UK British News Megathread - aka CWCissey's news thread

AnOminous · Mar 24, 2024

EddyRooney said:
No spin or slant detected ? They must read all the articles I don't ! I would welcome what other people think about this, because I think one does begin to genuinely question one's own sanity.......

Maybe 20 years or so ago but anyone who can't see the slant now is blind, deliberately or otherwise. And I say this as a left-leaning person.

teriyakiburns said:
People often mistake this for socialism, which is similar at first glance, but lacks the social hierarchy inherent to a paternalist society.

That's what I wish I had said but was too retarded to say.

Coelacanth · Mar 29, 2024

Over 300 teens stormed a shopping center in Milton Keynes yesterday and caused havoc.

The police of course did literally nothing.

FYI even though there are a lot of migrant kids in the footage most kids raised by white families act like this too. This is what happens when your government decides simply telling your kids "no" is considered child abuse.

Amin Yasister · Mar 30, 2024

Kids as part of a mob-brave
Kids on their own-pussies.

Same the World over.

Scarlet sounds like a civil rights lawyer in the making.

Morethanabitfoolish · Mar 30, 2024

Coelacanth said:
Over 300 teens stormed a shopping center in Milton Keynes yesterday and caused havoc.

Hearing the girl recording that stuff talking about how they can't touch them by law makes my blood boil. A week for that.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-keir-starmer-union-jack-monarchy-b1797008.html

Labour left-wingers have warned Keir Starmer he risks alienating the party’s core supporters if he tries to wrap the party in the union flag.

A leaked report prepared for the party said Labour should “make use of the flag, veterans and dressing smartly” as part of a radical rebranding to win back “red wall” voters who switched to Tories in 2019.

The proposal has sparked alarm on the Labour left, with one MP telling The Independent that it would be a “foolish strategy” unless combined with firm statements of progressive values of inclusivity, while a former member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet said it showed “a paucity of vision” at a time of economic and public health crisis.

Any plan to appeal to patriotic voters risked being undermined by a video unearthed by the Guido Fawkes website, showing Sir Keir saying that he had once wanted to get rid of the monarchy.

The 2005 film of barrister Starmer shows him saying: “I also got made a Queen’s Counsel, which is odd since I often used to propose the abolition of the monarchy.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, Boris Johnson tried to capitalise on quotes in the leaked report from voters who said Sir Keir was “sitting on the fence”.

But he was slapped down by the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who told him to stick to answering MPs’ questions.

The report, obtained by The Guardian, was drawn up for the party by an external agency which conducted focus groups “from Watford to Grimsby” last autumn to find out how voters view Labour under Sir Keir.

Recommending an embrace of patriotic symbols, it said: “The use of the flag, veterans, dressing smartly at the war memorial etc give voters a sense of authentic values alignment.”

Richard Burgon, who served as shadow justice secretary under Mr Corbyn, told The Independent: “In the biggest public health and economic crisis for 100 years, is this the best the party can do? I don’t think it is. It suggests a paucity of ideas. People want us to believe in something.”

He added: “There is a real danger that the Labour leadership thinks it can take the votes of those who backed Labour in 2017 and 2019 for granted, that it can take the votes of young people and black and minority ethnic communities for granted, and go chasing the votes of people who may well prefer a real Conservative Party.”

Clive Lewis, a former soldier and one of Labour’s leading ethnic minority MPs, said: “The Tory party has absorbed Ukip and now Labour appears to be absorbing the language and symbols of the Tory party.

“It’s not patriotism; it’s Fatherland-ism. There’s a better way to build social cohesion than moving down the track of the nativist right.”

And Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle told The Independent: “There is nothing wrong with showing that you are comfortable with the symbols of your country. But if you do it by just waving the flag, our core supporters, who are young, liberal, EU-supporting, will get confused about the message you are trying to send.

“All these things are fine, but if they don’t come with a sense of values and a recognition that we are have to appeal to people from both sides, it is a foolish strategy.”

A Labour spokesperson stressed that the report was produced by an outside organisation and was not party policy.

