Tory Cabinet Thread

[Jairzinho]

1 minute ago, YorkshireRed said:

I’ve been reading about the intention to cut international aid from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%. Equates to about £4 billion.
 

Supposedly it’s a temporary cut but given all the money wasted on things like Track and Trace it seems a harsh decision. 
 

Bob Geldof gave an impassioned argument against the cut on Andrew Marr earlier. I do understand the counter point of view but, on this, I’m with the Boomtown Rat. 

Saw some Tory MP from the South West (somewhere in Somerset possibly) on telly this morning and even he was saying that the cut in aid is a shit idea. 

[Gnasher]

1 hour ago, Jairzinho said:

Saw some Tory MP from the South West (somewhere in Somerset possibly) on telly this morning and even he was saying that the cut in aid is a shit idea. 

The cut in overseas aid will prove to be the biggest disaster since the Iraq war. What makes it more disgusting is its not being done for monetary reasons, its politically motivated. The tories are cleverly lining up dog whistle issues for the next election and as a recent survey found most people preferred to spend money on a Royal yacht than feed hungry children the strategy will probably work.

 

Edit. A good example of the shit being fed to people and will be fed to people. We could of course quite easily do both and feed all poor children..

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9655399/amp/DAN-HODGES-UK-children-starving-cry-Left-tell-14bn-world.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Gnasher

[Kepler-186]

Not quite “cabinet” more old school chums carving up stuff before drinks at the tennis club, after texting their pals in government for the latest insider knowledge. Hurrah!

 

 

[Bruce Spanner]

16 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

Not quite “cabinet” more old school chums carving up stuff before drinks at the tennis club, after texting their pals in government for the latest insider knowledge. Hurrah!

 

 

‘They’ bought up the debt records as they knew that those in debt, especially precarious debt, we more likely to have their opinions swayed  by negative, or stressful, content, as psychologically they were in that place.

 

A lot of the 2019GE target marketing was based on this.

 

With medical records I imagine they’ll do the same again, but I think this has greater potential for big tech to work on their bigger programs, which will be integrated in to governmental planning.

 

 

[Jordy Brouwer]

1 hour ago, Gnasher said:

The cut in overseas aid will prove to be the biggest disaster since the Iraq war. What makes it more disgusting is its not being done for monetary reasons, its politically motivated. The tories are cleverly lining up dog whistle issues for the next election and as a recent survey found most people preferred to spend money on a Royal yacht than feed hungry children the strategy will probably work.

 

Edit. A good example of the shit being fed to people and will be fed to people. We could of course quite easily do both and feed all poor children..

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9655399/amp/DAN-HODGES-UK-children-starving-cry-Left-tell-14bn-world.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

That's an extraordinary claim. I'm interested in your reasoning there. 

 

[Gnasher]

17 minutes ago, Jordy Brouwer said:

That's an extraordinary claim. I'm interested in your reasoning there. 

 

The cut to overseas aid could have a massive negative effect in underdeveloped countries and people who have been besieged by wars. It could also result in mass migration where peoples are forced to abandon their homelands . 

 

It's an unnecessary and dangerous ploy, keeping the overseas aid budget was in the Conservative manifesto. Its a political stunt by this regime and some of the poorest people on this earth will probably die as a result 

[Megadrive Man]

2 hours ago, Gnasher said:

What makes it more disgusting is its not being done for monetary reasons, its politically motivated. The tories are cleverly lining up dog whistle issues for the next election and as a recent survey found most people preferred to spend money on a Royal yacht than feed hungry children the strategy will probably work.

 

No question about this.

 

It's the reason that dickheads like this will hold ex Labour areas for many years to come;

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/06/tory-mp-to-boycott-england-games-in-row-over-taking-the-knee

 

 

 

[Gnasher]

1 hour ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

No question about this.

 

It's the reason that dickheads like this will hold ex Labour areas for many years to come;

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/06/tory-mp-to-boycott-england-games-in-row-over-taking-the-knee

 

 

 

Tory predicts 100,000 deaths. The result on the infrastructure in poor countries will undoubtedly cause famine and mass migration. Yet we can spend money on a yacht.

