Off Topic News & Current affairs

Fislly, the Good Law Project have the names of the businesses put in a fast track VIP lane to recieve government contracts for PPE during the pandemic, despite ministers claiming this didn't exist.

 

I thought this was justa made up thing but apparently Charles did actually say this when the human hand-grenade turned up at his residence.
Good on you Charlie - hope Kier Starmer says it at PM's question time next time up!!

 

Yes, he did say it.
It is funny, but much as I don't like our latest PM it's not the King's place to say things like that (on microphone), the silly old buffer.

 

Actually, I'm not sure he actually meant it the way we are all enjoying. It could have reasonably construed as 'you poor old thing trailing all the way here again' sort of thing. It's just much funnier (especially given Truss and her economic mindlessness) to read it as a very weary 'oh FFS, she's back again!'

 

4 chancellors in a year. Must be a record?

 

I've heard on the grapevine Penguin that you're pencilled in for Chancellor a week next Thursday, then it's Smudge for a fortnight in November and Elfs over Christmas (naturally). Then in the new year it's a toss up between Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ackers.

 

I’ve got enough of my own debt to worry about thank you - Elfs is very good (tight) with money so he can do my shift

 

Liz! Your new Chancellor warns of tax rises and spending cuts!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63268238

Sounds like an agent of the Anti-Growth Coalition to me.
Sack him immediately
And yourself while you're at it.

 

Could this be the end of magical thinking? The idea that low taxes raise more than high taxes?

 

The end of "Trussonomics" - cutting taxes paid for by massive borrowing in the hope that 2.5%+ growth in the economy will just appear by magic.

If you wrote it in a letter to Santa he'd send it back telling you to grow up and quit believing in such fairy tail nonsense.
No wonder the markets were never going to have it.
Rishi Sunak predicted exactly what would happen, and he was 100% right.
But then he has a brain that works properly and a sound grip on reality.
Not that I'm a fan of his politics. But he knows his stuff.

 

"Project Fear" is a very effective way of closing down a discussion, when the facts don't suit your narrative. Lizzie used it to counter Sunak when he tried to tell her the economic facts. Soundbite politics.

 

Sad to see more raw sewage being discharged into the sea...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63275393

Those ashes should have been mixed into cat litter or recycled bog paper.

 

Should have been chucked in household garbage where he belongs and no press release - doesn’t deserve any recognition what so ever!

 

'Just Stop Oil' protesters climb the QE2 bridge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63281841

I say leave 'em up there, if that's where they want to be. Re-open the bridge.
I would certainly be willing to drive across it.
It's not like they're glued to the tarmac is it.

These idiots are giving the Government what it wants - an excuse to bring in Draconian laws to stop all protests.

 

The Daily Mail hailed the mini-budget as "At last a real Tory budget ", so it will be interesting to see their reaction to Hunt reversing it all. It will probably be relegated to p8 or 9.

 

Cut in income tax - scrapped. Not even happening in 2024 now.
Help with energy bills - was for 2 years, now will be reviewed (cut) after 6 months.
Over all tax burden - now higher than it would have been if Rishi Sunak had won the leadership election and implemented his policies.

We're still getting the April rise in National Insurance taken off again so I hear.
The last vestige of Trussonomics.
A road to 2.5% growth in the economy? Pull the other one.

Keir Starmer asked Liz Truss las week in PMQ's if she would stick to her election promise of planning no spending reductions.
She answered "absolutely".
Deep spending cuts are now on the way, just five days later.
This PM has come as close to misleading Parliament as Boris Johnson ever did.

 

Haven't heard much abahrt Global Britain recently.

 

More news to gladden the heart of Keir Starmer...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63293891

Though that decision (like all others now) is out of her hands.
That feeling which overtook the Country in the year or so before Blair became PM is just beginning again now I think. Muted maybe, and overshadowed by people's current fears about the cost of living.
But I think folks can sense a big change is coming.

 

And of course, for millions of households - something Liz Truss assured us we would not have to worry about for the next two Winters - is now a looming problem again. Another promise broken.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63298057

Now it turns out most of us will be facing an energy bill hike of around 60% in April.
Average bills could rise from £2,500 per year to £4,300 per year.
That's going to frighten many pensioners and vulnerable folk into leaving their heating off this Winter.
Thousands of them will get ill or die.
People being squeezed by the cost of living crisis thought until only yesterday that at least their energy bills would not bankrupt them for the foreseeable future.
Now all bets are off again. Folks are counting down the days until the next hammer blow.