LEAVE the Conservative Party and save your country!

kingstongraham

focuszing723 said:

Isn't Humanity just kicking the can until AI takes over?

Interestingly, I think the new amended nuclear deterrent policy includes us reserving “the right to review this assurance if the future threat of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological capabilities, or emerging technologies that could have a comparable impact, makes it necessary.”

Which I assume includes the use of AI and autonomous weapons on a major scale.

surrey_commuter

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

yorkshireraw

rick_chasey said:

https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1371900225858703363?s=21

Interesting - we have had a Lib Dem mayor for 3 (I think - he's been around a long time it seems) terms now.
The Lib Dems never poll particularly highly in General / By elections here - it's a swing Labour / Tory seat. It suggests to me the Lib Dem Mayor gets in by being a lot of people's second choice, and not many people's first (I could probably look this up...)

I'm not a fan of FPTP given it's obvious flaws at a national level, but for a single role at a local level it might be a better reflection of more people's views.

rick_chasey

Do you want me to list a load of FPTP council elections with absolutely mad seat distribution?

yorkshireraw

kingstongraham said:

For someone with Corbyn's record, it's not an unreasonable question. Johnson less so, because you can picture him doing it for larks.

"blah blah, fire a big one off eh chaps! snort snort. Pick that one out you Iranis, whato!"

briantrumpet

focuszing723 said:

Try and stop that, what are we going to use sea bass with friggin laser beams?

No, because the damned Frenchies will have kidnapped and murdered all the British Fish.

yorkshireraw

rick_chasey said:

Do you want me to list a load of FPTP council elections with absolutely mad seat distribution?

For multiple seat elections FPTP is flawed, as we see on a national scale.

Mea culpa from me on our Mayor - having actually looked it up, the Lib Dem has actually taken the most votes at the first stage in the 3 full elections he's won.

Interesting divergence from how people vote in the GE here (last 3 GEs the LDs have polled 4.2, 5.9 and 9.7%).

rjsterry

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

I suspect mostly on the comms equipment rather than the 'Novotel Berkhampstead conference room A' decor.

kingstongraham

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

That's easy - you pay an invoice for £2.6m.

rjsterry

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

pblakeney

Working with the flaky and out of their depth results in a favourable contract. 😉

surrey_commuter

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

I suspect mostly on the comms equipment rather than the 'Novotel Berkhampstead conference room A' decor.

mic, multiple charging points and very good wi-fi?

I don't believe they need highly secure comms

surrey_commuter

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

elbowloh

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

The reason given was because it's a listed business.

yorkshireraw

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

He's just changing the narrative to justify what & how they acted. A bit like when he changed his blog post to pretend he'd foreseen the pandemic.

From what's been reported so far his 'evidence' is solely based on his opinion about the civil service and workings of state departments - no doubt there are delays and slow / poor decision making in that process - but there are also checks to make sure unaccountable Govt appointees can't run around spending oodles of public cash on their pet / political projects, which of course is what he wants to do.

He doesn't give 2 plops about the lives of ordinary people (unless they support the 'right' causes such as Brexit - even then they are merely useful pawns) - it's all about power and ego.

I suspect they could only get him in front of this committee if they guaranteed not to pursue the contempt of parliament charge for refusing to appear previously to face questions about Vote Leave's illegal behaviour.

The bloke is a shite stain on society - and that's before we get to his connections to the Tufton St crowd.

Pross

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

It was obviously spent mainly in buying those surplus stock primary school chairs from the Department for Education (they look like they'll get flattened under the bulk of your average journalist).

rjsterry

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

rjsterry

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

yorkshireraw said:

rjsterry said:

Couldn't decide where to put this, but to misquote the famous credit card add:

New no.10 press studio:£2.6m
Henry left out in the corner of the proud publicity shot: priceless.

2 thoughts on Henry's presence at this ground-breaking reveal:

1- it's a c0ck up (entirely plausible with this Govt) - ITV have somehow (not at all arranged by a govt flunky, no definitely not) managed to get 'sneak preview' shots of this important new national asset, and in a rush to tidy up someone simply left Henry out.

2 - They actually use Dysons at no.10, but know that brand is seen as a bit toxic since James 'back Britain, leave the EU' Dyson upped and F'd off to Singapore taking a chunk of jobs and tax with him. Therefore they rushed out to grab a good, dependable, 'British' Henry and deliberately left him in shot - partly so we would have this chat and not focus on how 2.6m has been spent here....
Not so much a dead cat on a table as an idle Henry in the corner.

the bizarre thing is that nobody questions how you can spend £2.6m on creating a press briefing room

I suspect mostly on the comms equipment rather than the 'Novotel Berkhampstead conference room A' decor.

mic, multiple charging points and very good wi-fi?

