markavfc40

I'm not naive enough to think that plenty of people don't hold these views mate. I think the thing that surprised me most is that it was in a work meeting, that it was everyone in the room freely expressing really racist views and that they made the comments in front of me who they don't really know that well.

It certainly wasn't the first time they'd expressed views like this amongst each other given how comfortable they were and how easily the conversation flowed. I'd imagine between them it was just a given that they all thought that immigrants are not welcome and that they'd all expressed those views to each other some time ago so there was no reason for them to get into why they felt like that.

These are all well educated people. Two other Principal Engineers, a Senior Engineer and the team manager. Three men all early 60s, one woman in her late 30s. I wouldn't say there was a ringleader as they all openly contributed and the conversation flowed naturally. They weren't just agreeing/going along with what one individual said they all had plenty to say. I work in a team of 11 people and in terms of racial/ethnic diversity it is none existent. All would identify as white British. I think I possibly found out today why that may be. Thank you to all who have taken the time to reply by the way. It has been really helpful.

Just to put a bit of context into that I am about to post. I started working for my current employer almost a year ago and my work is around 50% site based and 50% office based and the 50% office based work I do from home ( I am a highways engineer). Over the last year I have probably met up with collages collectively for meetings around 10 times. The team I work with there are 10 other people and they have all worked together for years. Today I went into the office for a meeting with four colleagues, including my manager. At the end of the meeting the subject of a local hotel being used to house asylum seekers arose. I then had to sit through some of the worst racism from everyone else in the room I have probably ever heard. To give a flavour of it one person commented (and the rest agreed) that they'd love to have a political party to vote for who said they would get the navy to shoot out of the water any boats crossing the channel with immigrants on , another commented that what this country needs is a Hitler type to take over and a bit of ethnic cleansing and another felt we (I assume he meant white people) would end up being slaves to the immigrants. I have heard some mild racism (compared with the above) from some of my colleagues before but today I sat there gobsmacked. I have got to be honest though I didn't give my thoughts which would have been the complete opposite from them. Instead I stayed dumb and now I feel really bad about that and feel that I should have spoke up even though my opinions would have gone down like a lead balloon. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. What would others have done in the above situation and what should I do now?

Latest line coming from the Tories is that disabled people must work from home so they can do their duty or lose their benefits. Do these self serving bastards feel they have done their duty over the last 14 years. They really are scum.

It is a future that they are not going to be part of so they won't give a shit about that. I think in terms of any surplus though I can't see Labour using any extra money to pay down debt when they get in. Any surplus will have to go into getting public services, especially the NHS and social care, back to something like the standard they were at 14 years ago. The Tories are leaving behind a huge mess.

It is certainly pointless for the masses. According to Martin Lewis only 4% of us pay inheritance tax.

It goes beyond that as a lot of the press aren't now giving what is coming out in this enquiry the level of coverage it warrants. It is disgusting how low even the right wing rags/media have sunk over the last 5-6 years especially when you consider they were already lower than a Dachshunds foreskin.

As someone who has always been an advocate for those of us who can afford to paying more taxes to fund better public services and to give those in need/with the least a leg up and provide us all with a decent safety net I find it quite remarkable what they have done in fairness. We have the highest post war tax burden and at the same time they have decimated our public services and made our welfare state one of the least generous in Europe.

On the face of it there is no denying it appears Southgate has done very well. Certainly if we just look at where we got to in tournaments. Semi final of world cup, final of euros, quarter final of world cup. It is strange then that I'd imagine less than 10% of football supporters would want him managing their club, certainly at Prem league level. I certainly wouldn't want him managing Villa. He has had some unbelievable talent to pick from but I think where he has done well is that he has brought together some great players and got them in the main to get on and not have any dressing room cliques/avoided any club cliques. Better managers than him have also had some great players to choose from but have failed due to not getting players to gel. You only have to listen to the likes of Ferdinand and Lampard talk to realise that. Where he is massively found wanting though is tactically. He has been very fortunate with the draws we have had in every tournament he has been to but whenever we have faced a team on paper as good as us we have fallen short, often well short. As England manager 95%+ of the time other sides you face will be inferior. It is in the games where you face a side on your level where a manager will then need to really show his worth. As a club manager he'd regularly be up against teams on paper as good as his sides, and depending on who he managed may well often face sides on paper better than his. He wouldn't last 5 minutes in that environment again which is why most supporters wouldn't want him anywhere near their club. I expect the same outcome at the euros next year as we have seen in all the tournaments he has taken us to. We'll get as far as the draw dictates because as soon as we face a side on our level we'll be out. I am sure in 10, 20, 30 years time some will look back and think what a great job he did, looking purely at his record. Those of us who lived it though will know that it was just another case of another England manager having a great group of players and falling short. This time not because he couldn't manage the egos and get them to gel but because on the few occasions it got tough he was found wanting tactically.

