Be Excellent To Each Other

Hasn't that already been pimped to BritBox?

Did you ever see Bowie and Whiteley in the same room? I reckon he gave up the Whiteley suit so he could concentrate on his Bowie persona in the final years.

A Tory MP has been found guilty of unpleasant things. This is hot on the heels of Sunak's tax issues and, of course, that Tory seen photographed next to some ["flour" - Ed.].

Sleaze never went away, it seems.

Shocking, really. I have a bright spot to add, though - the first proper, true benefit of Brexit (unless perhaps you include fewer lorries using the UK as a land bridge) is confirmed now:

The South African cricket team(s) are stronger, and looking better for the future. (Because previously they could play on Kolpak deals, which gave them EU rights and some hoped then to stay where they played, and play test cricket for England&Wales. They've now given up that hope.)

Feels like it's accepted now and with more than just with weary resignation, it feels like it's perhaps even condoned.

So, the people that hold the two highest positions in the government have broken the law and been fined for it. Previously they had lied (one to the HoC) about it.

Nope, nothing wrong with this situation, nothing at all.

It's made a mockery of the whole lockdown. Why should anyone else bother to follow the rules if those making them won't?

Appalling behaviour, yet somehow not entirely unexpected from these people.

Has anywhere said how much they were fined?

£50 per offence

One of them is Carrie, but who’s the other?

Hitting the millionaires where it hurts.

:|

Superb.

Saw this on Twitter.

I think most people know that the Republicans are worse than the Democrats, but just look at how much worse they are!

https://rantt.com/gop-admins-had-38-tim ... -1961-2016

I wish someone would do something similar in the UK for Labour/Conservatives

It's exactly the sort of info you need - even if self-defeating for the furthest gone - to combat their constant tactic to muddy the waters and keep some people so disaffected they don't vote, or vote Conservative on the off-chance they'll be a multi-millionaire, too, one day.

I think Sunak will crack and go. He doesn't like not being told how great he is.

He's got a great chance to get his revenge on Johnson for last week's scandals. Better to leave now and get praised for "doing the right thing" than just hang around as the ship continues to sink.

Hang on, was the paedo MP story only on Monday?

Slow down with the scandals folks, it's hard to keep up.

In a first for me, I've just tweeted my MP.

That'll do it I'm sure...

Even Rise of the Robots is better than this administration.

I wrote another letter to my MP, without my usual sugary sweetness.

I'm sure her pets will be grateful for the extra bedding.

Watching the debate on the PM's statement. Johnson is even more dreadful than normal.

Starmer's speech was superb and pitched perfectly.

Thinking about pitching to Radio 4 a panel game where people have to speak for a minute about the Prime Minister without saying the word 'liar'.

I wish one defender of Johnson would explain to me how Britain's response to Ukraine would be any different under any other prime minister.

Or why it's not serious enough for him to resign, despite attending several of the parties, but is serious enough for Allegra Stratton to resign over not attending it, but laughing about it the next day on camera.

Does anyone believe any of this is going to 'stick' or are they basically going to get away with it with minimal-to-zero consequences of any actual significance?

I don't think it would be different in any major way, although didn't he go over and visit Ukraine? Certainly looked good as a photo op, and have any other leaders been over there? Maybe they have, but I don't know. Perhaps a less desperate politician wouldn't have taken a chance but that was something small, I guess, that he did.

Although, what did he [or any other politicians that visit a warzone for that matter] actually do when they visit though? was it anything that they couldn't have done from further away, or would already have done anyway? would it really have made much of a difference to the people? OR is it just self-aggrandisement? I genuinely don't know as it's something I've been fortunate to never really have to think about before.

It's a nice sunny lunchtime so I'm staying in and watching shenanigans in the Commons.

Steve Baker is one heck of a twat but his speech went in a direction I wasn't expecting.

Quite apart from everything else, the number of times I've found myself agreeing with some of the worst and dimmest people around is exhausting.

Welcome to Beex.

*EXHAUSTED*, I tell you.

Today's scandal is about a Tory MP watching porn in the Commons chamber.

What with all that grunting and yelling, not to mention poorly-written dialogue, part of me understands why someone would take refuge in adult entertainment.

Finally, after all that 'posing as an everyman' thing that politicians do, or trying to name check 'trendy' things that us normies do, like 'binging boxsets' or 'listening to Arctic Monkeys'; there is one that I can actually relate to now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61298394.amp

Law firm offers the chance to work from home, but working from the office wil see you (pre tax) almost £80 a day better off.

I got a reply. She understands our anger but doesn't want Johnson to resign because it would make Putin happy.

Giphy "sigh":
https://media2.giphy.com/media/SXrX5jIGoeZxhDMHLf/giphy-loop.mp4

The world seems a little (just a little) brighter this morning

Yes. Small wins are still wins and we need as much cheer as we can right now.

I could almost taste the fear from the Tory candidate whose leaflet said that she too was upset by the national news and shared our frustration but we should think locally.

Don't think my ward has been called yet.

Nowhere near the absolute drubbing they'd have got in a sane world.

My ward had a turnout of 35%. That's a result in itself

My local ward has three councillors and returned three Tories. Fucking hell

Are they all white dudes in their 50s?

I envy the Scots who now have PR (STV I think) for council elections. It would do wonders down here to break up party strongholds and the sense that nothing every changes. Of course, local authorities need loads more money and powers too, but every little helps.

One is in his forties! Otherwise yes.

Ours is just about the only ward that hasn’t been called here, but so far it’s a mix of CON and LAB holds, apart from one change that was a Conservative gain.

Well, full results are in for our council, and the Conservatives not only retained control but gained seats from Labour, so, FFS.

That's insane!

Do you know if that's because the area skews right, or was the left vote split, or is there some other reason?

Up until the last local election, we were under no overall control, but the council was Conservative led. Then at the last locals the CONS gained actual control, and are gaining.

We live in Walsall, famously one of the most deprived areas of the U.K., at the town centre, but once you start spreading out to the outskirts there’s an affluence band and a large, affluent Sikh population where we are. It’s not necessarily the 50 year old white man here, either. You can’t tell everything via names (for example, Bobby Bains is the only one I know of relatively well from various local things, and he’s a Sikh guy) but looking at the names I’d guess a few of these elected Conservative councillors were women and a few non-white.

Hussain, Ismar (Izzy)
Harrison, Louise
Murray, John
Gill, Manju Chamdal
Sohal, Gurmeet
Khan, Moz
Towe, Christopher
Waters, Vera
Garcha, Amandeep Kaur
Samra, Suky
Larden, Rob
Bains, Bobby

I honestly don’t know how… I’m feeling surprisingly sunken. I remember when the area had seventeen libraries where we moved here. One central library, and sixteen community libraries. Now there is one library, which they shrank in half. When the library closed because of Covid and then everything opened back up again, the Tory council leader said they weren’t going to reopen it because, in his eyes, anything that hadn’t been used in 18 months wasn’t really needed to begin with. Ultimately, after quite a bit of uproar, this was overturned, and it partially reopened, but hell on legs, what an a-hole.

You should make friends with him!