Off Topic Politics Thread

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The French really know how to protest.

STRIKING energy workers in France have been using “Robin Hood tactics” to give power to the people.

They have provided free gas and electricity to schools, universities, libraries, sports centres, small firms and low-income households that had been cut off.

The “Robin des Bois” operations – named after English folklore hero Robin Hood – are part of a wider effort to force the Government to drop plans to increase the retirement age in the country.

Philippe Martinez, general secretary of French union the CGT, said the energy giveaway – which is not authorised by the Government – is intended to “intensify the balance of power” in favour of striking workers.

 
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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
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In other news, in December Sunak and Zahawi installed businessman Mohammed Mansoor as Senior Treasurer for the Conservative Party.
Mansoor is said to have donated £2 million to the Tory Party, from his own pocket (and Sunak et al keeps on talking about how Starmer is in the Unions’ pay) and a further £600,000 from his company Unatrac, that is still trading in Russia.
Integrity my arse.
 
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It beggars belief that Sue-Ellen Braverman, who also committed multiple breaches of the ministerial code, including threatening national security, still holds one of the high offices of State. Sunak must be one of the feeblest and least secure Prime Ministers in modern history.
 
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What I don’t understand is why, when they breach the ministerial code, they are still allowed to serve as MPs.
Where is the actual punishment in knowing that they can continue to draw their £84,000+ salary, receive all the benefits that go with the job as well as receiving donations from a variety of sources and paid second jobs, AND be allowed at some time in the future to return to a Cabinet post having “served their back bench punishment”.
Breaching ministerial code should mean a by-election.
 
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San Tejón said:
What I don’t understand is why, when they breach the ministerial code, they are still allowed to serve as MPs.
Where is the actual punishment in knowing that they can continue to draw their £84,000+ salary, receive all the benefits that go with the job as well as receiving donations from a variety of sources and paid second jobs, AND be allowed at some time in the future to return to a Cabinet post having “served their back bench punishment”.
Breaching ministerial code should mean a by-election.
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Couldn’t agree more. In any other field of work, gaining a promotion and then breaching the rules to that extent wouldn’t just get you demoted, it would mean the sack. And these people are meant to be running the country!
 
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I almost forgot about Deputy Prime Minister (!!!) Dominic Raab, who faces accusations of bullying from (currently) 24 different people.
 
San Tejón said:
What I don’t understand is why, when they breach the ministerial code, they are still allowed to serve as MPs.
Where is the actual punishment in knowing that they can continue to draw their £84,000+ salary, receive all the benefits that go with the job as well as receiving donations from a variety of sources and paid second jobs, AND be allowed at some time in the future to return to a Cabinet post having “served their back bench punishment”.
Breaching ministerial code should mean a by-election.
Click to expand...

It's because they are liars, thieves, criminals and a bunch of disgusting racists. There is not a politician amongst them. Chancers, charlatans and bullies. They look after their own at the expense of those who deserve a better society in which to live. They steal money from the poor, the homeless, the sick and from those most in need.

They are the so called 'elite' but they are in fact the lowest form of life on this planet. They really are the scum of the earth and I hate every ****ing one of them.

They think they are untouchable but just wait....it may take a while, but the tide always turns. Then watch the ugly ****ers smirk.
 
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......loading...... said:
Here is a question for everyone on the political spectrum. Why is a story about black on black violence in the USA the current headline news in the UK? To me, it feels like the stoking of a them and us story about the people vs the police - but it is not relevant in the UK.

Why the obsession with US racial and police politics?
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I don't recall seeing this type of post when George Floyd was killed. Saturation coverage for weeks yet no one questioned what it had to do with us in the UK. From that outrageous police behaviour in the USA we had BLM marches and knee taking in the UK, both American imports. Instead of criticism, it was embraced and not a peep on here, why was that?
 
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It's Only A Game said:
I don't recall seeing this type of post when George Floyd was killed. Saturation coverage for weeks yet no one questioned what it had to do with us in the UK. From that outrageous police behaviour in the USA we had BLM marches and knee taking in the UK, both American imports. Instead of criticism, it was embraced and not a peep on here, why was that?
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I think a lot of us felt it but were worried how people would respond if we said anything. The horrors of the US are not our horrors. We have plenty of our own.
 
San Tejón said:
What I don’t understand is why, when they breach the ministerial code, they are still allowed to serve as MPs.
Where is the actual punishment in knowing that they can continue to draw their £84,000+ salary, receive all the benefits that go with the job as well as receiving donations from a variety of sources and paid second jobs, AND be allowed at some time in the future to return to a Cabinet post having “served their back bench punishment”.
Breaching ministerial code should mean a by-election.
Click to expand...

The thing no one has explained to me was whether the failure to declare his input and the fine to repay the tax owed was criminal. I get the fact that there is a degree of leeway regarding the completion of tax forms which are complicated. However, I have not heard anyone outline at what point this becomes criminal and whether the payment of the fine is the end of the matter.

