Off Topic News & Current affairs

When saving the Planet goes wrong: #1 Sainsbury's

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65124883

"The dog wouldn't like it"

 

What happens when we lose all our local butchers because people buy everything at the supermarket. And greengrocers.

 

When saving the Planet goes wrong: #1 Sainsbury's (part 2)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65202523

Sainsbury's claim their new vac packs save 55% plastic.
But it has been pointed out that the old (rigid) plastic packing is much easier to recycle than the flimsy vac packing.
The Supermarket says it will recycle the packing if customers return it to them.
Also that customers will just have to get used to cooking their minced mush beef differently.

Nice consumer relations Sainsburys
A word of advice - get off your high horse.
Don't begin treating your customers the way you treat your suppliers.
No supermarket can strong-arm its customers into behaving the way it wants them to.

 

I use our local butchers, bakers and micro bar unfortunately we’ve lost our greengrocers and I’m in the queue for the local undertakers

 

No kids playing in the local park today. They must all be stuck in traffic jams or at Dover shouting "Are we nearly there yet?"

 

Just about to join the traffic queues leading to London - luckily there’s a pub awaiting me

 

I don't like this Conservative Government and I'm no fan of Rishi Sunak.
But this Labour campaign ad is just plain wrong in my opinion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65211469

When Boris Johnson accused Keir Starmer of defending Jimmy Savile, Johnson was 100% out of order.
And so is this.
If 4,500 perverts who have assaulted kids did escape prison sentences since Sunak became PM then he would have to explain why, particularly if that rate had suddenly increased from whatever it was before.
But the ad doesn't say that.
That number of 4,500 is presumably for the last 13 years, and there is no context - how many more of these scum escaped prison under the Labour administrations of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown? Are Labour suggesting none?

Stating that the 4,500 statistic (though shocking) is a reflection of Rishi Sunak's personal feelings towards perpetrators of this crime goes way too far.
It is an insult to his personal integrity and character as grave as Johnson's insult against Starmer, and indeed it is worse in that it's a sustained campaign in print rather than a stupid remark in the Commons that an idiotic PM refused to apologise for.

In my view Labour has got this tactic badly wrong.
I think it's a very cheap and nasty shot, using a subject that naturally evokes the strongest of emotions.
The issue of the 4,500 - and any more in the years before this Tory Government - should be looked at objectively, because it's not acceptable.
But effectively calling Rishi Sunak a sympathiser with child abusers is not the way.
I think this is the most serious campaigning mistake Starmer's opposition has made so far - by a country mile.

By the way...

Feel free to disagree with my viewpoint on this, but please don't post the Labour ad itself here. It can be viewed on the BBC News website via the link I provided. I understand it is on Tw1tter as well.
In my opinion the ad itself is so inflammatory that I'd have to consider removing it from the thread, and I would rather not be put in the position of having to do that and possibly upset other members.

 

It's a reminder of how capable Labour is of shooting itself in the foot at any given time. They should apologise and get it out of the way. It really is a gift to the Tories. And it's stupid.

 

Anything goes politics. Not that the Tories won't happily print any old ****e (and let's remember Boris in the midst of partygate standing at the microphone in the House of Commons falsely claiming that Kier Starmer defended Jimmy Saville. But two wrongs never make a right, and if that was a disgusting statement by Johnson, this is an equally disgusting one by Labour. As The Penguin says, take it down, apologise and campaign on policies. Doing the same as the Tories is hardly a good way to go if you want to win middle ground voters.

 

Starmer believes he's appearing tough by standing by the sick insinuation that Rishi Sunak sympathises with nonces.
But he isn't.
Even Corbyn and his terrorist mates never tried to sling such stinking mud.

And the excuse that it's just part of a general campaign to paint the PM as soft on immigration, crime, cost of living etc. just doesn't wash.
Labour have descended past the gutter of politics and into the sewer.
And there was no need to. The Tories were successfully making themselves unelectable.
This shows Keir Starmer has very poor judgment in my view. He has misjudged the electorate this time.

 

I was moved when I heard Donald Trump telling of grown policemen crying as he was arrested, apologising to him and saying "2024 Mr Trump"
Brought a tear to my eye.

Also reminded me of something Little Rocket Man said a few years back.
When his father died, I think Kim Jong-Un said the bears in the forests of North Korea were crying.
Sounds rather more likely than Mr Trump's latest account of his arrest.

 

Or the posters on ITTV will cry when Reams hangs up his keyboard

 

According to the BBC, 1 in 4 voters still don't know they will need photo ID to take part in the local council elections in early May;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65272595

I haven't seen any advertising by the Government concerning this crucial change.
How are people supposed to know about it? Nothing is being said apart from online.
And the deadline for sending off to get an ID certificate is getting closer.
~
There will be trouble at polling stations.
And I reckon several million voters will find themselves barred.
All to crack a handful of known voter fraud cases.
Donald Trump would be proud of these new measures. They are an attack on liberal values and the democratic process.
If you were inventing a device to intentionally disenfranchise a huge swathe of the population, mostly those who don't believe in right-wing authoritarianism, you couldn't come up with something more effective than this.

If photo ID is needed for the 2024 GE then I'll boycott it, and I would encourage everyone else who opposes this move to boycott it as well.

 

I wonder why?

 

Nice to know that the planet is saved now that some orange powder has been dumped on a snooker table.

 

Combined with the fact that tens of thousands of people will now stop lighting massive fires all over the peaks of Wales (because the Brecon Beacons have had their name changed), I think the ‘climate emergency’ has been stopped in its tracks. Thank God.

 

“According to the BBC” - therein lies the problem.

Anyone who claims they haven’t seen anything about this is either lying, deranged, has an agenda, or has been living in a cave for the last 6 months. It’s been well advertised imo. There’s no reason for anyone with nothing to hide not to vote because of this. The only exception I can see is perhaps for the elderly, who like my mum don’t have a passport or driving licence. However there are ways for such people to still vote without photo ID, so it’s just another excuse for the BBC to make up a news item.

It’s really not that difficult.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/voter-id

 

I've just never liked the notion that your identity must be known to the authorities at all times.

Freedom must be the default position in my view or the State is no longer servant to its people, people become servants of the State.
Of course there are certain things individuals need photo ID for.
But including voting as one of them is an erosion of freedom and an erosion of democracy in my opinion.
The gentrification of liberty.

 

Going to the Tesco Express in Bromley you get filmed at the express desk. I very much resent that.

 

I'm pretty sure the self-service tills at most supermarkets now film customers while they are using them.
Or at the very least they give customers the impression that they are being filmed.

Ever increasing surveillance is a logical method of fighting crime. But it can be misused to control people in other ways too.
As the recording of our lives increases, so the safeguards to ensure accountability must increase as well.
I see our Government taking on new powers regularly - powers which future administrations will probably not surrender.
But I don't see our political leaders becoming more accountable.
Quite the reverse in fact.