UK Politics Thread part II

[MGR1]

All things considered, Labour would be a change. Not a particularly good one, but a change nonetheless.

After the SNP and Sturgeon's latest performance I'm expecting the Glasgow Mob to reluctantly skulk back to Labour in their voting patterns. The true diehards are going to swing their support behind Salmond and Alba.

As for Reform, not a hope. Like UKIP they suffer from their vote not being geographically concentrated in a few constituencies like the SNP, so the FPTP system works against them.

Northern Ireland is it's usual complicated mess. I think the Unionists and other Protestant bigots (the TUV) have backed themselves into a corner lately. Westminster does seem to want to wash it's hands entirely of the Province. Depends on how long it takes for the odds to shift decisively behind a United Ireland.

Mike.

[Jimbuna]

^ Broadly agree

[Jimbuna]

‘I don’t buy it’: Scottish secretary dismisses Sturgeon’s tears at Covid inquiry

Rishi Sunak’s Scottish secretary Alister Jack has rejected Nicola Sturgeon’s claim she did not seek to politicise the Covid crisis – claiming he “didn’t believe her for a minute”.

The former SNP leader fought back tears at the Covid Inquiry on Wednesday – rejecting accusations she fought with the UK government to advance the Scottish independence cause.

But the Conservative cabinet minister poured scorn on Ms Sturgeon’s claims, as he appeared to mock her tearful performance.

“I watched that evidence from yesterday and I didn’t believe it for a minute,” Mr Jack told the Covid inquiry hearing in Edinburgh on Thursday.

The senior Tory MP added: “I think Nicola Sturgeon could cry from one eye if she wanted to.”
Amid ongoing controversy over the SNP-led government’s approach to message deletion, Mr Jack admitted that he had deleted “all” of his WhatsApp messages in November 2021.

“I deleted WhatsApps from my mother, my wife, my friends – I mean I just deleted all my WhatsApps – because that created the capacity that allowed my phone to carry on,” he said. “At the time, I didn’t think anything of it.”

Similar argument to Ms Sturgeon, Mr Jack played down the significance of messages – telling the inquiry he did not conduct “government by WhatsApp” and preferred to speak to colleagues on the phone or face to face.

Apologising, he added: “I’m a bit of a luddite – I’m the only member of the Cabinet not to have any social media accounts. But that’s no excuse – I regret that I deleted my entire account.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross – who has accused Ms Sturgeon on being – said Mr Jack had been “wrong” to delete all his WhatsApp messages.

Mr Ross said: “Alister Jack was wrong to delete his WhatsApp messages. He has apologised and he regrets it. Nicola Sturgeon has not apologised for doing it. She has said she was right because she was following government policy. That is a massive difference.”

Meanwhile, Mr Jack argued that it was “inevitable there would be tensions” between the Scottish and UK governments – but blamed the former SNP leader and first minister.

Ms Sturgeon had vehemently denied that she had politicised the pandemic to pursue Scottish independence, saying it would “absolutely” have been a betrayal of the Scottish public.

But messages between Ms Sturgeon and her top adviser Liz Lloyd showed they had discussed a “good old-fashioned rammy” with Boris Johnson’s government over the furlough scheme.

And Sturgeon cabinet meeting minutes from June 2020 show that her ministers agreed to consider how the Covid crisis could be used to boost support for Scottish independence.

“[Ms Sturgeon] saw her job as leader of a nationalist government to break up the UK,” Mr Jack told the inquiry, before saying tensions with the Scottish government “still existed”.

He added: “Devolution works very well but works very well when both governments want to work together. But when one government wants to destroy the UK and destroy devolution, then there are tensions.”

Ms Sturgeon was questioned in her inquiry evidence session about her government’s decision not to disclose an outbreak of Covid in Scotland in February 2020 to the public – a decision she said she would reverse in hindsight.

Mr Jack said the UK government was also not informed of the outbreak, despite both he and then UK health secretary Matt Hancock having spoken to then Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman.

He said: “Another thing that had happened at that meeting that had come to light in May, that despite being with the health secretary for two hours, at no point did she mention that they had discovered an outbreak at the Nike conference in Edinburgh.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...3e144604&ei=16

[Moonlight]

Revealed: Afghan asylum seeker 'acid' attack suspect Abdul Ezedi was convicted of sex assault and exposure in 2018 but STILL allowed to stay in the UK after claiming he had turned to Christianity

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ot-jailed.html

I was going to put this in the Daily News Thread but, Asylum and Immigration belongs in the UK Politics Thread.

