tonyh29 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 people really need to find other things to get worked up about ... I bet the authors of both articles would have happily taken one of the honours had one headed their way this is a country that twice voted a dog as the winner of a talent show , thus their opinions on honours being devalued, debased, discredited, egregious, grubby, tawdry, tainted, tarnished , can safely be ignored 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 (edited) 21 minutes ago, tonyh29 said: people really need to find other things to get worked up about ... I bet the authors of both articles would have happily taken one of the honours had one headed their way this is a country that twice voted a dog as the winner of a talent show , thus their opinions on honours being devalued, debased, discredited, egregious, grubby, tawdry, tainted, tarnished , can safely be ignored I can see Cameron's plan. He knows that the establishment will never have the courage to take the knighthood off Phil Green, and so he's doing his best to debase its value by doling them out to every toadying scumbag and hanger-on who maintained his delusion that he was an actual Prime Minister, rather than someone who sat on his hands and did nothing anything anyone will ever remember except arrange the referendum which ended his career. Edited August 4, 2016 by MakemineVanilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 To be honest, I'm enjoying the scandal. It helps show up the honours system for the corrupt nonsense it always was. They've just let the mask slip a bit, is all. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 splutters of outrage over resignation honours lists, whether over allegations of cronyism or cash for honours, have a history almost as long and blotchy as the system itself. Grauniad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 3 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: They've just let the mask slip a bit, is all. The mask hasn't slipped, the ugly has bulged beyond it's capacity to conceal. Our current leaders in a nutshell. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post snowychap Posted August 4, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted August 4, 2016 I see the Beeb have given Dominic Sandbrook a few hours to toss himself off over 'Mrs Thatcher'. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 43 minutes ago, snowychap said: I see the Beeb have given Dominic Sandbrook a few hours to toss himself off over 'Mrs Thatcher'. I watched about 10 minutes of that, it was weird wasn't it? I don't think I've heard of him before. Some bizarre little fat boy singing the praises of poor misunderstood matronly thatcher. Made me a bit queasy so I opted for some records at volume to wash it away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 15 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: I don't think I've heard of him before. I think I left (my) school the term before he joined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 (edited) 39 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: I watched about 10 minutes of that, it was weird wasn't it? I don't think I've heard of him before A quick Mooney leads one to this blog: Quote This blog is written by Dr. Matthew Cooper, an independent researcher and writer on history from East London. I originally started this blog to look at Dominic Sandbrook’s history of Britain from 1974 to 1974, Seasons in Sun, line by line with the object assessing the degree to which this is in any way an accurate or grounded history. This reflected my view that his previous three books covering the preceding twenty years of British were shoddy work, being based more an an appeal to popular prejudice than a scholarly attempt to understand the past. The line by line process was slow, and has stalled on a number of occasions, but I intend to return to it from time to time. I will be moving most of this content to my general history blog http://britishcontemporaryhistory.com/ under the “The real 1970s” tab in the autumn of 2014. This blog has expanded a little to look at Sandbrook’s other work. His 2013 BBC series Cold War Britain set a new low for TV history and seemed to me to mark his final move from academic historian to right-wing propagandist. His regular column in the Daily Mail too has shown that Sandbrook is now more interested in feeding that paper’s readers considerable prejudices than critically understanding history. I will be maintaining this blog to keep an eye on Sandbrook’s increasingly right wing ranting. Edit: Who Dr Matthew Cooper is, though, gawd only knows. Edited August 4, 2016 by snowychap 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 I didn't watch it all, but I'm genuinely amazed he's an actual 'historian'. He didn't appear to have any grasp on reality. But a quick scan of the article above and a quick wiki and yes it would appear he has 'form'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 8, 2016 Share Posted August 8, 2016 Troubled Families report 'suppressed' Quote An unfavourable official evaluation of the government's flagship policy response to the 2011 riots has been suppressed, BBC Newsnight has learned. The analysis found that the Troubled Families programme had "no discernible" effect on unemployment, truancy or criminality. The initial scheme sought to "turn around" 120,000 households at a cost of around £400m. The local government department has been approached for comment. The report, which the government has had since last autumn - and seen exclusively by BBC Newsnight - is embarrassing for ministers, who not only implemented the scheme, but have since decided to extend it. They had trumpeted previous assessments of the scheme, which had suggested that 98.9% of families participating in the scheme had been "turned around". Furthermore, a second wave of the Troubled Families programme was announced in June 2013, and began to roll out in April 2015. It covers another 400,000 families at a further cost of £900m. The "troubled families" programme was aimed at those affected by high unemployment, truancy and anti-social behaviour. The scheme was intended to save money and prevent future rioting by reducing the problems of this group of