Johnson's visit to Scotland today is... interesting. Definitely pushing the BetterTogether message hard, I'm sure the nationalists will appreciate the bump in the polls.

I don't know exactly how to parse the support schemes though, whether they are enough or not enough for Scottish communities hit hard by the pandemic.

Dumb f*** manages to name three of Glasgow’s Satellite towns and then the 4th also on the west of the country. Like if you’re gonna try and talk about 4 towns in Scotland to demonstrate you know literally anything about it then at least go for 4 places that are sort of spread out. Not three within a 20 mile radius.

 

 

 

 

 

The current rhetoric of “only the union could have done the furlough scheme, an indie Scotland would have let you die Hahahaha pls don’t leave” really irritates me. Like as if an independent Scotland, Wales or NI couldn’t have done the furlough scheme?! The UK gov is borrowing money for it, not as if we’re dipping into reserves. 🤷🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

 

Unless of course I missed the bankruptcy, mass unemployment and starvation of the populations of: Slovakia, Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, San Marino etc etc etc.

 

The UK Gov and Unionists can shove it. An independent Scotland would have been able to provide support that was more tailored to the circumstances of Scotland. There’s gaps the SNP has been calling to be filled for ages, the sectoral support for areas of the rural economy that isn’t present in England and therefore England isn’t subbing and therefore Scotland is scrambling to fund from within the little resources it has (Holyrood has no ability to borrow for day-to-day spending and so has to balance its books). It’s happening but it’s not as much as the gov would like and they are calling out for more flexibility to fill the gaps

@1289207337014767621

 

Some absolute choices here. Evgeny Lebedev? I'm glad the days of cronyism are long gone.

 

Seeing as the UK doesn't like to be ruled by unelected bureaucrats, it's time to abolish the House of Lords.

The list of peerages is extraordinary. In what other "democracy" would the PM be able to appoint to a legislative chamber his own brother along with the owner of a paper (the Evening Standard) that was effectively part of his mayoral campaign twice and the editor of the paper at the time?

A lot of people who would normally be sympathetic to the Tories have been particularly aghast at Claire Fox being awarded a peerage, due to her defending the IRA bombing of Warrington (which I don't think she ever apologised for), as well as being affiliated with a with a Revolutionary Communist Party who denied the Bosnian genocide.

 

I've said before that I want the House of Lords reformed, although I wouldn't want it as an elected chamber (at the moment, although it's not as well known, a good lot of the members that join the House of Lords are elected), instead I would want its membership to be decided by random from any interested person that wants to join the HoL, with anyone successful in the ballot serving for a 10 year period. That way it would be more representative of the population of the UK, and allows it to fulfill what I perceive to be its main function, which is to be a chamber for scrutiny.

A lot of people who would normally be sympathetic to the Tories have been particularly aghast at Claire Fox being awarded a peerage, due to her defending the IRA bombing of Warrington (which I don't think she ever apologised for), as well as being affiliated with a with a Revolutionary Communist Party who denied the Bosnian genocide.

 

I've said before that I want the House of Lords reformed, although I wouldn't want it as an elected chamber (at the moment, although it's not as well known, a good lot of the members that join the House of Lords are elected), instead I would want its membership to be decided by random from any interested person that wants to join the HoL, with anyone successful in the ballot serving for a 10 year period. That way it would be more representative of the population of the UK, and allows it to fulfill what I perceive to be its main function, which is to be a chamber for scrutiny.

There are 92 members who are sort-of elected. The only people able to stand are those who would have been hereditary peers before most of them were abolished. They are also the only people able to vote. In both cases, there is a further restriction - they have to be members of the same party as the peer being replaced. That doesn't equate to "a good lot" being elected in my book.

The list of peerages is extraordinary. In what other "democracy" would the PM be able to appoint to a legislative chamber his own brother along with the owner of a paper (the Evening Standard) that was effectively part of his mayoral campaign twice and the editor of the paper at the time?

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the aforementioned Evening Standard has used the headline "Man in his 50s arrested on suspicion of rape" when other news outlets have considered the fact that the man concerned is a Tory MP to be worth mentioning in their headlines. I'm sure we should also accept that the fact that the owner is the son of a former KGB officer does not raise even the hint of a suspicion of the merest possibility of Russian involvement in British politics.

 

BTW, if you know (or think you know) the identity of the MP, DO NOT mention it here.

Another example of how the media tries to build up your worldview, this time ineptly enough that everyone noticed.

 

As for the MP himself, obviously we should not do speculation but the details we've been given means there is a limited list of who it could be. Though as of yet no charges have been made, I have to wonder if this means there's going to be a by-election soon - surely if found guilty then whoever he is, he cannot remain an MP.

Another example of how the media tries to build up your worldview, this time ineptly enough that everyone noticed.

