The Politics Thread

Re NHS pay rise. Not saying it's intentional, but I've been listening to Radio 2 all day and there seems to be a general creeping up of what the pay award actually is. The first report I heard early this morning was that the rise will average 6.5% (over three years) - which I suspect might be the case - although if the average is calculated like the "average" rise in rail fares I'm not sure it means much since I can never seem to find anyone whose ticket goes up by less than the average. Anyway I digress. Later on this percentage went up and up and more recently the reports have been a minimum of 6.5% and up to 29%. Of course it may be that 6.5% will be minimum BUT (notice that is a big but) they have not mentioned in most of the reports that this will still represent a less than inflation rise - in other words living standards will still fall AND that pay rises have been capped to 1% for the last few years. Now I realise that you can't say all of this in every bulletin, but this has not stopped them inflating the award. And you can be sure that a lot of people hearing the reports will have missed the "over three years" bit.

My wife is an Occupational Therapist, so I'll let you know how much her pay actually will go up - although she's away until next Wednesday. Also people might not realise that long term employee pensions have been massively cut in value too. And this is one thing that really bugged me, because changing a pension is effectively changing a contract that both parties signed. So yes, a pay award is welcome, but considering pension cuts, previous pay caps and the fact it won't keep up with inflation in (some / many / most*) cases, it's nowhere near as good as some are making out.

* delete as appropriate when we find out what 6.5% really means, and how many people are above or below this level.

 

Cambridge Analytica knows...
NOTHING about you!

If only they could access Googles'
aggregate profile of me.

 

Twitter troll and occasional Tory MP Ben Bradshaw once again took to Twitter to prove he's not a complete and utter ****wit by welcoming a couple of Labour councillors for Ashworth to the Tory party, claiming they jumped because they were sick of Momentum and blah blah blah.

What actually happened was he posted for photos with two councillors suspended (and, in one case, deselected) by the Labour party for racist comments who decided the best course of action was to jump to the Tories and play the victim card once their feet were firmly under the desk, which does more to prove Momentum's point than any other course of action would have ever done.

 

Messing with one's pension is criminal......ask Donald!

 

Quel surprise!
The world is now up in arms at the prospect of Putin using the WC as a propaganda vehicle.

This is surely one for the 'No ****, Sherlock' thread if not for being purely political.

Not that FIFA couldn't have foreseen this when making the award 6 years ago.

Do you think that decision was made in exchange for large bundles of unmarked bills or under the threat of a personal introduction to the Russian international chemical weapons programme.......

 

Just like he used the Winter Olympics for that same means.

Wait a minute, that didn't actually happen, did it Boris?

 

Oh to see the looks on the faces of the most militant of the Leavers when they learned their precious blue passports won't be manufactured in the UK...
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...passports-set-to-be-made-by-franco-dutch-firm

The best part? When defending the move, the Tory mouthpiece said they chose this firm because, under EU rules, they had to put the contract out to competitive tender.

 

Somebody really needs to tell the Leave.EU mob that web archives exist...
http://archive.fo/rN22u

 

So it's emerged that the Texas pencil bomber was a member of an evangelical Christian group who conduct weapons training tests by the name of Righteous Invasion of Truth - yes, a Christian group whose name is RIOT, which should be a clue that they're not the good guys.

Of course this has led to the usual hand-wringing that happens every other time a white person commits terror attacks of claiming they were mentally ill (see also: Thomas Mair after the murder of Jo Cox, Darren Osborne after the Finsbury Park attack, James Alex Fields Jr after running his car into the crowd in Charlottesville) which never, ever gets said about anyone of Arabic descent who commits terror attacks.

 

They appear to be named after this song by Carman, who is possibly the worst superhero ever:

Christian or really, really gay? You decide.

 

Hopefully that document will be to the fore in the coming days and weeks as the brown stuff continues to hit the revolving object!

 

This is genuinely the top story that comes up if you Google the name of Arron Banks' wife:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/po...l-Democrat-MP-helped-second-Russian-girl.html

Why is it always Russia?

 

10 days ago Trump accuses The NY Times of planting a fake story that he was unhappy with his legal team on the Mueller Enquiry, including John Dowd and that he would be changing/sacking them....

Guess what he did today........



Donald Trump's top Russia lawyer John Dowd resigns http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43506098

 

There's a reason this subreddit exists
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrumpCriticizesTrump/

 

British passports to be made in France post Brexit.
What were we saying about "The Day Today"?

 

The Orange Overlord has said the EU will be exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs, no doubt because the EU's response of saying they'd add tariffs to booze and jeans meant Jack Daniels and Levi's both had some very loud words in his shell-like.

 

Just wait until the Brexiteers find out that 'they' own pretty much everything in this country, including the railways, power companies, water companies, fishing industry, etc, etc. That'll be a bit of a blow.

John Donne may have been really **** at writing poetry that rhymed but even he understood...

No man is an island
Entire of itself
Every man is a piece of the continent
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea
Europe is the less

 

I'm beginning to wonder if Putin and Trump are secretly queer. He rushes to Putin's aid all the time and now he wants to "get together" with Putin later this year.
I guess the porn star thing is over....for now!
I also wonder if Melania has checked herself in with a vet......Donald thinks he's some kind of a horse!!!!!?

 

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Another one bites the dust #46.......
Trump fires his National Security Advisor MacMaster for an old familiar face.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43509695

‘A strident neo-conservative, Mr Bolton helped build the case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong.’

Great choice Mr President. That can only end well..........