Off Topic The Politics Thread

He forgot to mention how sexually attractive he found himself!

 

She’s 65? Wowzers! How hot must she have been when she was youngerer?

 

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The mess left by the anti-pollution, climate change protesters in Hyde Park.

 

Fake news apparently. Shocked.

 

Source?

 

Oops, another foot in mouth clanger from the Party who await government. As for extra Bank Holidays every day will be a Bank Holiday under Labour as unemployment will soar...

 

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Hyde Park this morning after the clean up

 

why have a holiday for the saint of another country

 

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i thought there was a shortage of old bill
must be someone important in that tent

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32 conflicts are currently raging around the world today.
8 are border disputes, the other 24 are to decide whose imaginary friend is the most peaceful.

 

Harry Khachatrian‏Verified account@Harry1T6 Apr 21
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“Should we say Christians?”
“No, that’s too strong”
“People who celebrate Easter?”
“Still too strong. Let’s go with, Easter worshippers”
“But they don’t worshi-“
“EASTER WORSHIPPERS”

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The President of The United States of America, President Donald J. Trump, accompanied by Mrs Melania Trump, has accepted an invitation from Her Majesty The Queen to pay a State Visit to the UK.

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RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The 'Stop Brexit' circus must be run out of town
By Richard Littlejohn for the Daily Mail
Published: 11:07 AEST, 23 April 2019 | Updated: 11:07 AEST, 23 April 2019

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• Brexit circus is back in town, bonkers as ever. MPs are returning to Westminster two weeks older, but none the wiser.
  One might have hoped Mother Theresa's walking holiday would have allowed her to clear her head, to accept the futility of her situation and do the decent thing.
  The Easter recess should have afforded a time for sober reflection, away from the madhouse, an opportunity for politicians to see themselves as the rest of us see them. We should be so lucky. Instead, the circular firing squad has reassembled and hostilities have been resumed.
  Mrs May appears to possess not an iota of self-awareness. Rather than preparing a dignified resignation statement, she has apparently spent the past few days contemplating a Cabinet reshuffle.
  In what parallel universe does she believe rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic is a sensible solution, while the captain who deliberately navigated the ship into an iceberg remains on the bridge?
  She's already promised to resign, not once but twice. Her authority is shot to pieces. She has been humiliated at home and abroad. Her dismal, defeatist withdrawal 'deal' is dead as a dodo.
  Her MPs treat her with undisguised contempt. Her own party activists want her gone, yesterday.
  
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  Frankly, I can't even begin to get my head around the idea. It's insane, evidence of abject failure and dereliction of duty on the part not just of the Prime Minister, but the entire political class. Sixty per cent of Conservative Party members say they intend to vote for Nigel Farage's Brexit Party if the Euro elections go ahead.
  Not only that, but those same members would make Farage second favourite only to Boris Johnson to succeed May as leader and PM. That is, of course, if Farage was a Tory. Which he is, at heart. Not a Theresa May Tory, obviously. Or a Ken Clarke Tory.
  But Farage was a Conservative before he resigned to join Ukip over Johnny Major's refusal to hold a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
  It was the Tory high command's slavish devotion to all things European which forced him out and motivated him to campaign tirelessly for our departure from the EU. When he succeeded spectacularly in winning a Leave vote in 2016, there was an opportunity to bring him back into the fold. Ukip was over.
  Farage may not have wanted to rejoin the Conservative Party. He'd had his fill of politics after years of selfless campaigning and was entitled to seek his fortune elsewhere.
  But at the time, in the wake of the referendum, I suggested May should invite him to join a broad, cross-party, pro-Brexit coalition to negotiate our departure, along with Labour Brexiteers such as Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart.
  
