Britain - The Official Thread

[UKMikey]

The Telegraph, on the other hand, has gone down the toilet. Their lead story today is how "We won't let another special day be 'cancelled' by another 'scariant'"... pardon my language, but Jesus 🤬 wept... what the actual 🤬 is that? A "scariant"? You mean the viral variant that is currently crippling the world's 2nd most populous nation and that is likely to "spread like wildfire" (that's not me scaremongering, that's a direct quote from the UK Government that The Telegraph consistently bow and scrape to) among the unvaccinated (oh, and a fair few vaccinated people too...)

C'mon, man, it's Allison Pearson, what did you expect?! Even a left-leaner like me knows better than to confuse a newspaper's reporting sections with its clickbait editorial opinion pages.

 

[TexRex]

Bradley may no longer be on the microphone with Ras MG, but will all the people in the dance agree that she's well qualified to represent the LBC?

 

[Famine]

Allison Pearson

She blocked me on Twitter after I pointed out that an article in which she advocated keying expensive cars was incitement to commit criminal damage.

And I didn't do so with any spicier language than that. She blocked a whole bunch of car Twitter, in fact.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Stolen from The Times comment section about Johnson's handling of the travel restrictions:

The government’s posturing on this issue is somewhere between disingenuous and frankly deceitful. Until this week, there was never any question that people would be going on holiday to ‘amber’ destinations if they were prepared to do their self-isolation penance afterwards. If this was somehow not what the government meant by creating this intermediate category, they have had ample opportunity over the past month to clarify matters.

But no, they wait to bleat their sanctimonious chiding refrain until the long-suffering travel industry is on the starting blocks. They are trying to blame the public for wanting to do what we have been promised for months would finally be permitted and which this self-same government gave every impression of encouraging.

It’s all to cover up Bojo’s overconfident Indian mistake, of course, by deflecting the blame for a third wave on to travellers who will then be tarred as irresponsible. Well, it won’t wash with the public, who by and large follow the rules and will ask only whether something is allowed or whether it isn’t.

Own it, Johnson ! If you don’t want people going abroad, make those destinations ‘red’ and take the political flak that comes with it.

 

[Keef]

TIL the UK calls their national parks "Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty". That's a mountful. And the one on Isle of White is 100% farmland. Au naturel.

 

[PeterJB]

TIL the UK calls their national parks "Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty". That's a mountful. And the one on Isle of White is 100% farmland. Au naturel.

We have national parks as well as AONB. The main difference between the two is that national parks are intended more for recreation and tourism that AONB.

 

[TenEightyOne]

TIL the UK calls their national parks "Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty". That's a mountful. And the one on Isle of White is 100% farmland. Au naturel.

Wait until you find out about Sites of Special Scientific Interest. You don't want an SSSI in your AONB if you're submitting a planning application.

 

[Keef]

Do y'all have any Sites of Historical Interest and Tutelage?

 

[Liquid]

TIL the UK calls their national parks "Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty". That's a mountful. And the one on Isle of White is 100% farmland. Au naturel.

AONB and National Parks aren't the same thing and it differs depending which UK country you're in, I think. For example, Wales has three national parks (Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire) but lots of other scattered places called AONB. In fact the UK's first AONB is in Wales but not in any of the three national parks.

It is weird. In most countries national parks are managed by a specific governmental body but ones in the UK aren't and usually don't contain human settlement but the ones in the UK often do.

 

[MaxAttack]

TIL the UK calls their national parks "Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty". That's a mountful. And the one on Isle of White is 100% farmland. Au naturel.

Wight*

*Audible sounds of enraged trembling*

Also our SSSI is lovely and comprises much unfarmable marshland.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Do y'all have any Sites of Historical Interest and Tutelage?

Stonehenge would probably be classified as S. H. I and Tutelage.

 

[UKMikey]

Do y'all have any Sites of Historical Interest and Tutelage?

Over here they are known as Conservation Unpopulated Nature Territories.

 

[DG_Silva]

So 24 hours after a prominent BLM activist in the UK gets shot in the head (thankfully stable in hospital) at a party, professional dumbass Diane Abbott sends out a tweet implying that she was shot because of her beliefs:

Except it wasn't - she was an innocent bystander in a gangland shooting according to everyone who was there. Amazingly, 30 people at the party, and nobody knows anything (but that's another matter).

So, Diane Abbott gets called to take part in a discussion on LBC radio and the presenter calls Abbott on her tweet. First she claims 'well, of course it's about race, she's black', then when told she was stirring up racial tension, she basically said 'you can't tell me I'm wrong, because I'm black'.

 

[UKMikey]

You've been tree'd. This was posted earlier on the Cursed Political Content thread.

 

[DG_Silva]

Didn't even realise there was one - consider that my learned thing for the day

 

[Touring Mars]

Didn't even realise there was one - consider that my learned thing for the day

Neither did I, but the story also belongs in here too (and is arguably a better place for it).

