Master UK Political Discussion Thread

[timewarp]

3 hours ago, GingerRose said:

I wish. How can I fake his American citizenship Identity? 😄 

You do realise he has a double British/US citizenship?

[GingerRose]

55 minutes ago, timewarp said:

You do realise he has a double British/US citizenship?

He renounced his citizenship to America though.

[daveb]

2 hours ago, GingerRose said:

3 hours ago, timewarp said:

You do realise he has a double British/US citizenship?

He renounced his citizenship to America though.

I never knew he had had dual citizenship with the US and UK. (Until I saw the previous posts)

[Tanwen]

On 4/12/2020 at 12:13 PM, iff said:

While at least one person in the government blamed the victims themselves

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-50302573

 

A newspaper with 29 million readers (as of April 2018) in the UK has gone from headlines like "stop treating NHS like a religion", "sack the docs" and "too many foreign nurses damaging the NHS" to "on the side of the angels" 

How long will that last? 

 

 

Known on Merseyside as 'The Scum' for good reason. 😢 

[Skycaptain]

If one good thing comes out of this, its that the government might see that the British public really want and support our healthcare service. Shock, horror, most people would happily pay an extra penny or two in income tax if we knew it was going to be used for front line healthcare rather than paying MPs £10K to stay at home 

[timewarp]

1 hour ago, Skycaptain said:

If one good thing comes out of this, its that the government might see that the British public really want and support our healthcare service. Shock, horror, most people would happily pay an extra penny or two in income tax if we knew it was going to be used for front line healthcare rather than paying MPs £10K to stay at home 

That's the charm of a public health insurance that acts independently from the government. To give you an example: in my future job I'll have to pay around €900 of taxes and €350 of public health insurance contribution per month. And that money can only be used for exactly what it says on the tin, as opposed to pet projects of some politicians. Plus people are always aware that a good healthcare system comes with a cost, which in my view is a good side effect.

[Tyke]

10 hours ago, timewarp said:

That's the charm of a public health insurance that acts independently from the government. To give you an example: in my future job I'll have to pay around €900 of taxes and €350 of public health insurance contribution per month. And that money can only be used for exactly what it says on the tin, as opposed to pet projects of some politicians. Plus people are always aware that a good healthcare system comes with a cost, which in my view is a good side effect.

Is the €350 a graduated sum? Higher income earners pay more? Or a fixed sum that everyone has to find?

[timewarp]

2 hours ago, Midland Tyke said:

Is the €350 a graduated sum? Higher income earners pay more? Or a fixed sum that everyone has to find?

It's a fixed percentage of gross salary. The only exception being high earners beyond a certain cutoff, at which point it's possible to choose private health insurance (only once though, you can never go back) or stay in the public health insurance voluntarily at the highest rate. Personally I would choose the latter, simply because private health insurance gets really expensive once you get older.

 

1 hour ago, Arodash said:

Goodness all of that is pricey. I only pay about 100 dollars a month for my insurance, just about 1200 a year

What kind of insurance is that? I take it it's a private one and you're relatively young and healthy? I don't think €350/month is expensive for a public health insurance that covers everybody under the same conditions indiscriminate of age or biological sex (yep, private health insurance tends to charge a surplus for women and elderly). If you have doubts, have a look at the COVID-19 mortality rate in Germany. This is what a functioning public health insurance gets you.

[daveb]

5 hours ago, timewarp said:

simply because private health insurance gets really expensive once you get older

Yeah, my only option in the US at this point is private insurance, and at my age and income it is too expensive (last I checked, at least $600 per month and probably more now, for the least coverage), so I have none. Just hoping I stay healthy enough until I can qualify for medicare next Summer. I don't know if that will be a whole lot cheaper though.

[iff]

"I want to test my eyes so I'll go on a 30 mile drive with my wife and child to a castle, coincidentally it is also on her birthday but only as a means to test my eyes." 

Dominic Cummings

 

^sound logic

 

Honestly this is just the tory government having a laugh with their justification and support of Cummings on this and is making a mockery of the very guidelines they put in place. Cummings as well as being advisor to Johnson, was on SAGE that advised on the guidelines. 

[Blaiddmelyn]

25 minutes ago, iff said:

"I want to test my eyes so I'll go on a 30 mile drive with my wife and child to a castle, coincidentally it is also on her birthday but only as a means to test my eyes." 

Dominic Cummings

 

^sound logic

 

Honestly this is just the tory government having a laugh with their justification and support of Cummings on this and is making a mockery of the very guidelines they put in place. Cummings as well as being advisor to Johnson, was on SAGE that advised on the guidelines. 

I was thinking they might actually have a terrible but understandable explanation until that part. I just … why would you go for a drive if you weren't sure you could drive? OK, I can see maybe wanting to test it to see (putting to one side that he thought his eyesight was impaired so he shouldn't have been driving), but don't you do what learner drivers do and go drive around some quiet streets at 5 mph? Could his wife not drive? I can understand taking your wife with you (after all, if, after 10 mins, you realise you can't drive, it's probably best for someone who can to take over the wheel) but why would you take your kid to test if you can drive?

 

I don't usually get particularly angry or worked up about politics in the sense of genuinely getting angry at particular individuals but this whole incident has left a sour taste in my mouth. My sister is a nurse, she has staff members who get sent to work in Covid wards who are terrified, and then the govt releases statements like this. 

 

Sigh.

[Tyke]

29 minutes ago, iff said:

"I want to test my eyes so I'll go on a 30 mile drive with my wife and child to a castle, coincidentally it is also on her birthday but only as a means to test my eyes." 

Dominic Cummings

 

^sound logic

 

Honestly this is just the tory government having a laugh with their justification and support of Cummings on this and is making a mockery of the very guidelines they put in place. Cummings as well as being advisor to Johnson, was on SAGE that advised on the guidelines. 

