General Politics Thread

[dorlomin]

[Ludo*1]

Three former Prime Ministers coming out to attack one of Boris' decisions in scrapping DfiD. Them being Cameron, Blair & Brown. Regardless what you think of they 3, it's some achievement a serving PM to be scolded by 3 former PM's.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

Three former Prime Ministers coming out to attack one of Boris' decisions in scrapping DfiD. Them being Cameron, Blair & Brown. Regardless what you think of they 3, it's some achievement a serving PM to be scolded by 3 former PM's.

Johnson doesn't give a f**k. 

As long as he gets the approval of the Daily Mail/Telegraph/Express fuckwits. 

[Bishop Briggs]

5 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Three former Prime Ministers coming out to attack one of Boris' decisions in scrapping DfiD. Them being Cameron, Blair & Brown. Regardless what you think of they 3, it's some achievement a serving PM to be scolded by 3 former PM's.

DfID is being merged with the FCO, not scrapped. It was alled the Overseas Development Agency and has been in and out  of the Foreign Office like a yoyo. Heath and Thatcher put the ODA back under the FCO and Labour over-turned those decisions. This is just another re-organisation. When Scotland becomes independent, the British Government jobs up here ( including DfID)  will move to England. 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Bishop Briggs

[Ludo*1]

41 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

DfID is being merged with the FCO, not scrapped. It was alled the Overseas Development Agency and has been in and out  of the Foreign Office like a yoyo. Heath and Thatcher put the ODA back under the FCO and Labour over-turned those decisions. This is just another re-organisation. When Scotland becomes independent, the British Government jobs up here ( including DfID)  will move to England. 

 

Stop being a 'seething obsessive' about it. 

[Bishop Briggs]

1 minute ago, Ludo*1 said:

Stop being a 'seething obsessive' about it. 

You are still rattled about being exposed as an seething obsessive on the Thistle thread!  

[Ludo*1]

8 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

You are still rattled about being exposed as an seething obsessive on the Thistle thread!  

Aye, that's it. 

[sophia]

2 hours ago, Bishop Briggs said:

DfID is being merged with the FCO, not scrapped. It was alled the Overseas Development Agency and has been in and out  of the Foreign Office like a yoyo. Heath and Thatcher put the ODA back under the FCO and Labour over-turned those decisions. This is just another re-organisation. When Scotland becomes independent, the British Government jobs up here ( including DfID)  will move to England. 

 

Aye, just like the HMRC jobs and the shipbuilding that was strategically moved to Davenport.

Behave or I'll take your pocket money just doesn't cut it.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

14 hours ago, Bishop Briggs said:

DfID is being merged with the FCO, not scrapped. It was alled the Overseas Development Agency and has been in and out  of the Foreign Office like a yoyo. Heath and Thatcher put the ODA back under the FCO and Labour over-turned those decisions. This is just another re-organisation. When Scotland becomes independent, the British Government jobs up here ( including DfID)  will move to England. 

 

I'm actually surprised that this 'merger' hasn't attracted more comment. 

It's not a 're-organisation'. It's the first attack by Cummings on the British government institutions that he has always hated, and there will be plenty more to follow in the months to come.  The government may be in the hands of the right-wingers, but the mechanisms behind government......the civil service, diplomatic agencies and much, much more, are resolutely non-political to a greater extent. 

Cummings has long held a desire to destroy the framework that supports government, and replace it with something that props up his own ideologies.

Anyone who suggests that this is simple administrative shuffling is either a fool or a liar. 

[doulikefish]

The comments

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

The comments
 

Indeed, but some quality piss-taking of Tory racists in there too.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Always fun to flummox folk who say "they treat everyone the same" by asking for an example. Just for a laugh as they rack their brains to think of a time they spoke to a black person that didn't have some negative association attached to it.