I don't believe they need highly secure comms

It's effectively a TV studio, so probably a bit more kit than that. Also working within a listed building will be more onerous, so lots of professional fees. That's not to say they may have not searched for the keenest tender.

rick_chasey

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

Only had a quick glance but it looks very much like Cummings is putting all the blame for the bad sh!t on Hancock/dept health and all the good stuff (vaccine etc) on No.10, where he, naturally, was one of the main decision makers.

rjsterry

rick_chasey said:

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

Only had a quick glance but it looks very much like Cummings is putting all the blame for the bad sh!t on Hancock/dept health and all the good stuff (vaccine etc) on No.10, where he, naturally, was one of the main decision makers.

Well he's hardly going to hold his hands up and admit it was all his fault.

surrey_commuter

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

Only had a quick glance but it looks very much like Cummings is putting all the blame for the bad sh!t on Hancock/dept health and all the good stuff (vaccine etc) on No.10, where he, naturally, was one of the main decision makers.

Well he's hardly going to hold his hands up and admit it was all his fault.

it will be interesting to see Hancock's response

kingstongraham

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

Only had a quick glance but it looks very much like Cummings is putting all the blame for the bad sh!t on Hancock/dept health and all the good stuff (vaccine etc) on No.10, where he, naturally, was one of the main decision makers.

Well he's hardly going to hold his hands up and admit it was all his fault.

it will be interesting to see Hancock's response

pblakeney

rjsterry said:

rick_chasey said:

rjsterry said:

surrey_commuter said:

rjsterry said:

Cummings's evidence to the Commons Science SC is fascinating. God knows how he tolerated working with someone as flaky as Johnson and all his out-of-there-depth ministers.

he either hates Hancock or everybody at the Dept of Health

Difficult to argue with how bad they were at PPE procurement.
I'd agree he still has a heavily inflated opinion of his own brilliance and there doesn't seem to be much to substantiate his idea that Whitehall bureaucracy is inherently bad, and that therefore his ideas must be better. But he still seems to have been a couple of intellectual steps above most of the cabinet.

Only had a quick glance but it looks very much like Cummings is putting all the blame for the bad sh!t on Hancock/dept health and all the good stuff (vaccine etc) on No.10, where he, naturally, was one of the main decision makers.

Well he's hardly going to hold his hands up and admit it was all his fault.

Just claim he didn't see it. 😉

john80

kingstongraham said:

john80 said:

pblakeney said:

I see the strategy.
Gather up all the plutonium and hide it in our missiles. Genius!

Will you be so dismissive of the risk when a quarter of London is coated in plutonium and you don't know for sure which foreign actor did it. I will consider it a bit of a disaster. How much plutonium do you have to get into your body to get a radiation dose that will have health consequences. This is the biggest risks facing Western nations from rogue nations such as Iran.

If you don't know who did it, how are some extra warheads in a missile in a submarine going to help London?

I am not saying they will. I am merely pointing out what I see as the primary risk now for Western nations. That is not to say I would give up nuclear detterents.

bm5

Not sure how they have managed to make that room look so cheap and lurid. It looks like a bad job if it had cost 10% of that.

ballysmate

Riots in the streets, whole cabinet forced to resign and in the ensuing election, the PM's party gains seats.
Wonder what the Labour party in the UK can take away from that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/netherlands-election-mark-rutte-on-course-to-win-fourth-term

rjsterry

ballysmate said:

Riots in the streets, whole cabinet forced to resign and in the ensuing election, the PM's party gains seats.
Wonder what the Labour party in the UK can take away from that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/netherlands-election-mark-rutte-on-course-to-win-fourth-term

Is there a typo in the article? How is 35 out of 150 seats (22%) a resounding victory?

rick_chasey

rjsterry said:

ballysmate said:

Riots in the streets, whole cabinet forced to resign and in the ensuing election, the PM's party gains seats.
Wonder what the Labour party in the UK can take away from that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/netherlands-election-mark-rutte-on-course-to-win-fourth-term

Is there a typo in the article? How is 35 out of 150 seats (22%) a resounding victory?

Get your head out of the FPTP gutter

rjsterry

So not really the resounding victory claimed if any two of the runners up vote the other way. Are all the tailenders providing something useful to governance and the electorate or are they a bit like the Greens in the UK?

rick_chasey

Well PVV are the far right party (who none of the major parties will get into bed with), CDA and D66 were part of the previous coalition, along with the CU - VVD, D66, CDA is the most obvious coalition on the cards.