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  Theresa May has put Britain's fate in the hands of the likes of John Bercow
  Farage, like Boris, has an appeal beyond traditional Conservatism. He reaches out to patriotic Labour voters, too, five million of whom voted Leave.
  Naturally, my advice was rejected, because May never intended to honour the clear instruction of the British people for a clean break.
  Those pro-Brexit Tories she did include, such as David Davis and Boris Johnson, she first drove to distraction and then drove out. But ask yourself this: who would you rather have speaking for Britain in Brussels — Farage or May?
  Contrast his magnificent public putdown of the EU's Herman Van Rompuy — 'You have the charisma of a damp rag', etc — with May's pitiful, supine, grovelling, on-all-fours crawling to Barnier and Drunker. She approached the talks with all the dignity of a beggar sitting outside Westminster Tube station, yet still seems bewildered as to why they treated her with such overt disdain.
  In the process, she has repelled millions of traditional Tory voters, brought her own party to the brink of electoral extinction, and put Britain's fate in the hands of nonentities such as Pixie Balls-Cooper and that pipsqueak poison dwarf Jean-Claude Bercow.
  She has also managed the almost impossible feat of making O.J. Corbyn, an obscure, unreconstructed, terrorist-loving Seventies Marxist throwback, electable.
  Unbelievably, she has been reduced to begging Corbyn for support to get her risible 'deal' through the Commons, even if that means diluting it still further.
  I doubt Corbyn will oblige. If he does, Labour's price would be permanent membership of a customs union (i.e. No Brexit) or the second referendum favoured by Nonce Finder General Tom Watson, Corbyn's deputy.
  But we've twice voted to leave the EU, in the referendum and subsequent General Election, and the politicians have reneged on their promises by moving heaven and earth to stop Brexit ever happening.
  So why should we believe they would take any notice of another referendum — which would be rigged in favour of Remain, anyway — if the result was the same again?
  It's not too late to salvage something from this clustershambles, but only if May is defenestrated without further delay.
  It's reported that the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee will tell her this week that it's time to go. But she's already said she's leaving. Just not when. That's if she ever had any intention of standing down, except on her own terms, which I doubt.
  It's impossible to believe a word she says any more. She's lied to the British people, she's lied to her party, she's lied to Parliament.
  My guess is that despite any assurance she gives, she will — like Gordon Brown — have to be dragged screaming and kicking out of No 10. By then, whoever takes over, it might be too late to prevent the catastrophe of Corbyn winning the next election.
  If that happens, it won't be Farage's fault.
  He's not the villain here. I had a pint or three with him recently and, believe me, he never wanted a return to frontline politics.
  But having given half his life to fighting for Britain's withdrawal from the EU, he couldn't stand back and watch as his Brexit dream was betrayed by May and the political class at Westminster.
  Freed of some of the Ukip 'fruitcakes', Farage's Brexit Party could be a far more potent political threat, to both the Tories and Labour. I know one or two of the candidates and they are proper people, serious players.
  They are prepared to make sacrifices of their existing careers to rescue Brexit. They're just like Peter Finch in the film Network: mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more.
  I still hope the Tories find a way, even at this late stage, to jettison May immediately and choose a leader committed to Brexit, so that our participation in these ludicrous EU elections isn't necessary. But I'm not holding my breath.
  The polls already indicate the Faragistas surging ahead. Let's hope they annihilate both main parties, teaching the Tories and Labour a lesson they deserve to have drummed repeatedly into their thick skulls.
  Who knows, we may be about to see the realignment of British politics we hoped might come about in 2016.
  Yes, Theresa May is ultimately responsible and must pay for her betrayal. But the entire, squalid political class, with a few honourable exceptions, must shoulder the blame, too.
  It is time the tawdry Stop Brexit circus packed its tents and was run out of town for good.

 

EU proposal to call vegan burgers and sausages 'disks' and 'tubes' would cause 'widespread administrative chaos'

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An EU proposal to ban names like 'burger' and 'sausage' for vegan and vegetarian food products would cause "confusion and time wasting".
That's according to charity The Vegan Society, which added the “unreasonable and costly” proposal threatened to cause “widespread administrative chaos”.
If the proposal is voted into effect next month, vegan and veggie burgers could become 'discs' and sausages 'tubes'.
The charity said the measures would not only affect vegans but also prove costly for public authorities that currently serve vegan food.
These include government departments, health providers, education establishments, police forces and prisons.

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The measures could prove costly, claims the Vegan Society. Credit: PA
The proposed amendment banning the use of the words burger, sausage or steak for products that do not contain meat was passed by the European Parliament’s agricultural committee earlier this month.
This came as part of a revision of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
But the Vegan Society says it contravenes EU consumers’ rights to be informed adequately as to how goods can be used and denies the vegan community the benefits offered by EU law on clear labelling.
It claims that alternative vocabulary put forward such as 'vegetable disc' does not constitute clear food labelling under EU consumer law because such terms are not easily interpreted.
The charity has legally challenged the plans in a formal letter to EU officials, signed by its chief executive George Gill, on the grounds of breaching fundamental human rights of vegans.