It has emerged that Ezedi is a former asylum seeker from Afghanistan who was allowed to stay in the UK despite pleading guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one of exposure, following two failed asylum applications.

'This case provides an opportunity not only to review the criteria for granting asylum but also for how we deal with those who are known criminals.
'It won't take much working out who has been here and subsequently received asylum and then committed a crime and how we can deport all of them.'

What is needed is an Iron Fist approach, any Migrant who has committed a crime, either here, or abroad should be deported at their own expense to their homeland, and if that means their Great, Great, Great, Great Grand parents historical homeland, so be it.

Yes, you'll have the Human Rights Wet Back Lawyers all over this law, but, as far as I'm concerned, the Health and Safety and Human Rights of every White British Citizen in the UK supersedes any Plastic British Migrants Human Rights, Case Closed.

Iron Fist, The Death Penalty.
If their countries send them back here, then they do so on the understanding that when they arrive back in the UK they will be immediately taken to a place of execution and hung until they are dead.

So I say this to all the politicians of the UK, grow a pair or get the **** out of the House of Parliament, and that means the House of Lords as well.

I'm available, you already know my price.

[Jimbuna]

MPs plead for security help after Tory minister quits over death threats

Aminister in Rishi Sunak’s government has said he is quitting parliament at the general election after a series of death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office.

Justice minister Mike Freer said he had avoided murder “by the skin of my teeth” – as MPs urged the government, their own parties and Commons authorities to do more to ensure proper security protection.

Mr Freer – the Tory MP for London’s Finchley and Golders Green seat since 2010 – said it was time to say “enough” as he could no longer put his family through fears for his safety.

The minister, who has pro-Israel views and represents a heavily Jewish constituency, said antisemitism was behind some of the intimidation and attacks on his office.
The MP said he was shocked to learn that Ali Harbi Ali – who went on to kill Southend West MP David Amess – had previously watched his Finchley office.

“There comes a point when the threats to your personal safety become too much,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

Mr Freer said: “I was very lucky that actually on the day I was due to be in Finchley, I happened to change my plans and came into Whitehall. Otherwise who knows whether I would have been attacked or survived an attack. He said he came to Finchley to attack me.”

The MP and his staff started wearing stab vests at public events after learning that Ali had watched his Finchley office before going on to knife Amess to death during a constituency surgery in 2021.

The minister said he had also received threats from the group Muslims Against Crusades “about coming to stab me” and found “mock molotov cocktails on the office steps”.

The arson attack on his north London constituency office in December was “the final straw”, he said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...f5e8befa&ei=46

[Moonlight]

SNP government launches 10th paper on Scottish independence on GROUNDHOG DAY - as report claims breakaway effort would lead to free-to-air sporting events and Eurovision entries

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...urovision.html

Do the SNP think that the Scottish people are a bunch of bleeding thick Morons, No, don't answer that.

[MGR1]

Those of us outside the Clyde Valley (except Dundee, it appears) are capable of critical thought, y'know.

Mike.

[Moonlight]

I know that, but do your politicians know it?.

[Moonlight]

‘Anyone but Peter Bone’: voters turn to Labour and Reform UK as Wellingborough byelection nears

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...9fa8178&ei=173

The selection of Peter Bone's wife could be a disaster for the Tories, it's a blatant attempt by the Tory Party, or by Bone himself to run the constituency by Proxy. They've seen these shenanigans before and I don't think they're going to let it happen here, the Tories have an 18,000 majority, its an obstacle but, these hurdles have been overcome before, piss off into the night and disappear for ever Mr Bone head.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Nothing but an increase in the personal tax allowance that these fraudsters froze six year ago will satisfy me.

Tax cuts for parents would revive Tories’ election chances, new poll suggests

Income tax cuts for parents would revive the Conservatives’ dire election prospects, according to a new poll.

The survey reveals a near universal demand for the Chancellor to cut taxes in his Budget next month, with seven in eight people calling for him to act.

Unlike other Western countries, the UK tax system has for nearly 40 years taxed the partners in a relationship as individuals rather than taxing household income – and so made no allowance for dependent children.

More than a third of parents (38 per cent) said they would be more likely to vote Tory if Jeremy Hunt unveils a “Budget for families” featuring significant tax cuts, compared with just 3 per cent who would be less likely. Among families with young children, the “more likely Conservative” cohort jumps to 47 per cent.
Overall, nearly one in five adults (18 per cent) say such a package would make them more likely to vote Conservative, three times more than the 6 per cent who would be less likely.

Labour supporters (by a factor of two and a half to one) and Lib Dems (three to one) would also consider switching to the Tories if tax cuts were targeted on families.