[BFTD]

Been dipping in and out of the BBC's General Election programmes on YouTube. Quite the little time capsules; it's amazing how much from the different eras that I'd forgotten. At Election 92 at the moment, which seems to have been the last at which the Monster Raving Loony Party stood in any great numbers. I remember Labour's polling lead slipping drastically towards election night, but had forgotten just how much of a surprise it was that the Tories managed a fairly comfortable majority in the end.

Anyway, something that took me right back was that the black Tory candidate in Cheltenham, standing for the first time in what had been a safe seat, lost to the Lib Dems amid accusations that they'd been giving it plenty of, "don't vote for him, you don't want any outsiders coming into the area, know what I mean, mate". The consensus seemed to be that, well, it was always going to be difficult for you to win in such a white area, maybe try somewhere else next time, eh? Really felt like a different world, but I might be being naive there. I don't think it's quite so easy to press those buttons anymore.

[BFTD]

30 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Always fun to flummox folk who say "they treat everyone the same" by asking for an example. Just for a laugh as they rack their brains to think of a time they spoke to a black person that didn't have some negative association attached to it.

I'd have difficulty thinking of an example of when I treated somebody the same as everybody else TBH. The fact that you remembered would mean you were thinking of that person differently, surely?

[welshbairn]

On 16/06/2020 at 21:09, Bishop Briggs said:

 When Scotland becomes independent, the British Government jobs up here ( including DfID)  will move to England.

Hoorah! And we can have our own Overseas Development Agency and Foreign Office, and the jobs.

Edited June 22, 2020 by welshbairn

[AsimButtHitsASix]

43 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

I'd have difficulty thinking of an example of when I treated somebody the same as everybody else TBH. The fact that you remembered would mean you were thinking of that person differently, surely?

Exactly. Just watch their wee cogs burr roon

[Bairnardo]

Exactly. Just watch their wee cogs burr roon

I know you lived in London which it as diverse as it gets, but I think you have to give at least some heed to the fact that there are still plenty of places in Scotland where folk really dont have any interaction with black people.

I hadnt laid eyes on a black person in real life until I was nearly 10.

I hadn't properly interacted with a black person routinely in anything more than a passing capacity (I mean like me as a customer, them working in a restaurant or shop to think of a couple) until I worked with a Nigerian guy at the age of 27.

At that point I had moved jobs to join a really diverse workforce with folk from literally all over the world, but if you take some of my pals/family who work in the building trade, I bet lots of them have never gone beyond a brief transactional type relationship with a black person.

For me personally, I am now used to working with people from all over, different ways and cultures, English maybe not first language, but I think unconscious bias plays a part where someone is absolutely not used to those things, rather than straight up malice.

[Tutankhamen]

4 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I know you lived in London which it as diverse as it gets, but I think you have to give at least some heed to the fact that there are still plenty of places in Scotland where folk really dont have any interaction with black people.

I hadnt laid eyes on a black person in real life until I was nearly 10.

I hadn't properly interacted with a black person routinely in anything more than a passing capacity (I mean like me as a customer, them working in a restaurant or shop to think of a couple) until I worked with a Nigerian guy at the age of 27.

At that point I had moved jobs to join a really diverse workforce with folk from literally all over the world, but if you take some of my pals/family who work in the building trade, I bet lots of them have never gone beyond a brief transactional type relationship with a black person.

For me personally, I am now used to working with people from all over, different ways and cultures, English maybe not first language, but I think unconscious bias plays a part where someone is absolutely not used to those things, rather than straight up malice.

Junior football for this pish

[Bishop Briggs]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Hoorah! And we can have our own Overseas Development Agency and Foreign Office, and the jobs.

Will the SNP commit to the equivalent of the UK's current aid budget of 0.7% of GDP?

Is there a forecast of how much a Scottish Foreign Office, embassies and consulates will cost?

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

Will the SNP commit to the equivalent of the UK's current aid budget of 0.7% of GDP?

Is there a forecast of how much a Scottish Foreign Office, embassies and consulates will cost?

Don't be silly, we haven't even decided on the assets and liabilities yet. I think we should at least take the Paris and Washington embassies, we can haggle over the rest.