[Strontium]

Wait, are people on this forum praising a policy the coalition government introduced?

 

So that was what that pig with wings I saw earlier was all about.

[Bjornebye]

18 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

Wait, are people on this forum praising a policy the coalition government introduced?

 

So that was what that pig with wings I saw earlier was all about.

Shameless. 

[Evelyn Tentions]

[Barrington Womble]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I am strangely finding myself on the side of fucking David Davies which never feels nice. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/04/tories-nhs-data-grab-pandemic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Mudface]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/09/covid-contract-for-firm-run-by-cummings-friends-was-unlawful-judge-rules

 

Ooh, the first domino?

 

Covid contract for firm run by Cummings friends was unlawful, judge rules
Judge says contract given to firm run by friends of Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser was awarded illegally
Public First is run by husband and wife policy specialists James Frayne and Rachel Wolf, both of whom previously worked with Dominic Cummings and the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove. 

The government acted unlawfully when it awarded a contract without a tender last March to a polling company owned by friends of Dominic Cummings, then Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, a judge has ruled.

Mrs Justice O’Farrell, who gave the ruling on the Cabinet Office contract with the company Public First, said: “The decision of 5 June 2020 to award the contract to Public First gave rise to apparent bias and was unlawful.”

The ruling is the first in a series of judicial review legal challenges brought by the Good Law Project (GLP) against government Covid-19 contracts awarded with no competitive tenders under emergency regulations.

The government has defended the cases determinedly, initially trying but failing to have them thrown out, then refusing to limit its costs. That has put the GLP, a not-for-profit organisation that raises money through crowdfunding to support its stated mission to “use the law to protect the interests of the public”, at severe financial risk if it loses and has to pay the government’s costs.

In February, the Government Legal Department notified the GLP that its costs for defending the challenge to the Public First award could reach £600,000, more than the value of the contract.

Public First is run by husband and wife policy specialists James Frayne and Rachel Wolf, both of whom previously worked with Cummings and the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove. It was initially given a Cabinet Office contract last January, having been recommended to civil servants by Cummings and three other senior Johnson staff.

It conducted focus groups with mostly new Conservative party voters in northern towns, about what the government’s “levelling up” promise meant to them. When the pandemic then hit, Cummings urged civil servants to hire Public First to hold focus groups on the government’s Covid-19 health messaging.

The first contract, for £90,000, was below the threshold at which an open competitive tender is legally required. Internal emails disclosed for the legal action revealed that a Cabinet Office civil servant had described that work as “Tory party research agency tests Tory party narrative on public money”. The civil servant said in a witness statement that she had not meant that seriously.

The second Covid-19 contract was for a maximum of £840,000 but was awarded under regulations that waived the requirements for a tender due to the coronavirus emergency. Public First was ultimately paid £564,393 for that work. The contract also included the secondment of a Public First partner, Gabriel Milland, to work in Downing Street’s Covid-19 communications operation.

When the Guardian and OpenDemocracy first revealed the contract last July, the Cabinet Office said it was “nonsense” to suggest that Frayne and Wolf’s long association with Cummings was a factor in the decision. However, when the case reached a hearing in February, Cummings confirmed in a witness statement that Frayne and Wolf were his long-term friends, and that he had been instrumental in Public First being given the Covid-19 work.

Cummings said he had not requested they be brought in because they were his friends, but because he believed due to his knowledge of the company that it was the only one capable of doing the work well at such short notice. “Very few companies in this field are competent,” Cummings said, “almost none are very competent, honest and reliable”.

The GLP argued in front of O’Farrell that the Cabinet Office acted unlawfully, with “apparent bias”, in awarding the contract. The government denied that, saying the “past professional connection” between Cummings and the Public First owners “simply enabled a better judgment to be reached about whether Public First were indeed the best/only suitable body to perform the services as needed”.

