Britain - The Official Thread

[UKMikey]

I wonder whether this is why St. George's Day celebrations aren't more ubiquitous:

Six arrests after violence at St George's Day event in central London

The Metropolitan Police released footage showing a group of men - some draped in St George's flags - clashing with officers in Whitehall.

news.sky.com

 

[Fezzik]

Most of those police would probably be joining them if they weren't on duty.

 

[UKMikey]

A man has been detained for slicing up five people with a sword in Hainault including a schoolboy who died from the resulting wounds.

RIP Daniel Anjorin, 14.

Hainault stabbings: Schoolboy killed in sword attack named as Daniel Anjorin - as family pays tribute to 'wonderful child'

A man was hit when the suspect began his rampage by crashing into a house. He was attacked and suffered a neck wound. Another man was also targeted in a nearby property, before the suspect went on to attack Daniel.

news.sky.com

 

[MatskiMonk]

Voting day for some locals and PFCCs...

 

[MatskiMonk]

 

[HenrySwanson]

DM going with "The Khanage continues"....

Like, really?

The only thing I've had an issue with with Khan has been some of the LTNs and cycle lanes, but otherwise it's easy to see why London chose him for a third term.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

Isn’t the whole ulez thing widely unpopular?

 

[MatskiMonk]

Isn’t the whole ulez thing widely unpopular?

Well, two stats:

1/ 46% of households in London don't own a car.
2/ Before the latest round of ULEZ expansion over 80% of vehicles it would affect were already compliant reaching 95% prior to this election.

That would suggest a vocal minority are displeased, but the reality is that it doesn't affect most people, and therefore may not have been a reason to vote against Kahn. I'd also suggest that (broadly stereotyping) those in outer London affected by the ULEZ expansion were probably already voting Conservative, and those in the demographic that struggle to own a car in London were already voting Labour.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

I guess it is a “vocal minority” thing, as someone out in the sticks up north whenever I hear anything about what’s going on in that London lately it’s made out that you’re all rioting over it, tearing the cameras down. Stabbing each other with them.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Can find good polling numbers here:

Support for ULEZ Has Grown Since September, Aiding Khan’s Chances of Victory

In September last year, shortly after London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) was expanded to include all the boroughs of Outer London, we at …

redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com

Anecdotally, my parents were against it but for different reasons - my mum because she would have to change her car and my dad because he owns a garage in Stamford Brook and anticipated a drop off in customers. I also know of people who have tried to "cheat" the cameras with specialised number plates.

I am for it, including the expansion because it will improve air quality. Unfortunately a child living near the South Circular road became the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of her death, which I hoped would be a wake up call to voters in outer London. But Tory campaigns can be effective among a sizeable amount of the population, although thankfully it didn't rank too highly in Londoners' concerns when voting:

London voter poll: ULEZ not ‘net zero’, not a big issue

New polling [1] in the days leading up to the London elections has found that those who said they were likely to vote ranked the Ultra Low Emissions Zone as ninth from a list of top issues.

eciu.net

 

[MatskiMonk]

I guess it is a “vocal minority” thing, as someone out in the sticks up north whenever I hear anything about what’s going on in that London lately it’s made out that you’re all rioting over it, tearing the cameras down. Stabbing each other with them.

It's almost like a right biased media wants a left run city to appear worse than it is. Who would have thunk it.

 

[Liquid]

Considering how well they did, I wonder how much air time and column inches will be given to the Greens and Lib Dems.

Considering how few seats they won, I wonder how little air time and how few column inches will be given to Reform.

(Second one also applies to the Tory routing.)

 

[Clinton Ducks]

I once had this idea for tackling air pollution via universal EVs for everyone. It would involve collaboration from all the manufacturers and a rethink on how they design electric cars - because I know the batteries are integral to the overall design of the vehicle. But what if they came up with a universal battery system. You’d have to have a few different ‘types’ of course, smaller ones for small cars, bigger ones for ‘sport’ models and people carriers etc. So they can be easily swapped out.

And then, what happens is, you rent the battery. Like you pay a monthly subscription (that’s a fraction of your typical petrol expense), and then when it starts getting low you drive onto a ramp in a forecourt where they have loads of batteries on charge - and because it’s the future, the robots come from underneath and take the flat battery out and put one of the charged ones in, and away you go.

This way, when you buy your new electric car you don’t buy the battery with it, making it a lot cheaper. At least half the cost of EVs is in the battery after all. Cheap electric cars for everyone!

 

[MatskiMonk]

I once had this idea for tackling air pollution via universal EVs for everyone.

It's not a new idea. Cars like the Renault Zoe for example came with a battery lease so the cost wasn't part of the purchase price, and one of the big Chinese manufacturers is doing battery swaps (NIO perhaps). Tesla absorbed a bunch of subsidy money years ago for developing battery swaps, which they (supposedly) did, and then shelved it because Supercharger network was more valuable to them.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

I came up with it a good ten years ago now, so i want some bloody money. Them french and chinese always stealing my ideas

 

[MatskiMonk]

I came up with it a good ten years ago now, so i want some bloody money. Them french and chinese always stealing my ideas

Tesla's battery swap event was 2013.

 

[Famine]

While the headlines from the local council elections make it look like the Conservatives have been hosed into third place, only a third of English (and just English) councils were even holding them.