“We will write our own strategy and that will be a strategy focused entirely on how do we restore trust and how do we win in 2024,” he said.

The spokesperson shrugged off the 2005 video, saying: “It’s a 15-year-old interview about what Keir said 15 years before that. We all reflect on what we said when we were in our 20s.” Starmer “believes in the monarchy” and sees himself as a proud patriot, said the spokesperson.

“The union flag represents the country that Labour wants to govern and the country that Keir wants to be prime minister of,” he added. “Labour believes in a better future for our county, and Keir wants to become prime minister and we want a Labour government because we want a better country. That’s patriotism.”

Some centrist Labour MPs said it was right for the party to show pride in the union flag.

Frontbencher Toby Perkins said: “There is a broad coalition of voters we need to win and pride in our flag is a good but not sufficient step.

“The revulsion to our flag of some on the left is revealing.”

And Neil Coyle tweeted a photo of himself in a union flag face-covering made by a company in his Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency. Mr Coyle told The Independent: “If people are afraid of our flag, that’s very worrying.

“We should be proud of our flag and our country. That doesn’t mean ignoring the problems of our country, it means focusing on them and working to improve things. That’s why the Labour Party exists.”

The comments section is the pits.

More Labour doing Labour things

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/28/westminster-council-celebrates-ramadan-not-easter/

Imagine the scramble at Westminster City Hall on Thursday morning as officials hunted for Easter eggs big enough to fill one of the building’s ground-floor windows.
The problem at the council started on Wednesday evening, when The Telegraph approached with a complaint from one of its most senior councillors. “Why,” Paul Swaddle, the leader of the minority Conservative group, wanted to know, “was there a Ramadan celebration in the window of Westminster City Hall” but not a corresponding display for Easter?
The query, it now appears, set minds racing in what is probably the most high-profile local authority in all of the UK: its main offices a stone’s throw from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
“I am sure we will be doing something,” a source at the Labour-run council replied on Wednesday night, as it dawned on officials that Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays, had seemingly been forgotten.

By Thursday morning, the council appeared to have begun an operation to prepare an Easter display hastily. Another council source declared: “We had some Easter stuff planned. There was consideration that we should ‘Easterise’ the building. There will be additional focus this afternoon.”
At lunchtime, however, there was still no sign of the display. Timings were getting tight. Council employees were starting to depart for the long Easter weekend. The council assured The Telegraph the display was being prepared. “The facilities guys,” it became clear, “tend to do their work at the end of the day,” a source said.
By 3.30pm, the council was issuing an official communiqué. “The council celebrates Easter every year. A window display is being installed today,” it said in a statement issued to The Telegraph.
And then, at 5pm, came the miracle of Easter. First, a table appeared in the empty window to the left of City Hall’s two revolving doors. Then came the bunting, which was followed by some multicoloured eggs and a couple of cut-out rabbits. The final piece in the display was two posters, wishing the public a happy Easter, depicting a giant golden egg wrapped with a red ribbon and superimposed on what looked like the fountain at Trafalgar Square.

Tate Modern, it’s fair to say, is unlikely to acquire the piece for its public collection. Mind you, the council’s Ramadan display, which is visible in the window to the right of the revolving doors, is – if anything – even less sophisticated.
The spat over the Easter – or lack of Easter – display followed the appearance of an array of Ramadan lights which have been installed at prime spots in Oxford Street and between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square after winning approval from Westminster city council.
The display was switched on by Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The lights have been funded by the Aziz Foundation, a charity founded by Asif Aziz, a billionaire property developer, and at no cost to the taxpayer.

Mr Swaddle, the leader of the minority Tory group, had told The Telegraph that while he supported the Ramadan street lights, he had been dismayed that the council had seemingly forgotten to celebrate Easter.
He said on Wednesday: “Easter is one of the most important Christian festivals of the year but what are they [the Labour council] doing to celebrate it? I am not aware they are.”
The period of Ramadan occurs at a different time every year because the Islamic calendar is aligned with the Moon. Easter falls within the month of Ramadan this year, as it did in 2023 and 2022. However, up to 30 years can pass between the two coinciding.
The Ramadan lights were the brainchild of Aisha Desai, who was inspired by the festive Christmas lights in central London. She initially crowdfunded to bring lights to her local community before securing funding for the central London display.