Frayne has also said that Public First had particular expertise to carry out the work. However, Jan Gooding, president of the Market Research Society, said in a witness statement she was “extremely concerned” at Cummings’ comments about companies in the field, adding that there were many award-winning companies that were well-qualified to fulfil this contract.

[Bobby Hundreds]

All on Cummings who is a cunt but I thought they where big friends of Gove too the slippery fucking weasel shit. Deflected from Boris too as always the twatting haybale. 

[Bruce Spanner]

Fighting talk: One Conservative Brexiteer said Biden should row in behind Britain and not the EU in the dispute to break the deadlock. “America should remember who their allies are,” the person told Playbook. Asked what Johnson should tell Biden, the MP added: “Unfortunately he’s so senile that he probably won’t remember what we tell him anyway. Unless an aide is listening I’m not sure he’s going to remember for very long.” Erm. Wow.

[Vincent Vega]

1 hour ago, Bruce Spanner said:

Fighting talk: One Conservative Brexiteer said Biden should row in behind Britain and not the EU in the dispute to break the deadlock. “America should remember who their allies are,” the person told Playbook. Asked what Johnson should tell Biden, the MP added: “Unfortunately he’s so senile that he probably won’t remember what we tell him anyway. Unless an aide is listening I’m not sure he’s going to remember for very long.” Erm. Wow.

Take your pick. 

[Bruce Spanner]

Just now, Vincent Vega said:

Take your pick. 

 

I'd rather not, I've not long since eaten.

[Bruce Spanner]

From the GLP.

 

How we get rid of them is anybody's guess at this point as they are now openly contemptuous of due process.

 

'There will be real-world effects. Government lawyers and civil servants speak to me of a tug-of-war with ministers over spending. Civil servants want a proper decision-making process, and ministers want to bypass it. When ministers lose legal cases it strengthens the hands of civil servants. By highlighting the risks of poor decision making, it leads to better-quality decisions.

 

There should also be resignations.

 

Cummings worked for Boris Johnson. Gove was the defendant. Each is indirectly responsible for Cummings’ actions. What’s more, emails released during the hearing show both Gove and No 10 wanted contracts to go to Public First, too. They also have a direct responsibility for what appears to be a misuse of public money.

 

We now know neither will resign. And the question of how to deliver accountability to ministers whose response to court rulings is indifference, even contempt, is one I had hoped never to need to answer. Clearly we need to build, and we will build, political pressure. So far we have fought two cases proving ministers broke the law, and we have won both.

 

There are many more cases to come.'

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/10/high-court-michael-gove-law-cronyism-covid-contracts

[Kepler-186]

Fanning the flames of the “culture” wars on Day 2 of GB News. Bought and paid for by Murdoch. City breaks to Tel Aviv. Top, top Torying. 
 

 

 

 

[Bruce Spanner]

The consultations on new education policy have started to leak.

 

Oh my...

 

These are some of the most ill thought out changes, possibly, ever.

 

Its going to create shortages in key areas and exclude a lot of people from progressing.

 

They literally make no sense for a strategic or societal way of approaching education.

[Harry's Lad]

I can't see it happening unfortunately but if Labour by some miracle did win the next election, it would take 20 years to sort the mess the Tories have made out.

And that's being optimistic.

We're well and truly fucked.

[Mudface]

Just now, Harry's Lad said:

I can't see it happening unfortunately but if Labour by some miracle did win the next election, it would take 20 years to sort the mess the Tories have made out.

And that's being optimistic.

We're well and truly fucked.

And as soon as they get anywhere near sorting it out, the Tories will get back into power and the cycle starts again.

[Harry's Lad]

Just now, Mudface said:

And as soon as they get anywhere near sorting it out, the Tories will get back into power and the cycle starts again.

Yep.

[Mudface]

1 minute ago, Harry's Lad said:

Yep.

If and when Labour do get into power, they simply have to abolish FPTP and get a proper PR system in place. No wimping out and thinking they'd be OK like under Blair or nibbling round the edges, be bold.

 

So yeah, we're well and truly fucked...

[Qwikage]