disadvantaged families. A senior civil servant told Newsnight that the report is "damning", and attacked the scheme as "window-dressing". Troubled Families was a project pushed by the last prime minister. In August 2011, shortly after the riots, David Cameron announced that he would "put rocket boosters" under existing plans being drawn up in Whitehall "with a clear ambition that within the lifetime of this Parliament we will turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in the country". ... The evaluation was expected to be published. But the document has been kept under wraps in Whitehall. An official who had read the report told Newsnight that it was being suppressed because of its findings. No measurable impact This official analysis of data from 56 local authorities covering the first 18 months of the programme states: "The lack of obvious effect from the programme across a range of outcomes indicates that the programme did not have a measurable impact on families within the time-frame over which it was possible to observe its effects." It found "no discernible impact on the percentage of adults claiming out-of-work benefits" and "no obvious impact on the likelihood that adults were employed" 12 or 18 months after starting on the programme. The analysis also found it "did not have any discernible impact on adult offending" seven to 18 months after the family was booked into the programme. They added: "Whilst it was more difficult to match the treatment and comparison groups when looking at child outcomes, the findings suggested that the programme also had no detectable impact on child offending." Their analysis of truancy got different results depending on how the data was analysed, leading analysts to conclude that "any impact that the programme had on the absence rate was not robust". ...more on link Going by that, I'm surprised they didn't hand out honours for the people in charge of the scheme in Cameron's leaving list. Ah, they'd already given Louise Casey her damehood. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Now we've got Theresa May at the helm and looking out for the little guy, the hard working family, I'd like to think she will sort out the scam that allows the £9Billion Grosvenor Estate to pass to the next generation totally exempt from inheritance tax. Just think of the legal team and tax experts she could employ on this with the money that's been made from all those spare bedroom taxes they've raked in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Meh, it sucks that you can avoid it if you're rich enough, but inheritance tax is absolute bullshit so I find it hard to blame anyone dodging it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted August 11, 2016 Moderator Share Posted August 11, 2016 A rule set up exclusively for the rich, to avoid paying their fair share....I find it almost impossible to believe but I'm sure the champion of the people May will be right on it any day now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Pound down to the lowest in a month again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Boris Johnson highest ranking tory left in charge whilst PM on holiday. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have a stockpile of tinned food and bottled water stashed away somewhere secure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 Tory Party accused of ‘whitewash’ as report finds 13 alleged victims of bullying but exonerates senior figures Quote The father of a young Tory activist who killed himself has said the party’s report into allegations of bullying and sexual assault is a “whitewash” after senior figures were exonerated. Ray Johnson, whose son Elliot committed suicide last year, said there had been a “cover up” after the report said those at the top of the party had not been aware of allegations of bullying of young activists. It came after the Conservative Party published the findings of a report it commissioned into claims against Mark Clarke, the so-called ‘Tatler Tory’ who ran part of the election campaign. A string of allegations against his behaviour had emerged after the death of Mr Johnson, who himself had made claims of bullying against Mr Clarke before killing himself. The report, which was conducted by the legal firm Clifford Chance LLP and published in part on Wednesday, reveals for the first time the full scale of allegations against Mr Clarke. video There were 13 alleged victims of “bullying", “harassment” and “inappropriate conduct” by Mr Clarke including six specific claims of “sexually inappropriate behaviour”, the report finds. Grant Shapps, then co-chair of the Tory Party, and his key aide Paul Abbott were aware of “bullying” claims against Mr Clarke before handing him a key election role, it also concludes. ...more on link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Quote Extraordinary story of how a fracking company is silencing academic criticism with smears and payoffs The sordid story of the geology professor, the fracking company, the old Etonian and the Tory Party fundraiser Pride's Purge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 Quote I'm a DWP call handler and have no time to care about your disability claim... ... I feel like crying too after this call, because I know I have failed this woman in so many ways. No time for me to cry though, there is no break between calls, the headset beeps again immediately and this time it’s a woman with kidney failure. I’m failing her too, and afterwards I will fail the bereaved young father, and this afternoon there will be more and more people I fail to help. And this will continue presumably until the government finally finds a way to do away with benefits entirely, at which point our sick and disabled people will be left with nothing, not even my hurried 23 minutes of script. Grauniad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mockingbird_franklin Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 nothing surprises me with the current bunch of nasty words removed supposedly serving us, worse than the last bunch of words removed by a mile or any of the bunch of words removed we've endured since 1979 or possibly ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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