“It’s spreading awareness in such a nice way through art and light installation,” she said. “It was the idea that came from me but I encourage Muslims and people from other faiths to continue on and do it.”
Christian Concern, a group which promotes Christian values, is now planning to submit a number of applications for Easter decorations, but only in time for next year. Meanwhile, the city council pointed out it supports festivals for all the major faiths, while Mr Khan’s spokesman said he was “proud that as mayor he’s stood up for Londoners of all faiths, taking part in a host of festivals and celebrations, including around Easter”.
Westminster City Hall’s display of Christian and Muslim unity will warm the cockles of all but the most secular of hearts. Just don’t expect them to win any art prizes.

Coelacanth · Mar 30, 2024

Morethanabitfoolish said:
Hearing the girl recording that stuff talking about how they can't touch them by law makes my blood boil. A week for that.

I guarantee her parents are the sort who thought her happy screams of excitement sounded like a choir of angels when she was small. It always starts when they're small and everything they do and the way they act is cute. Then they learn in school that screaming and shouting is how change happens and how you should protest what you believe to be "wrong", so of course they use it on their parents and basically turn them into doormats.

It's especially tough when you're a millennial raised by boomer parents. Younger parents would be put off by how I talked more like an adult and some of them genuinely thought that my parents were being abusive and "too hard" on me by not letting me be a kid. The seeds of this dumpster fire were sewn a long time ago.

Tali Tali · Mar 30, 2024

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/03/27/labours-selection-scandal/

The Labour Party has been plunged into crisis after a bombshell report alleged that the selection contests for the party’s MP candidates may have been systematically rigged by Keir Starmer backers. Starmer now faces calls for an independent investigation over the Labour selections scandal – looking into party practices, with a next general election looming.

Labour selections scandal: Anonyvoter rigged?

The concerns around the Labour selections scandal centre on the use of the controversial ‘Anonyvoter’ software used to run selection contests to decide the party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs). As the Telegraph first reported, members have concerns that the software has been manipulated to favour Starmer backers, citing major discrepancies between in-person and online tallies in numerous contests across the country.

For example, the Telegraph noted that:

In one selection, a moderate candidate won just 10 per cent of the in-person vote but 62 per cent of the Anonyvoter online vote, according to a breakdown shared by local party figures.

It wrote that, in particular:

Lawyers acting for Sam Tarry, the MP for Ilford South, have written to the party over claims that an online voting system has been used to disadvantage Left-wing candidates.
Mr Tarry, whose relationship with Labour’s deputy leader [Angela Rayner] ended last year, claims the Anonyvoter system was used to harm his unsuccessful attempt to be re-selected for the general election.

Tarry was, of course, also famously sacked from the shadow front bench by Starmer because he attended a picket line. Coincidence, then, that he’s been deselected? Possibly not.

Croydon East: nothing to see here?

This all comes amid a Labour selections scandal around the contest in Croydon East. Exposed by Inside Croydon, it follows on from party officials tampering with membership lists, leading to the suspension of the contest for months and a Scotland Yard investigation.

A Labour spokesman told the Telegraph:

We have full confidence in the integrity of both selection processes and the use of Anonyvoter.

However, the concerns extend to sitting MPs Tarry as well as Beth Winter. Both are members of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group, and both have raised doubts over the role of Anonyvoter in selection contests which saw them denied a place as Labour candidates at the next election. They are demanding investigations.

The ‘stench of corruption’

The revelations prompted fury among party activists, with campaigners warning that “the stench of corruption hangs over Labour”. Campaigners and Labour MPs are calling for an independent, KC-led investigation into Labour’s selection practices, and for the suspension of the use of the Anonyvoter software across the party.

This isn’t the first time Labour’s selection processes have come under scrutiny. Starmer has been accused of overseeing “anti-democratic stitch-ups” after the widespread blocking of local left-wing candidates from selection contests, with dozens of local activists resigning in protest at the centralisation of power among party officials in Westminster.