In the tail end of the summer there was a Radio Four documentary about Zahawi which was fascinating. I was unaware of his extreme wealth and that he was the man behind Youguv. Even more surprising was the fact that his political career was mentored by hs good friend Jeffrey Archer. The Tories are like pigs around a trough. It really is an "old boy's" network. As I keep saying, the more you learn about the Conservatives, the more you appreciate that they are wholly unsuitable to be a political party. I would not deny the Right the right to political representation yet I strongly believe that the Conservatives are not fit for pupose regardless of anuone's political opinion. They seem to continually attract the "wrong" kind of individuals. "Good" Tories are genuinely very few and far between and you wonder just how many of their members condone this kind of behaviour.
 
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It's Only A Game said:
I don't recall seeing this type of post when George Floyd was killed. Saturation coverage for weeks yet no one questioned what it had to do with us in the UK. From that outrageous police behaviour in the USA we had BLM marches and knee taking in the UK, both American imports. Instead of criticism, it was embraced and not a peep on here, why was that?
Click to expand...

Perhaps it could be explained by the whole world being affected by the Trump presidency which was fast becoming a complete joke, the climate crisis gaining media attention everywhere and then George Floyd being murdered by serving police officers in the US being beamed around the world. It was, by any standards, a huge tragedy and a story the media could live off for a very long time, however disgusting that is. It was a story that seemed to touch the hearts of everyone with a heart, and I admit that I felt there had been a paradigm shift in the order of things. How could such a thing happen and the people responsible be those who were supposed to protect us? I actually couldn't believe what was happening and it scared me.

There is a big difference in what happened to George Floyd and the BLM movement that was growing since 2012 and the daily broadcasting of trivial American new stories we seem to be swamped with these days, like this trash journalism.

Front page on the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64376727

Yes BLM was copied in the UK by taking the knee, but sometimes that is all people feel able to do and they do it because they want to support those who feel persecuted. It is gesture politics and of course it's far better to fight for change than to take the knee in a football field. People are people and we are all instrinsically fearful of loosing what we have, whether that is fame, fortune or reputation, so we don't tend to throw caution to the wind and put our own security at risk.
 
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Ian Thumwood said:
The thing no one has explained to me was whether the failure to declare his input and the fine to repay the tax owed was criminal. I get the fact that there is a degree of leeway regarding the completion of tax forms which are complicated. However, I have not heard anyone outline at what point this becomes criminal and whether the payment of the fine is the end of the matter.

In the tail end of the summer there was a Radio Four documentary about Zahawi which was fascinating. I was unaware of his extreme wealth and that he was the man behind Youguv. Even more surprising was the fact that his political career was mentored by hs good friend Jeffrey Archer. The Tories are like pigs around a trough. It really is an "old boy's" network. As I keep saying, the more you learn about the Conservatives, the more you appreciate that they are wholly unsuitable to be a political party. I would not deny the Right the right to political representation yet I strongly believe that the Conservatives are not fit for pupose regardless of anuone's political opinion. They seem to continually attract the "wrong" kind of individuals. "Good" Tories are genuinely very few and far between and you wonder just how many of their members condone this kind of behaviour.
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At what point does it become criminal?
I would have thought that it would become criminal the moment that HMRC deemed it to “not be an innocent error”, but there seems to be a subsection titled “carelessness”.
I do wonder if a businessman, who lacks Zahawi’s wealth, power and contacts would have been found careless or criminal, had he committed the same offence.
 
Kaito said:
It's because they are liars, thieves, criminals and a bunch of disgusting racists. There is not a politician amongst them. Chancers, charlatans and bullies. They look after their own at the expense of those who deserve a better society in which to live. They steal money from the poor, the homeless, the sick and from those most in need.

They are the so called 'elite' but they are in fact the lowest form of life on this planet. They really are the scum of the earth and I hate every ****ing one of them.

They think they are untouchable but just wait....it may take a while, but the tide always turns. Then watch the ugly ****ers smirk.
Click to expand...

I agree with this but I did wonder this morning whether whether or not a certain level of wealth or involvement in commercial enterprises should preclude a person from standing as a member of Parliament. It is fascinating to read that it has not actually just been Conservative politicians whose scruples with regard to money that has come into question of late. There was an article a few weeks ago in The Morning Star which called Yvette Cooper out for accepting money from questionable sources. This has largely been ignored in the mainstream media but i fear Starmer has surrounded himself with politicians who demonsrated a lack of moral fibre when Labour was last in government. Similar reservations have been asked about Peter Hearn in recent weeks. I am really disappointed that the press have not gone for Cooper as she has some serious quesitons to answer about her £184k personal donation form MPm Investments.

Whilst I concur that the Conservatives are unscrupulous, it is naive to think that the other parties are necessarily any better.. The only reason the Liberals do not get caught out so often these days is because they have no relevance but lets not forget they had plenty of scandals themselves during the coalition nor that their former leader is now very senior in Facebook, the enterprice whilst facilitates the mad rantings of Trump and Farage. Labour under Starmer continues to snuggle up to business and steadfastly refuses to back workers from taking industrial action. There is no way that a Starmer government will not suffer the same fate as the Conservatives at the moment. The ties with business and commerce with MPs needs to be comprehensivelt severed. MPs are there to serve the people not businesses. I appreciate the old argument that Labour takes money from the unions but it is time this got dismissed for the nonsence it is because the whole point of the unions is to protect people from abuses. The whole model for capitalism does undermine democracy and takes the power away from the people. Appointing people from bsuienss as MPs is only going to ensure that these abuses continue.
 
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