So who was the Government-appointed scapegoat for Grenfell Tower? Was it Nick Paget-Brown, leader of the council and the man who blatantly lied when he said sprinklers were not installed because residents rejected the idea as it was disruptive when no such consultation ever took place, or was it council CEO Nicholas Holgate who happens to be a public servant rather than a Tory counsillor? Of course it was the latter.
No doubt there were many "non-jobs" in nationalised industries. On the other hand, an employed person pays tax and didn't need massive welfare handouts. Today a larger proportion of the employed workforce need welfare handouts and many of them aren't guaranteed any work! Admittedly, those nationalised industries still required a lot of subsidy (though not all did), but today we appear to be subsidising rail (for example) more than when it was nationalised, for which in return it employs less people and a lot of the profits go out of the country. Heaven help us if a public industry should make a profit - so for example when the East Coast rail franchise was taken over from the failed franchisee, it then made a profit while in public hands but was then immediately sold off again. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/27/privatising-east-coast-rail-rip-off
For the past week the temperature in Athens has been in the mid-30s every single day. I mention this because, for the past week, refuse collectors across Greece have been on strike in protest against the interior ministry being willing to allow up to 10,000 workers employed by the interior ministry (which included binmen, obviously) to become unemployed.
And so it continues...... Passions flare as Turkey excludes evolution from textbooks http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40384471 We already knew that Erdogan was on a dangerous course to drive Turkey from the secular ideals of Kemal Ataturk, but with his oppression of the free Press and general freedom of speech and now this Islamic fundamental influencing of the education he is certainly taking the state back into a very dark age. I used to live in Istabul and fear for my friends there!!
The thing is the Tories think they'll get away with it, as the worst that could happen is a piddling fine that could be paid out of petty cash. Now if the punishment was a snap by-election in any seat where expenses rigging had occurred, that would buck up their ideas a bit.
The call centre was based in Neath, South Wales, a town that still hasn't recovered from the Thatcher years. The vast majority of the working age population are very down on their luck, and when the advertisements went up offering £12 an hour work (if they did 12 hour shifts and £8 if they did less) people were falling over themselves to get the gig. Naturally, they were going against their own political beliefs for the most part, but who wouldn't in order to feed their family? Since the gigs packed up, most haven't been paid in full (word of mouth, I'd a relative working there) and some have been overpaid by stupid numbers (twice expected pay etc.) It's a really cruel trick to play on a really deprived area, the very least they could have done was keep the books right. But it's a solid Labour heartland, Christina Rees the MP is a real pig in a red rosette candidate, she's very difficult to get a hold of if you're local, and she spent most of the GE campaigning elsewhere in Wales. And if your own MP doesn't give a damn about you, why the **** should the tories?
Probably the fact that he's a deluded, infantile ****wit may have something to do with it? Just a thought.......
Notable moron Priti Patel is back in the news, claiming that the snap election that saw the Tories lose their majority and their mandate wasn't a mistake. In fact, here is the exchange in its full facepalming glory... please log in to view this image I wish I could say it stops there, but it doesn't. Oh no. As is becoming increasingly obvious, the Tories have begun plotting for life after the Dire Leader, and we're already getting to the point where they're not exactly being subtle about it, for example this quote from Iain Duncan Smith that is dripping with oiminous undertones... And one of the names that's started gaining traction as the next Tory leader? Notable moron Priti Patel - or to give her a more fitting name...
Turkey LGBT: Police stifle Istanbul Gay Pride rally - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40395472 And another example of the ever-increasing grip of the authoritarian, ultra-conservative and fundamental Islamist regime in Turkey. Certainly will not assist their plans on EU accession, but if they can drop the 'Islam' bit, Erdogan would certainly be in Trump's sights for the 51st State!!
£1.5billion for ten DUP votes. £150M each. The DUP MPs are in the wrong job - they should become football agents. Funny how May can find money to spend when it suits her.
Trump and Fox News both seem to have suddenly decided that collusion with the Russians wouldn't actually be illegal. That's funny. I wonder how and why they've independently arrived upon that at the same time?
Funny how after so, after bleating the slogan "magic money trees" about the Labour manifesto, the Tories managed to find a magic money tree of their own when they needed to find £1.5bn to cling on to power. Also, are we supposed to forget that the Dire Leader herself said that a government being propped up by nationalist parties "should scare us all" in that Facebook meltdown last month? Because I haven't.
Letting Trump in the White House is like giving it to Al Capone and HIS gang....now May in parliament. Bonnie Parker...perhaps?Shoot'em up....