 

As for the MP himself, obviously we should not do speculation but the details we've been given means there is a limited list of who it could be. Though as of yet no charges have been made, I have to wonder if this means there's going to be a by-election soon - surely if found guilty then whoever he is, he cannot remain an MP.

Except that all elections are suspended until next May. Of course, the chances of the case going to trial by then (if there is a trial at all) are slim.

Except that all elections are suspended until next May. Of course, the chances of the case going to trial by then (if there is a trial at all) are slim.

 

 

Only in England. There are local by-elections in Scotland scheduled to take place in October.

Only in England. There are local by-elections in Scotland scheduled to take place in October.

Oh, thanks for that. I didn’t realise.

So while the Conservatives continue to let a MP accused of rape to continue doing his job...

 

disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox is confirmed as the source of the leaked papers from Russian Hackers™ that were used during the election campaign to show the NHS was on the table. He's my second favourite Tory to see failing, after Grayling of course.

Fox was probably sending details to his mate Adam Werrity and copied the Kremlin in by mistake.

It's hard to keep up with the lies and corruption from this ghastly shower. We now learn that yet another company with links to the Tories has landed a government contract without having to bother with the tedious process of any sort of competition. This time, it is a contract for handling part of the Covid PR campaign which has gone to the company that handled part of the Tory election campaign. Their involvement in deceptions such as rebranding the Tory website as a fact-checking site and publishing a fake Labour manifesto, as well as handling campaigns for other right-wing parties elsewhere, hasn't been a barrier to them being bunged £3 million of public money.

@1290393641823985667

 

I'm sure they'll distract us all with something else tomorrow.

@1290393641823985667

 

I'm sure they'll distract us all with something else tomorrow.

 

Two things for me - I am surprised the MP has not been suspended while an investigation is pending. But if they removed the whip or suspended the member would that mean their indentity is leaked to the press?

So while the Conservatives continue to let a MP accused of rape to continue doing his job...

 

disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox is confirmed as the source of the leaked papers from Russian Hackers™ that were used during the election campaign to show the NHS was on the table. He's my second favourite Tory to see failing, after Grayling of course.

According to the Guardian. the emails were from a personal account rather than a government or parliamentary account. Given all the furore over Hillary Clinton's use of a personal account, why was he using a personal account for commercially sensitive communication? That applies even more for a minister who had already been sacked once for being a security risk.

@1291244082145177600

 

No corruption to see here, absolutely no cronyism and no looting of public funds.

 

The amount this government gets away with is disgusting.

In the meantime, Robert Jenrick is back. You remember him. He's the one who illegally granted planning permission to Tory donor Richard Desmond in a decision he rushed through to save Desmond a multi-million pound surcharge which would have been used to help the poorest residents of Tower Hamlets, one of the UK's poorest boroughs.

 

This same Jenrick has published proposals for reforming the planning system. I say reform, actually it's more like abolish. Approval of major housing developments is effectively a two-stage process at the moment. First, local councils have to draw up a local plan. That is a long and detailed process - I've been involved in one so I say that from experience. It currently takes between five and seven years in most cases - not because it is dragged out unnecessarily but because it is detailed and is subject to consultation. Jenrick wants to shorten that process to 30 months.

 

The local plan will designate certain areas to be used for housing. The second stage of the current process involves detailed planning applications for the site where the developer sets out how many and what type of homes there will be. That gives local residents a further opportunity to make their views known and for local councillors to determine whether the application should be approved, subject to the planning laws in operation at the time and the local plan. These applications may be several years after the local plan was completed. The government wants to abolish this step. In other words, developers (many of whom just happen to be generous donors to the Conservative Party) can use relatively broad-brush designations in the local plan to go ahead with building homes.

 

Jenrick also wants to limit councils' power to regulate the amount of affordable housing. The current system doesn't work terribly well. All too often, a specified amount of affordable housing is one of the conditions attached to an application being approved but developers then go back to the council much later and insist that the amount has to be reduced to make the project economically viable. That, though, is not a reason to abandon the whole concept altogether.

 

The government claim to be abolishing red tape. They say that the process takes too long. What they don't say (I'm sure it's because they have forgotten rather than them finding the facts inconvenient) is that the vast majority of applications for major developments are approved, often with changes proposed by council officers or councillors). They have also ignored the fact that the number of homes approved for building but where no work has been done is approximately one million.

Boris Johnson is apparently addressing his parliamentary party tonight at 5.30pm, although hasn't said what it's about. Rumours that he's either going to resign or call a General Election (cue Brenda from Bristol), although it is likely to be something a lot more dull.

No way would there be a general election before the scheduled date.

 

I expect it will be another of his classic "if you don't vote with me you'll lose the whip" moments.

 

He's not due to resign until January so his successor can blame no deal on him and pretend like they're a new administration...