The party was forced to revise its selections procedures last year following pressure from trade unions – however, this has had little effect, as many of the remaining selections have seen one-person shortlists imposed by the NEC.

Among a litany of broken promises, Starmer had pledged in 2020 to “end NEC imposition of candidates” in selections and let local members decide local candidates. With Labour polling over twenty points ahead of a Tory party in crisis, the scandal has the potential to impact the identity of dozens if not hundreds of the country’s next MPs.

Momentum taking action

Campaign group Momentum said:

These are scandalous revelations which require immediate, comprehensive and independent investigation.
Alongside widespread stitch-ups against popular local candidates, this report points to the systematic rigging of Parliamentary selections in favour of well-connected Starmerites. In an alarming affront to basic democratic principles, a small Westminster clique seems to be handpicking Labour’s next MPs, instead of local people.
It’s vital that the truth is established – and clearly no fair process could see the suspect interrogate himself. Accordingly, we need an independent, KC-led investigation into Labour’s selections and the replacement of Anonyvoter with an independent system such as Civica, to ensure the integrity of the party’s processes and confidence in their outcomes. The stench of corruption hangs over Labour – it cannot be left to fester.

So, Momentum is demanding:

An independent, KC-led investigation into these events, including forensic analysis of how selections with Anonyvoter have been conducted.
The suspension of the use of Anonyvoter at all levels of the Party including branch and constituency Labour Party elections.
For the Labour Party to use Civica Election Services, as for NEC and Leadership elections, in all future candidate selections.

It has organised a petition that people can sign – calling on Labour to act on its three demands. You can sign it here.

Labour selections scandal: confidence lost

Beth Winter MP said of the Labour selections scandal:

The ongoing controversy around Anonyvoter voting software understandably leads to a lack of trust and confidence in Labour Party procedures. Continued use of the software risks bringing the party into disrepute.
In order to restore some trust in the party, there must be an independent review of the use of Anonyvoter in internal selection campaigns, including the selection process in Merthyr Tydfil & Upper Cynon.
In addition, Labour should end its use of Anonyvoter and commission a trusted independent balloting administrator, whose ballots stand up to scrutiny, such as Civica (formerly Electoral Reform Services) – as the trades unions do – to conduct its internal ballots including parliamentary selections, in future.

Morethanabitfoolish · Mar 30, 2024

Tali Tali said:
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/03/27/labours-selection-scandal/

If they'll rig their own elections they'll feel no more guilt about doing the same to the country as a whole. With that said Civica are useless.

6MillionCoofs · Mar 30, 2024

Morethanabitfoolish said:
If they'll rig their own elections they'll feel no more guilt about doing the same to the country as a whole. With that said Civica are useless.

The fact that they keep getting caught and being made to answer means the UK powers that be aren’t stupid enough to let them do that.

Rusty Metal Skull Gun · Mar 30, 2024

Tali Tali said:
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/03/27/labours-selection-scandal/

I'd take this with a pinch of salt - this is the sort of story the far left are always telling themselves, because they can't deal with the fact that they're horrendously unpopular.

I'm surprised The Canary is still going, I thought it folded years ago!

Coelacanth · Mar 31, 2024

Tali Tali said:
The revelations prompted fury among party activists, with campaigners warning that “the stench of corruption hangs over Labour”.

This? This is what's making them furious? It's funny... if they actually cared about "the stench of corruption" they would've thrown the likes of Starmer out after the nation found out he'd turned a blind eye to Jimmy Savile's degeneracy. Then again, these are politicians...

How do all of you think the launch of the SNP's new Hate Crime law is going to go tomorrow? My money's on the police being flooded and overwhelmed with perceived hate crimes committed by Hamza Yousef.

Morethanabitfoolish · Mar 31, 2024

Coelacanth said:
How do all of you think the launch of the SNP's new Hate Crime law is going to go tomorrow? My money's on the police being flooded and overwhelmed with perceived hate crimes committed by Hamza Yousef.

Any accusations against Hamza will be logged as hate incidents against him by racists.