The current makeup of councils and councillors in England is:
Labour & Cooperative - 5,609 seats - 65 councils
Conservative - 5,395 seats - 56 councils
Liberal Democrats - 2,804 seats - 8 councils
Independents - 1,638 seats - 8 councils*
Green England & Wales - 757 seats - 1 council
Others - 46 seats

Plus 14 councils under no overall control, including minority cabinets and coalitions. I've marked the independent councils separately for our non-UK readers, as this isn't a political party but councillors who aren't affiliated with any party and where they're the largest group on any council the way in which its executive functions and how it's controlled is anybody's guess. Sometimes they form a loose "independent block" but not necessarily.

It's certainly a swing - going into Thursday it was the Conservatives first on 5,869 (66 councils), then Labour on 5,423 (57), and the Lib Dems on 2,700 (6) - and the worst big set of local election results for the Conservatives for a while, but in the big picture it's gone from 36% of councillors and 43% of councils to 33% & 37% (England only).

I guess it depends on what the next probably 8 months brings to see what the General Election looks like.

 

[Fezzik]

When even the rightwing Boris-loving Tory MPs (who think they're centrists) are jumping ship to the opposition, the end is truly nigh.

Natalie Elphicke: Tory MP defects to Labour with attack on Rishi Sunak

The MP for Dover says the Conservatives "have become a byword for incompetence and division".

www.bbc.co.uk

Voting record - Natalie Elphicke, former MP, Dover

See how Natalie Elphicke voted on topics like Employment, Social Issues, Foreign Policy, and more.

www.theyworkforyou.com

Of course the Labour party she's joined isn't really a Labour party anymore, but it'll still likely form a better government than the ones we've had for 15 years (low bar, I know).

 

[Liquid]

Her husband was in court on sexual assault charges and she and other Tory MPs tried to corrupt the bench.

An MP in such a charged constituency (Dover-Brexit LOL as well as the boats) abandoning the governement is rightfully damning and should be highlighted but just because she's joined Labour, doesn't make her a good girl.

 

[TheCracker]

An MP in such a charged constituency (Dover-Brexit LOL as well as the boats) abandoning the governement is rightfully damning and should be highlighted but just because she's joined Labour, doesn't make her a good girl.

I'm not sure that it puts Labour in a good light by accepting her. At this stage they don't really need the 'help'. Makes for good headlines though.

 

[Famine]

It seems like 20 minutes ago that she was writing an article damning Labour's policy on her preferred hot-topic of small boats and immigration.

If it wasn't for low morals they wouldn't have any morals at all.

 

[UKMikey]

 

[Liquid]

I'm not sure that it puts Labour in a good light by accepting her. At this stage they don't really need the 'help'. Makes for good headlines though.

Absolutely. It should be very concerning that someone as morally bankrupt and unscrupulous as her is deemed acceptable to Labour. I suspect that she's only defected to Labour because she'll get re-elected with Labour next to her name instead of Reform, which you'd imagine would be more ideologically suited to her.

 

[Fezzik]

Absolutely. It should be very concerning that someone as morally bankrupt and unscrupulous as her is deemed acceptable to Labour. I suspect that she's only defected to Labour because she'll get re-elected with Labour next to her name instead of Reform, which you'd imagine would be more ideologically suited to her.

She's said to be standing down at the forthcoming election, Labour already has a candidate in place for that constituency. Whether she gets parachuted into a different seat is another matter.

I suspect Labour will try to focus attention on her record on housing - she was recently very critical of Michael Gove's cave-in to the Tory MP landlords - rather than the immigration mess for which no one has much of an answer. Stop the boats or smash the gangs, none of it will actually make a difference.

As a rather vile female Labour MP from Kent, she'll have good company.

 

[Famine]

I suspect that she's only defected to Labour because she'll get re-elected with Labour next to her name instead of Reform

Labour's candidate for her constituency at the next GE has already been selected, and it's not her. Seems she's either standing down or will be selected for a different seat.

 

[Touring Mars]

selected for a different seat.

Hopefully on a plane to Rwanda.

 

[UKMikey]

"Common sense" minister wants to build a happy and inclusive workplace at the Civil Service... by banning rainbow lanyards and cracking down on minority-themed staff networks in a "war on woke":

Esther McVey announces civil service rainbow lanyard ban in new Tory culture war

Rishi Sunak’s common sense minister Esther McVey has announced a new “war on woke” in the civil service

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Clinton Ducks]

About time

 

[TheCracker]

"Common sense" minister wants to build a happy and inclusive workplace at the Civil Service... by banning rainbow lanyards and cracking down on minority-themed staff networks in a "war on woke":

Esther McVey announces civil service rainbow lanyard ban in new Tory culture war

Rishi Sunak’s common sense minister Esther McVey has announced a new “war on woke” in the civil service

www.independent.co.uk

I do wish the papers would frame her context better by always refering to her as "former children's TV presenter, Esther McVey".

 

[MatskiMonk]

by banning rainbow lanyards and cracking down on minority-themed staff networks in a "war on woke":

Thank **** for that.

It's about time someone took a stance against failing national infrastructure, crippling national debt, a health service that's falling apart, increased friction trading globally, the spiralling cost of living and not enough homes, schools, teachers, doctors or policemen, Tory corruption, the rise of fascism on the right of the government, the eroding of human rights, foreign influence in government, dysfunctional democracy, unelected lawmakers, laughable national defence, and there's absolutely not one single doubt in my mind that Rainbow Lanyards are responsible.