I see the Tories have pretty much now come full circle in 13 years and are back to targeting benefit claimants in what is already one of the least generous welfare systems in Europe. This from a bunch of parasites who have creamed off billions upon billions of our money for their friends/family/donors. .

It is not her views on leaving the ECHR that got her sacked though is it. It was the homelessness being a lifestyle choice crap she spouted and the fact she incited the far right and undermined the Police. Having got rid of her Sunak had the perfect opportunity to reset and move away from some of the nonsense Braverman and her predecessors/fellow far right Tory looney tunes have spouted about the ECHR/leftie lawyers scuppering their plans to stop the boats, but no at the first opportunity he doubled down on it. I would not be in the least bit surprised if they go into the next election with leaving the ECHR as one of their big manifesto pledges. They love to have someone/something to point the finger at for their own failings.

Are they potentially setting all this up so they go into the next election with their main policy being Get Leaving The ECHR Done. Doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Get Brexit Done does it.

‘We’ll change the law to say the water is safe’

Martin Lewis makes a great point here: The bottom line is that at best the masses are still becoming increasingly worse off just not by quite as much as we have been.

So Sunak starts the day claiming credit for something that is f all to do with anything he has done - the fall in inflation. Then within a couple of hours gets the news his governments Rwanda plan is unlawful which over shadows the news he was wrongly claiming credit for. The guy can't catch a break can he. Love it.

Controlling inflation is the domain of the Bank of England not the government so Sunak/Hunt etc claiming this as their success is bullshit. There was a reason Sunak said he would half inflation by the end of the year as he knew that the huge rise in energy bills that happened last October would drop out of this months figures so F all to do with anything he has done.

In fairness mate I see it that whilst they are infighting then they haven't got the time or collective will to do anymore damage to all the things you mention and more. Any period over the last 14 years when they have been united enough to implement change it has always been for the worse. I'm more than happy to see them spend the next year stabbing each other in the front (the days of them bothering to back stab are long gone) as whilst they are pre occupied with that they aren't doing more damage to us.

Cold War Steve bang on the money again.

The more I think about this bringing Cameron back into the fold the less sense it makes. Seeing him hardly evokes memories of halcyon days does it. The mess the NHS is in started in 2010 when he arrived in number 10 and him and Osborne are the instigators of the dire state it finds itself in now. That also applies to social care, the huge increases in homelessness and child poverty, dire state of finances in local authorities, lack of growth in the economy since 2010, lack of housing etc etc etc. Everything stems back to Cameron/Osborne and their ideological values dressed up and hidden behind the need for austerity. And then to top it off he is also a major reason for the Brexit shambles which he ran away from leaving a country as divided as I can ever remember it ever being. Now Sunak sees him as a cog to help improve his/the Tories fortunes. They are well and truly out of road and finished aren't they.

The Tories have 350 mp's but have had to scramble around to make Cameron a peer so he can be made Foreign Secretary. It says it all about the lack of talent in the Tory party. You've got to think there must a lot of pissed off Tory MP's at the moment. Those on the right and those pissed off that they were overlooked for a failed former PM who is not even a MP.

Gove rocked up at the pro Palestine protest today. Just as he rocked up at the anti lock down protest in 2021.

I know anyone with more than half a brain cell knows these far right thugs have rocked up today looking to cause trouble but what is their official bullshit line for walking around acting all hard chanting 'Allah is a peado' and 'There ain't no black in the Union Jack'?