• Subway becomes latest fast-food outlet to offer vegan options
• Pret a Manger targets vegans and vegetarians with new menu
• Burger King joins plant-based trend as it unveils Impossible Whopper

Mr Gill said: “As consumers are increasingly moving away from eating animals, the demand for vegan products is growing.
"There’s no denying that meat, dairy and egg industries are feeling threatened by this and desperately trying to restrict the marketing of vegan products.
“These proposals have little to do with consumer protection and instead are motivated by economic concerns of the meat industry.
"We are calling on EU officials to reject these irrational measures for vegan meat alternatives to be banned from using the qualified conventional terms everyone has been using for decades.”
Dr Jeanette Rowley, vegan rights advocate at The Vegan Society, said the proposal is "not aligned" with EU policy on respect for diversity.
She said: “It is not in the public interest and, if implemented, would have a disproportional impact across society by affecting the normal daily functioning of all public and private entities that provide food.
“This EU measure threatens to cause widespread administrative chaos, confusion and time wasting trying to understand how to plan a meal that includes a veggie disc or a veggie tube.
"The widespread impact of this unreasonable and costly proposal should not be underestimated.”
The charity said it would escalate its challenge if the EU does not respond within 21 days.

 

Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland, surprised me (hadn’t really heard her speak before) with a very strong performance on the wireless just now, on the murder of the journalist, power sharing and full control of the useless Mishal Hussein who was obviously trying to get her to show some kind of empathy to the murderers. She didn’t, condemned in incredibly forceful terms. She also pointed out that the Lyra McKee was a big campaigner for equal rights and same sex marriage, one of the issues the DUP is using to block a return to power sharing. Arlene Foster will be at Lyra’s funeral today, presumably if she really believes her religious dogma, to wave her off to hell for being gay.

Meanwhile the UK government, unlike the US and Australia, is going to allow Huawei to be paid lots of money to provide bits of the country’s 5G network. But only the ‘simple bits’ that can’t be used for spying. The fact that simply turning the ‘simple bits’ off, or pretending that they have ‘technical problems’ will bring the country to a complete standstill seems not be be thought a risk. Huawei is obliged by Chinese law to cooperate with state security institutions, like all other Chinese companies and (I think) citizens.

Beyond belief that a government that has gone on about sovereignty and independence can contract out a critical bit of national infrastructure to any other country, let alone one with a record of cyber attacks and espionage like China. Are there no British companies that can build antennae and fibre optic cables?

For an unnecessary reminder of the nature of the Chinese state, peaceful pro democracy protesters in Hong Kong have today been jailed for 16 months. Despite peaceful protest being one of the rights supposedly guaranteed under the 1997 handover agreement. I’ll be interested to see, what, if any, pathetic response the Foreign Office provides, I’m assuming none in case it upsets our economic relationship. What passes for a government in Hong Kong is planning to change extradition laws so in future peaceful protesters can simply be sent to China to disappear. China executes more people per year than the rest of the world put together.

 

Simple answer to your question is no. Currently, the existing four mobile network providers use a combination of OEMs in their front end sites - EE use Huawei and Nokia (Finland), O2 use Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson (Sweden), Vodafone use Huawei and Nokia, whilst Three use Nokia and Samsung (South Korea). The emergency services network Airwave (currently Motorola - USA) is being upgraded to Nokia (they refused the tender by Huawei).

The backhaul (from the mobile sites to the main switching equipment) is generally run by BT who use a lot of Huawei, although I'm led to believe that this is to be swapped out for SIAE who are Italian, or Cisco who are American.

I've worked on all these networks, and installed all the different manufacturers equipment - the Huawei stuff is cheap in comparison to the others, which is why they want to use it. I don't even like having their operational software on my laptop, I'm certain it has a backdoor to allow them access if they wish, so I have it disabled whenever I'm working on other equipment.

I certainly would recommend AGAINST owning either a Huawei or Xiaomi device - they may be cheap and have great functionality but their security would put me off - there was a program on TV recently digging into these security issues, and at a conference the audience of people from the likes of GCHQ and other security places were asked who would own a Huawei handset - not one person put their hand up!

On the good side, the industry has been in limbo awaiting the outcome of this review, so hoping that there will now be a raft of projects to get my teeth into!!

 

I love having experts around, cheers.

Any bit of tech seems to have at least something from China in it nowadays. My company, for which confidentiality is of critical importance, is switching us from HP (doubtless built in China) to Lenovo laptops. I’ve told them that I’m hanging on to my HP until I retire, the Lenovo is a horrible bit of kit, really flimsy and like you I’m sure it has the capacity to send anything on it to Shanghai. False economy. Mind you my firm has the most chaotic approach to IT I can imagine. Currently running three different video conferencing systems, everyone has apple phones and a lot of us work iPads, but laptops all run on Microsoft (whatever is claimed the OS’ do not talk to each other effectively), multiple ‘secure’ platforms for sharing information in the cloud across teams, it’s nuts. And yet the security to actually open my laptop up is intense, it can take 20 minutes, and every couple of weeks IT security send us a fake phishing email - if you click on a link in three in any one year you are sent somewhere for retraining. Schizophrenic.