dependent people might have to get their news from somewhere else.
What a daunting prospect!

 

Facebook lead the world in peddling fake news and conspiracy theories. I bet they don't stop doing that.

 

FLY TIPPING - a f**king scourge on our country, but something no Government can be bothered to tackle.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56128314

Well done Panorama

Fly-tipping ruins the quality of life for millions of people - but mostly those who have to live in working class urban and poor rural areas.
If somebody fly-tipped tons of rubbish on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street or Chequers or Buckingham Palace, something might be done about it.

Fly-tipping is a problem the wealthy and powerful can just ignore.
It doesn't happen in 'nice' places.

 

It happens everywhere. I walk a lot along the country lanes, the hedges and ditches are full of rubbish people have thrown out of their car windows, and apart from the litter accumulation there are fly-tipping black spots. I spoke to one farmer recently who had just cleared two large JCB bucket loads in his tractor from one hedgerow near Chelsfield.

 

A well-timed report on our fishing stocks notes that the sturgeon and the salmond(d) are disappearing.

 

both wanted a smaller pond to swim in .... and it's getting smaller every day!..... soon it will be a puddle!