This is another wonderful story of how well we do major projects in the UK. Late, over budget and mired in controversy, swirling around allegations that Alex Salmond, then Scottish Minister, engineered the award of the contract to Ferguson Marine in order to save the yard from bankruptcy even though Ferguson had no track record in such contracts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferry_Fiasco_(Scotland) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1w5e2vg8wzo I know David Tydeman having worked for him elsewhere and it seems he's the latest victim of this fiasco, along with the population of the Scottish Islands who've been waiting for these ferries forever. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-68673780
I've been thinking back to a job I started in a company which used a system of internal transfer pricing. It was divided into production and sales divisions so the the former was measured by the surplus or deficit of the transfer value of its production, less its actual costs, and sales on the revenue it had earned less the transfer price cost of the goods it had sold. All fine, except the two transfer values didn't tie up, opening up the ugly possibility that the profit they'd been declaring by adding the two divisions together wasn't right. Such news wouldn't have been warmly welcomed at head office or necessarily by the tax man. If you are still awake, the interesting thing is that is that I had a conversation with the IT manager trying to get a more detailed idea how the system worked and who controlled what. After ploughing through a lot of the detail, he casually threw into the conversation that IT had access to a "Toolbox" facility, with which they could go into the accounting system and "cleanse" the system of any erroneous entries. After I'd come down off the ceiling, we agreed he wouldn't do that. Post Office? Fujitsu? Makes you wonder how isolated an incident it really is.
I've been in the shed...topping up the lawnmower with petrol... preparing to cut all my grass in one go for the first time this year....it took three different times because of rain to finish the first cut of the year last week. As I started to take the mower out of the shed....I felt a few drops of rain which suddenly became a deluge.....living in a bungalow I do have a large area of roofing.....and the rain was so heavy the guttering was soon overwhelmed and the rain just cascaded straight over it onto the ground.....and my drying lawn started to develop it's pond again.....goodbye lawn cutting for today......just shows the water table is still quite high One good point two loads of washing hadn't yet gone on the line....so small mercy's.
As mad as a hatter: Liz Truss endorses Donald Trump to win US presidential election https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68821646
UK PMs = Boris followed by Liz followed by Rishi. US Pres = Trump followed by Biden. Hardly the greatest advert for allowing folk to have a vote is it.
Even more worrying was the women who said that she would lay her life down for him....and millions more who would also do the same...she said....I'd get my gun and start a civil war if he gets convicted. It is worrying that there isn't any strong leadership in the States....Republican or Democrat that aren't already in their dotage.
Mayor of London voting isn't too hard....get rid of Sadiq Khan with his Ulez policy...being followed by taxing everyone per mile driven. General Election...who to vote for...Tory...Labour...Lib Dem nutters...stupid green party...just no choice for most people....Reform UK will pick up lots of disenchanted voters....might be better to just stay at home. PS.....Of course there is always the.....Official Monster Raving Looney Party .....or have the above already joined them.
Well of course the public voted for neither Truss nor Sunak: they were elected by Tory party in internal leadership contests during the Parliamentary term. That is the process under the British constitution, where you vote for your MP, not a party or a party leader. It seems some people don't understand that but we can't have general elections every 5 minutes. In fact, what with Brexit and Johnson, I’m beginning to think the public shouldn’t have a vote at all. How and why the party choose two people successively who were patently unfit to govern is another and far more worrying question. Who in their right mind would vote for either of them and what does it say about the direction one or the two major parties is traveling in? It's unfair to group Sunak with Johnson or Truss. He's a decent man who inherited an unholy mess after the other two and is struggling with a fragmenting and increasingly extremist party. He's neither a lying egotist like Johnson nor a moron like Truss. Neither is he I think a natural member of the Brexit/racist far right that seems now to dominate the Conservative Party let alone the fascists in Reform. I see Truss has coined the phrase “Tyranny of the Technocracy” meaning the Bank of England and Office of Budget Responsibility. No need to make up a new name love, we call them “People Who Know What They’re Talking About”.