This whole sorry incident will likely play right into the hands of the critics of the BLM movement - that's not to say that there are elements of and within the BLM campaign that don't deserve criticism (there are), but the fact that a prominent BLM activist can be randomly shot in the head by black gang members is hardly a great advert for the movement.

And Diane Abbott's reaction is just fuel on the fire that is helping to discredit the idea behind the movement.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Cummings is going all in today

 

[UKMikey]

Neither did I, but the story also belongs in here too (and is arguably a better place for it).

Not sure how many times over you have to condemn a stupid politician for a dumb remark. Surely once is enough.

This whole sorry incident will likely play right into the hands of the critics of the BLM movement - that's not to say that there are elements of and within the BLM campaign that don't deserve criticism (there are), but the fact that a prominent BLM activist can be randomly shot in the head by black gang members is hardly a great advert for the movement.

Very Malcolm X of them. I'm not sure his asssassination by Nation Of Islam members detracts from his message any more than Sasha Johnson's shooting reflects on her movement unless they were BLM members.

 

[Touring Mars]

Not sure how many times over you have to condemn a stupid politician for a dumb remark. Surely once is enough.

Perhaps - once per offense at least, which is what I've done in this case. The troubling thing is that Abbott doesn't seem to ever learn from her mistakes, and in this case has made a blunder that weakens the BLM message (IMO, anyway).

Cummings is going all in today

Johnson will be absolutely spitting chips at this no doubt, but from the small bits I've seen so far, it's "Hancock" who is getting the brunt of the criticism. Cummings described his behaviour as "criminal".

 

[PeterJB]

Johnson will be absolutely spitting chips at this no doubt, but from the small bits I've seen so far, it's "Hancock" who is getting the brunt of the criticism. Cummings described his behaviour as "criminal".

Doesn't help that he's literally running away from the media:

 

[MatskiMonk]

"Cummings also claimed that the PM regarded Covid as a “scare story” and that he had planned to get England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, to inject him with it on TV."

Golden!

 

[Touring Mars]

"Cummings also claimed that the PM regarded Covid as a “scare story” and that he had planned to get England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, to inject him with it on TV."

That is quite incredible... but it is entirely consistent with the kind of utter stupidity and bravado that Johnson actually engaged in and bragged about days before almost dying from COVID. And this is the man in charge of the UK response to a lethal pandemic....

 

[TheCracker]

Its becoming more and more apparent that BoJo really is Britain's Trump. As if anyone was under any alternative opinion. Still, plenty of people still think he can do no wrong. Cult of personality strikes again.

 

[Stotty]

I’ve been watching this since 11am.

If even half of what Cummings has said today is true it should be the demolition of Boris and his government.

Unfortunately, Boris is untouchable for a majority of the British public as he ‘stopped all them foreigners coming in to Britain’ with Brexit.

Handcock’s appearance in 2 weeks should be interesting.

 

[Touring Mars]

If even half of what Cummings has said today is true it should be the demolition of Boris and his government.

Unfortunately, Boris is untouchable for a majority of the British public as he ‘stopped all them foreigners coming in to Britain’ with Brexit.

I would imagine everything he is saying is true. But yes, it will probably not bring Boris Johnson down, but it really, really should.

Meanwhile, Cummings confirms that the BBC's reporting on Johnson having said that he would rather 'let the bodies pile high in their thousands' (rather than impose a second lockdown) is true.

Hancock’s appearance this week should be interesting.

It should be a fun Half Hour at the very least.

 

[Famine]

I would imagine everything he is saying is true.

It's really weird on social media right now.

Everyone who was convinced he was talking crap about Barnard Castle 12 months ago is convinced he's speaking truth to power right now. The reality is he's a spin doctor and almost all of what he says on anything is the version of the truth he'd like people to hear.

Also he calls Boris's girlfriend/wife/babymomma/whatever she is "Princess Nut Nuts", when "Carrie Antoinette" is far more obvious and available. Unforgivably lazy.

 

[Touring Mars]

I think the fact that most people thought the whole Barnard Castle thing was nonsense is only adding to his credibility now that he has explained how/why the story was concocted. Ironically, it may only go to prove that Boris Johnson was shortsighted.

 

[Stotty]

I doubt much of it is 100% accurate, but he was in there what, 8 hours? and looked more than comfortable working from memory most of the time... so I doubt the whole thing is some massively complex web of lies. Too easy for it all to come crashing down.

If only a few of the most damming sections were true it would have meant the end of a political career 25 odd years ago. Nowadays, seems politicians like Boris and Trump can pretty much do what they want and lie about it, but keep the support of their core supporters.

There’s zero principle and even less integrity in modern politics.

 

[ShiftingGears]

Jeez imagine if he got covid on live TV, then he would've had to follow up with drinking bleach and shoving a light bulb up his jaxie

 

[Rossell2]

Jeez imagine if he got covid on live TV, then he would've had to follow up with drinking bleach and shoving a light bulb up his jaxie

At least if he did that, the light bulb wouldn't need a power source.