Politics Thread 6

[KK]

Emily Maitlis

[Jenuall]

If Maitlis doesn't go for it then I hear she's got another name to put forward:

[Squinty]

You're all on the BBC gravy train!

[Victor Mildew]

Wish I was.

[Ecno]

Nick Watt (who I like) is my outside bet.

[andretmzt]

What is it with politicians voting against something, then changing their mind when they are affected by it, though in the case of Frank Field he apparently changed his mind initially when it was a friend rather than himself. Nigel Evans famously did the same thing with legal aid cuts.

'Oh this will never affect me, so I do not need to consider how it might affect other people and I'm just going to vote on what I think is best'.

[KK]

What is it with politicians voting against something, then changing their mind when they are affected by it, though in the case of Frank Field he apparently changed his mind initially when it was a friend rather than himself. Nigel Evans famously did the same thing with legal aid cuts.

'Oh this will never affect me, so I do not need to consider how it might affect other people and I'm just going to vote on what I think is best'.

Generally speaking, people and voters are just the same. There's a current radio presenter on BBC Radio 4 for example that apparently got called out for this back in 2017:

TV presenter Elle Osili-Wood had to sell her home in London when she found out she did not meet the minimum income requirement to live with her Australian husband in the UK, TV producer Andrew.

"You never expect you will find yourself on the opposing side to your government. I think of myself as law-abiding and tax-paying and then suddenly your government wants to block the one most important thing to you. It should be a wonderful time, your first year of marriage, you find someone you love and the government says you don’t earn enough to live with them. It’s not just being in limbo – it’s the existential feeling of: I’m not welcome in my own country because I dared to marry someone from another country.

The idea that if you are earning under £18,600 that means you will automatically sponge off the government is just insulting. It completely violates the idea of innocent until proven guilty. We are one of the lucky ones, who have never been separated, and we still had to sell our house and leave the country. That shows you how discriminatory this law is.

When we met I had taken six months off work and went travelling, and I was able to do that because I owned my house, mortgage-free. And that was what ruined our chances of getting the visa. They look at the previous year’s income. Not anything else, not at what you would earn when you return to work. So the only other way you can apply for a visa is to have cash savings of £62,500 for six months.

We had to sell the house, and by that time my husband’s visa had run out. We ended up then having to move to Australia for six months so the cash could sit in the bank account. And we still don’t have the visa, we’ll find out in March.

When we eventually have it, we’ll have to move somewhere smaller because we had to take the equity out of the property, the costs of the process. And he’ll have to reapply in two and a half years, when hopefully we’ll be able to meet the income requirements.

My dad was Nigerian and my mum warned it would be hard, that we would have to prove our relationship was genuine. I’m perfectly happy to do that but I never expected it would be like this."

But you roll the clock back prior to that development...

Elle Osili-Wood previously worked on Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaign and at Conservative Party headquarters.

'I can't believe [insert name here - probably Michael Gove] has turned around and stabbed me in the back, we were doing so well stabbing everyone else in the back. Bastard.'

[Knoyleo]

twitter.com/Cavalorn/status/654934442549620736

[Rik_]

The idea that if you are earning under £18,600 that means you will automatically sponge off the government is just insulting. It completely violates the idea of innocent until proven guilty. We are one of the lucky ones, who have never been separated, and we still had to sell our house and leave the country. That shows you how discriminatory this law is.

Loving the implicit equation of poor people with criminals and fraudsters here

[Vermilion]

The idea that if you are earning under £18,600 that means you will automatically sponge off the government is just insulting. It completely violates the idea of innocent until proven guilty. We are one of the lucky ones, who have never been separated, and we still had to sell our house and leave the country. That shows you how discriminatory this law is.

Loving the implicit equation of poor people with criminals and fraudsters here

It's hardly surprising though when the Cameron government spent a good few years doing all they could to push that narrative (with the willing help of the media i might add).

[Zerudaaaaa!]

Don't know if this was talked about already, but the position Matt Hancock was offered at the UN has apparently been withdrawn.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-58940128

[Moggy]

twitter.com/davidtcdavies/status/1451637904548237324

It looks like Tories think "online abuse" is "the mildest criticism of us".

[Tomous]

It looks like the Tories have been instructed to react to any negativity online as if it was abuse.