The fun one will be JK. Midnight tonight there's going to be a deluge of activists screaming "she called her a maaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!!!!" into the Scottish police. And by the end of the week JK will have her lawyers submitting the first FOIA about herself.

Coelacanth · Mar 31, 2024

Morethanabitfoolish said:
The fun one will be JK. Midnight tonight there's going to be a deluge of activists screaming "she called her a maaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!!!!" into the Scottish police. And by the end of the week JK will have her lawyers submitting the first FOIA about herself.

East_Clintwood · Apr 3, 2024

So YouGov have posted their latest election survey, and apparently they have good crack over there, because:

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49061-yougov-mrp-labour-now-projected-to-win-over-400-seats

Teghern · Apr 3, 2024

I've noticed the last few weeks moi toimes artycules have been slowly shifting their perspectives from "tories gonna lose and that's okay" to "tories gonna go the way ye olde liberal party wat do?".
Even had this zinger (archive is nigger) today oh so carefully breaking the ice on the prospect of total annihilation, but hey that'd never ever happen so don't worry about it.
It will happen IMO the narrative is already written.

6MillionCoofs · Apr 3, 2024

Oh would you look at that. The thing all the public is saying will happen will happen.

And that’s with Labour getting pulled up on cheating constantly.

Teghern · Apr 3, 2024

6MillionCoofs said:
Oh would you look at that. The thing all the public is saying will happen will happen.

And that’s with Labour getting pulled up on cheating constantly.

Daily Mail HQ desperately trying to hunt down Milipede to secure another bacon-eating pic, it's their only hope for some decent PR since splashing Rayner's fantastic rack on the front pages the last week somehow didn't put anyone off her.

The Gene Genie · Apr 3, 2024

I'm not really sure how the Tories could win short of Labour themselves snatching defeat from victory. They've been in charge for over a decade and things have gotten substantially worse.

Rusty Metal Skull Gun · Apr 3, 2024

East_Clintwood said:
So YouGov have posted their latest election survey, and apparently they have good crack over there, because:

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49061-yougov-mrp-labour-now-projected-to-win-over-400-seats

View attachment 5874912

I can see this happening. The YouGov MRPs have been pretty good in the past.

Teghern said:
I've noticed the last few weeks moi toimes artycules have been slowly shifting their perspectives from "tories gonna lose and that's okay" to "tories gonna go the way ye olde liberal party wat do?".
Even had this zinger (archive is nigger) today oh so carefully breaking the ice on the prospect of total annihilation, but hey that'd never ever happen so don't worry about it.
It will happen IMO the narrative is already written.

They're not going to be eclipsed by Reform, because Reform is a party with no policies and only one good politician. If they were to be annihilated, it'd be like the Canadian Tories in 1993, where it takes them 10 years to come back.

Teghern · Apr 3, 2024

Rusty Metal Skull Gun said:
I can see this happening. The YouGov MRPs have been pretty good in the past.

They're not going to be eclipsed by Reform, because Reform is a party with no policies and only one good politician. If they were to be annihilated, it'd be like the Canadian Tories in 1993, where it takes them 10 years to come back.

Yes reform's likelihood of achieving anything in and off themselves is null, they're however the magic bullet for Total Tory Trashing.
Complete Conservative Crushing will see some weird mutant offspring successor which will steal their DNA though, the literally Jewish opinion piece I linked is bigging up DomCum as some sort of embryonic Bismarck figure, some other Israelite was saying the same stuff about lettuce liz the other week, absolutely nobody gives enough of a shit about Richard "waiting for Nigel" Tice to craft any consensus about him.

6MillionCoofs · Apr 3, 2024

The Gene Genie said:
I'm not really sure how the Tories could win short of Labour themselves snatching defeat from victory. They've been in charge for over a decade and things have gotten substantially worse.

As said, Labour are getting pulled up on shit left and right and they are just brushing it all off because they know they can be caught do whatever shit they want and they’ll still win comfortably even though literally no one likes or has faith in them because the Tories messed up that bad in the pandemic.

The only way Labour could lose at this point is by not running and they’d likely win even then somehow.

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