Yep and what a bunch who were at the venue for the meeting they sort of banned. Wouldn't you know that Braverman would be there as well. She would do well in jack boots with a small mistache under her nose (if she hasn't got one already). Every far right wing nerd in Europe seemed to get invited to that do. For me that is more of a danger than Putin and Israel at the moment. If you want a third world war for certain then vote them in and let them loose,
Downing Street said.... attempts by police to shut down a conservative conference featuring Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman yesterday were "extremely disturbing". Mr Farage was on stage at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels when officers entered the venue to serve a court order demanding its closure with "immediate effect". Legal papers...seen by.. 'The Telegraph'..suggested speeches at the event could cause public disorder...be homophobic or offend minorities. The conference organisers had already been forced to relocate to the venue on Monday night after a conference hall and a hotel cancelled their bookings over claims of "political pressure" from a left wing mayor. A No10 spokesman said..."Clearly these reports are extremely disturbing...The Prime Minister is a strong supporter and advocator for free speech and he believes that should be fundamental to any democracy. "Speaking more broadly to the principle of such events...he is very clear that cancelling events or preventing attendance and no platforming speakers is damaging to free speech and to democracy as a result...He is very clear that free debate and the exchange of views is vital...even when you disagree". Sulla Braverman...who spoke at the event...criticised the "Brussels thought police" for undermining free speech...while Tory MP Miriam Cates had to be smuggled into the venue to deliver her speech on protecting children...She was disguised in a tartan headscarf and taken through a service entrance. Writing for ...'The Telegraph'...today Mr Farage says...The monstrous reaction in Brussels to this conference comes as no surprise to me...I was personally banned from restaurants...pubs and coffee bars in my last few years in this city. "But today...Brussels elite have exhibited their culture on a global stage"...In Fact...it's far more serious than that. "Cancel culture is saying...I do not want to hear your opinion...What happened today is an updated form of Soviet communism...it says that no other view is allowed,,,that anybody that holds it is by definition...mad...bad...and dangerous...It's a an approach that has...and will always... fail in the end". Daily Telegraph...17/04/2024. So was a Socialist Mayor put under pressure by the EU to close this conference down ..?....Putin tactics copied maybe....let us hope it doesn't go further along that horror track.
I'm sure you don't mean that notDistant.....wouldn't you prefer for them to be heard and people make their own minds up ...and vote by knowing the facts themselves. The other approach leads to Hitler...Stalin....Putin style government which I certainly don't agree with. As for sensiblegreeny....your comments are just insulting and typical of your attitude towards anything but your blinkered view of life....in fact I don't know why I'm bothering even to answer you. And Joe...I have plenty of hair still....but I couldn't manage an afro hairstyle............
Prime Ministers Question time....BBC 1 at noon each Wednesday.....more amusing than Punch and Judy....but boy oh boy what a mess....six questions of abuse from the opposition leader....and the PM sending six likewise answers back....generally not answering any of the loaded question....and a flustered Speaker of the House trying to keep control....and threatening to send MP's for an early cup of tea. In the meanwhile Russia trying to wipe Ukraine off the face of the world.....atrocities in the Middle East....and Trump complaining that the jury shouldn't be told about him knocking off some other woman whilst his wife was pregnant....and all nothing to do with the "film" star that he is on trial about. And back in Parliament opposition members trying to embarrass the PM....and government MP's saying ...."will the PM agree with me"...waffle waffle waffle.
No I mean it. These hateful people are corrosive of everything that's moral and positive. What they say may be just about legal but their kind are doing tremendous damage to democracies around the world.
What a load of balony "vote by knowing the facts themselves". Does that imply that these people are speaking the truth by spouting real facts and they are the ones to believe? You mean just like Brexit and the vote that people were told the truth about? Really? And you believe them of course. I don't actually care if you bother to answer me or not. I will however reserve the right to educate you on what you post as you are so kean for free speech and all that.