Not sure how effective a strategy that is. Kind of makes them look pathetic.

[Tomous]

Capitalising on a colleague's murder too.

[<]:^D]

as if they care about moral niceties like that

[KK]

Never seen abuse like it.

[KK]

Another of those 'get back into the office you lazy bum' articles in today's Sun:

The fluffy evils of Generation Work From Home are a threat to us all

THERE’S absolutely no doubt that commuting from bed to a makeshift desk and blobbing along in velour tracksuits and furry slippers all day long is a blissful way to work.

I know, I’ve tried it.

My house was sparkling, my washing loads done, and elasticated-waistband pyjama bottoms ensured I remained safe in the conviction a daily step count of 68 was all I needed to stay non-obese.

But here’s the rub (and not just my thighs).

After a couple of weeks, I became lethargic, lazy, unmotivated and yet, perversely, convinced that I was much, much happier WFH.

This weekend Charlie Mullins, the founder of London’s Pimlico Plumbers, claimed parents working from home were sending the wrong message to their kids.

The self-made tycoon claims WFH’ers are akin to “dole scroungers”.

He added: “It’s sent out the wrong message and cost billions.

“Are they not aware that when youths leave school now they’re never going to go and work in their life, because the culture is, ‘Well my mum or dad work from home that’s what I’ll do’?”

I don’t have children, but after four long weeks in my company even Dora, the dachshund, was beginning to stare at me with thinly veiled contempt.

I went back to the office.

Charlie, who started as an apprentice at the age of 15, would not be a multi-millionaire had he tried to fix blocked drains from his kitchen.

My parents set up and ran their own catering company.

Every morning, without fail, my insomniac dad would rise at 5am and be at work an hour later.

He got home to the opening strains of the Coronation Street theme — and supper on the table — at 7.30pm.

Their work ethic ensured I didn’t slack when it came to GCSEs, A levels or my degree.

As a cub showbiz reporter I thought nothing of staying out until 3am, and being at my desk at 10am sharp the next day.

It’s just what you did if you wanted to be a Fleet Street journalist.

SWAN IN

Nowadays, many graduates believe it is their God-given right to swan into the office on their own terms.

They would last about a minute in showbiz.

Entitled Gen Z’ers are angrily gunning for employers who won’t let them have their “work-life balance”.

For kids growing up now, what sort of example is this?

Get stressed, take a month off.

Of course, with people suffering from real and genuine mental health issues, it’s imperative they seek, and get, help.

But there is a creeping generation of entitled workers thinking it is their right to lay down terms of their employment.

If we keep going soft on workers, eventually we will become soft as a society — capitulating at the first whiff of difficulty.

UNHEALTHY

It emerged this month that Britons were left at the mercy of the Taliban in Afghanistan because civil servants working from home could not access vital documents.

Without face-to-face interaction, mistakes get made. The germ of great ideas does not get sparked.

Take the Queen.

Aged 95, she’s just completed a gruelling schedule of 120 official engagements in 194 days.

That’s 120 days she’s been on the ground, proffering a gloved hand or gamely feigning interest in Buckingham Palace garden parties since the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip.

Despite her recent hospital stay, on Monday she will be in Glasgow for the first day of the COP26 climate change conference.

I’m sure she’s had better Mondays.

Not once has she said she can’t be a***d, and asked to Zoom in from her four-poster.

I’m all for a bit of flexibility and employers offering a split office/home week to staff.

Work shouldn’t be slave labour.

But a permanent shift to five days a week from the sofa isn’t healthy — mentally or physically.

With every poll I've seen saying the public generally back working from home if your job facilitates it, you've got to think the papers that are pushing this narrative are only further alienating their dwindling readership.

[Memento Mori]

Interesting context for that article: at a covid restriction breaking Xmas party at The Sun office last year, a senior executive was seen having sex with a 20 year junior member of staff.

[Cuttooth]

Entitled Gen Z’ers are angrily gunning for employers who won’t let them have their “work-life balance”.

For kids growing up now, what sort of example is this?

Get stressed, take a month off.

Of course, with people suffering from real and genuine mental health issues, it’s imperative they seek, and get, help.

Get in the bin.

[Tomous]

Entitled Gen Z’ers are angrily gunning for employers who won’t let them have their “work-life balance”.

What a thundercunt


How dare people want a life outside work!