Appetite for family tax cuts is also surprisingly strong among the young (18 to 24-year-olds). By a margin of more than six to one (33 per cent to 5 per cent) young adults say they would be more inclined to vote Conservative if the Chancellor tilted in this direction.

The poll findings come after the Chancellor started playing down the prospect of big tax cuts in his March 6 Budget, warning the Cabinet on Wednesday that his scope for tax cuts is smaller than expected.

Tory MPs will regard his intervention as a belated attempt to manage expectations after weeks in which he and the Prime Minister have floated the promise of a Budget giveaway. The Tories are currently trailing Labour by around 20 points in the polls.

Overall, the survey found the public believes that the cost of living crisis has hit families with dependent children harder than any social group.

‌Three in five people (60 per cent) take this view as opposed to one in four (24 per cent) who disagree. Numbers in agreement rise to 75 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 and 84 per cent of those with dependent children.

The public also believes that the squeeze on household budgets is driving up levels of family breakdown, which they regard as a major social problem and associate with school failure, crime and unemployment.

A clear majority (51 per cent as opposed to 31 per cent) said that if families had more money in their pockets, levels of family breakdown would be reduced.

The poll of 2,000 adults by Whitestone Insight, commissioned by the Family Hubs Network, reveals widespread public dissatisfaction with the way the UK tax system fails to take account of the extra costs faced by parents in bringing up children.

Asked about this proposition, nearly two in three people agree that these costs are being ignored (63 per cent), a proportion that rises to 72 per cent among Labour voters and also among young people aged 18 – 24 (compared with 57 per cent of those aged 55 and over).

Among adults with children aged 18 and under, it rockets to 84 per cent.

The Family Hubs Network, co-founded by Lord Michael Farmer, a former Conservative Party treasurer, and Dr Samantha Callan, David Cameron’s former family policy adviser, will submit the poll findings to the Chancellor.

Lord Farmer said: “The unfairness of our individualised taxation system, interacting with massive pressures on living costs, is driving many families beyond breaking point.

“We are not arguing for new cash benefits but for families simply to be able to keep more of their hard-earned cash. The Government must reform how families are taxed.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...5007d313&ei=12

[Moonlight]

EXCLUSIVE Amid disbelief that 'chemical attacker' was allowed to stay in Britain... BBC editor who is paid to help 15 Somalian criminals stay in the UK quits the Beeb after shocking Mail exposé

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ail-expos.html

The BBC, The Church but our MPs are not involved with this mess, why not?, what the hell is going on?.
There's everybody and nobody getting involved with this Immigration invasion, and meanwhile, our politicians do nothing about it, neither the Tories or the Labour Party are going to fix this free for all, so why should people vote for them?.
At the next GE I'm going to vote for the Reform candidate, our independent MP has done sod all about this Immigration fiasco and, he's been told in no uncertain terms on numerous occasions that he won't be an MP next year.
The Reform candidate talks the good talk, so I'll give him a chance to walk the walk, I don't think he'll be any good but, hey, we can live in hope.

[MGR1]

Originally Posted by Moonlight

I know that, but do your politicians know it?.

Most of Scotland's senior politicians are Glaswegian, 'nuff said.

In the meantime:

Salmond lands new talk show on Turkish TV channel

Former First Minister Alex Salmond is to front a new television show on a Turkish channel.
Actor Brian Cox has signed up to be the first guest on "Turkish Tea Talk" for public broadcaster TRT, alongside Alba leader Mr Salmond.
The ex-SNP leader previously hosted a show on Russian state channel RT, but quit amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Critics have called TRT a "propaganda arm" of the Turkish regime led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Oh michty me.

Mike.

[Moonlight]

Humza faces tax civil war - Kate Forbes launches attack on government's income tax hikes as rebellion grows in SNP ranks

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-increase.html

He should stop the excessive SNP spending first, University Education should not be free for a degree course and, Prescriptions in Scotland shouldn't be free either, lots of money to be saved there.
Why should the rest of the Scots who don't go to University, pay for the Students who do and, why aren't the ill paying for their medication as well, these are two areas that need fixing before there's any Tax Rises.
I'm sure there's a lot more things like this that are funded by government which shouldn't be, there you are Useless Yousaf, get cracking.

[MGR1]

The Scottish Tories did look at re-introducing prescription fees, but found out it was going to cost more to administer than the amount of money raised in return.

They scrapped the idea as a non-starter, particularly when you realise that roughly one-fifth of Scotland's population has long term health conditions of one form or another.

Hardly a vote winner.

Mike.