This is just such an obvious and enormous political blunder. Very poor. Very annoyed. 

[Tyke]

1 minute ago, Blaiddmelyn said:

but why would you take your kid to test if you can drive?

well you can't leave it home alone, can you? And no child-minding is available. But the whole thing is, as you suggest, a sham.

 

I'm increasingly suspicious that Cummings has some sort of hold over Johnson. Some horrible anecdote or strory that BJ can'r afford to come out.

[Skycaptain]

So far as I can see there are three options 

 

1) he's sacked

 

2) he's prosecuted for lockdown infringement 

 

3) he's allowed to get away, all lockdown fines are rescinded under discrimination laws, the entire government are arrested under war crimes law for denial of family life, tried at a war crimes tribunal and sentenced to death by firing squad 

[Blaiddmelyn]

15 minutes ago, Midland Tyke said:

well you can't leave it home alone, can you? And no child-minding is available. But the whole thing is, as you suggest, a sham.

 

I'm increasingly suspicious that Cummings has some sort of hold over Johnson. Some horrible anecdote or strory that BJ can'r afford to come out.

They were at their parents' farm and presumably done self-isolating. I can see having the niece be there for a short period of time as being acceptable in "exceptional" circumstances.

 

And yeah. I'm normally not one for conspiracy theories but as plenty of people had pointed out, if they basically said, "Look. He was a bit panicked, his niece offered to help and he just didn't really think things through. It was a mistake, he's sorry about it, we're sorry about it. At this time, we need all hands on deck so we won't ask him to resign but we'll [insert some other punishment here]. Sorry, guys" then I think most people would have been a bit annoyed but said, oh well, sometimes you're an idiot where your kid is concerned. But he's palpably refusing to accept any responsibility and instead is making it sound like people have been underperforming as parents for not breaching lockdown rules, and that's what makes me wonder if he does have some kind of hold. I mean, in NZ, the PM basically said she wasn't firing someone because they really needed him and instead would give him other punishments for breaching lockdown and people basically said, "Yeah, that's fair" so it can be done.

[daveb]

In the US it seems all you have to do is not show any shame and you can get away with whatever you want. (where "you" is a politician, not a regular citizen)

[Skycaptain]

The irony for the government is that this has masked some good news. The lowest daily C-19 death toll since March, and falling cases. 

[fooledbysecrecy]

 

i......i dont even know what to say 😳

[fooledbysecrecy]

21 minutes ago, Arodash said:

Everything about that and the subject was creeeeeeeeepy

and he's the health secretary. really makes you feel like you're in safe hands. 🙃

[Skycaptain]

NSFW joke 

 

Spoiler

I think BJ only hired him thinking his name was Handcock, and he could be useful during long meetings 😋😋

 

[fooledbysecrecy]

44 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

NSFW joke 

 

  Hide contents

I think BJ only hired him thinking his name was Handcock, and he could be useful during long meetings 😋😋

 

and then he realised his mistake, so that's why he skipped all those meetings 🤔

[Tyke]

And then there's Dominic C's surname........

[daveb]

Spoiler

And the initials, BJ, themselves

 

[Skycaptain]

BJ and Handcock could result in many Cummings, a semenal moment in parliamentary history 😂😂😋😋

[Homer]

...and in today's episode of Stating The Blatantly Obvious:

Quote

The EU has no legal duty to grant the UK privileges offered to other countries in trade deals, an internal European parliament paper has concluded ahead of a crucial round of Brexit talks this week.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/01/eu-has-no-legal-duty-to-give-uk-trade-privileges-document-says

[Tyke]

1 hour ago, Homer said:

...and in today's episode of Stating The Blatantly Obvious:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/01/eu-has-no-legal-duty-to-give-uk-trade-privileges-document-says

this being the EU it is entirely possible that the EU legislation on how to treat countries that leave the EU might have included such a provision.

[timewarp]

I'm very pleased to hear that protesters have torn down that slave trader statue in Bristol. It was about time. Even if I have no expectations whatsoever of Priti Patel, her comments calling this "utterly disgraceful" are just that - utterly disgraceful. If there's anything that's truly disgraceful, it's slavery and the fact that the City of Bristol has still not managed to distance itself from its past.

[Tyke]

3 hours ago, timewarp said:

I'm very pleased to hear that protesters have torn down that slave trader statue in Bristol. It was about time. Even if I have no expectations whatsoever of Priti Patel, her comments calling this "utterly disgraceful" are just that - utterly disgraceful. If there's anything that's truly disgraceful, it's slavery and the fact that the City of Bristol has still not managed to distance itself from its past.

I wonder which of today's heroes will be judged well/badly by the standards of 2350 (if the human race makes it that far)? Colston made a huge amount of money from a trade that was legal at the time (and would be for another 100 years) but we now consider abhorrent. But he was a philanthropist and used his wealth for many things we would now judge to be very worth causes. Education (including education of girls which was quite novel back then), hospitals, worker's housing etc. etc. 

 

I'm guessing that all the statues of Queen Victoria will have to go. And any American hero that helped 'develop' the west coast should be ripped down, too. There'll be nothing left standing. Let's get rid of the pyramids, too. Very oppressive regime, that and they just glorify one person each, right? And the Coluseum in Rome will have to be pulled down, wont it? And every Roman arena and Spanish bull-ring and .... oh, well, you get my drift.

[ben8884]

anyone from around the Bristol area? I am interested in a local perspective 

[Skycaptain]

10 minutes ago, Moonman said:

Dominic Raab thinks that people are taking the knee because of Game of Thrones. The man is a wet wipe.

What do you expect from someone who is in favour of removing people's citizenship