UK Politics V - Have We Got News For You

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Gorbles

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You find it, you post it :)

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(shamelessly stolen from some corporate shindig somewhere on the Internet)

Old threads:
 
You'll still hate-watch it though, won't you? ;)
 
You'll still hate-watch it though, won't you? ;)
Not really, though :/ Last full episode I watched was the Boris special (well, also some episode when Truss was still pm), and prior to it I must have avoided 1-2 years or something.
When you do something for 40 years, you end up a parody of yourself - and so they did.
 
First post-Elizabethan thread!

So, Tory party conference is over. Obvious highlights being the footage of Nigel Farage and Priti Patel dancing.

HS2 north gone, no more A levels, and…a smoking ban? That’s not very liberal, is it?

Also this jewel:

(…) at the Conservative party conference this week,
Sunak told the audience: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be,” to cheers and loud applause. “They can’t. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.”

(…) During the Tory party conference in Manchester, Suella Braverman took aim at so-called “gender ideology”, in a speech during which a prominent Conservative was ejected from the premises after he accused the home secretary of homophobia and transphobia, saying there was “no such thing as gender ideology”.​

All this amid rising violence against transgender people specifically.

A record number of hate crimes were committed against transgender people last year in England and Wales, even as racist and homophobic hate crimes recorded by police fell for the first time on record.

In the year ending March 2023, 4,732 hate crimes against transgender people were recorded – a rise of 11% on the previous year. The Home Office report said that comments by politicians and the media over the last year may have led to an increase in these offences.​
 
You know that things are bleak when even the party faithful are being shunned for not being sufficiently hateful.
 
So, is that show ever going to end?
I guess with the death of either of the two permanent panel members.

Its been a long time since I have watched HITGNFY, but for me Ian Hislop is a national treasure. I loved some of the classic episodes such as the tub of lard episode, Angus Deayton prostitute episode, or any with Boris Johson in them.

All time favorite moment at 27:28

 
Wot, no Mock the Week?
 
UK Tories ain't that bad in my book, and they're not that evil and racist because they got a lot of minorities mp's and Sunak.

If I lived in the UK I would consistently vote tory, just like UKIP too if that stuff still exists.

But still, from my own standards and being completely outside the anglosphere, I would think they are just [jerks]. [Big jerks], for lack of a better term, but without any anglo rightist whatsoever context within. Poland's or Italy's far right is far more solid and consistent in my opinion.

Moderator Action: Edited for language. Birdjaguar.
 
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Afghanistan: UK special forces 'killed 9 people in their beds'​

UK special forces killed nine people "in their beds" during an Afghanistan night raid, an independent inquiry has heard.
Family members say the victims were unarmed civilians. The SAS had claimed they acted in self-defence.
Senior officers suspected troops of carrying out a policy of executing "fighting age" men even if they posed no threat.
The government announced the inquiry after BBC Panorama revealed an SAS squadron killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances on one six-month tour.

As substantive hearings got under way at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday, UK special forces were accused of "abusing" night raids in order to commit "numerous" extra-judicial killings - which were allegedly later covered up.
Hundreds of deliberate detention operations were carried out by special forces between 2010 and 2013.


Lead counsel to the inquiry, Oliver Glasgow KC, set out the details of seven separate kill/capture missions involving the deaths of 33 people, including a number of children.
The alleged unlawful killings of the nine people in the Nad Ali district of Helmand is understood to have occurred as a number of families gathered before a wake on 7 February 2011.
They were sleeping in a single-roomed outbuilding.
The SAS said they had fired in self-defence having been fired upon. Mr Glasgow pointed out the low height of what appear to be bullet holes in the walls of the outbuilding, first revealed by the BBC last year.

Habibullah Alizai, who owns the home that was raided on 7 February, said he was awoken by the "noise of shouting and gunshots" before soldiers took him from his room to be "interrogated and beaten".
Mr Alizai was the first to discover the bodies of his two sons, and the seven others who had been killed.

Mr Glasgow told the hearing: "The family insist that all the deceased were innocent civilians, that no-one in the compound was armed and that there were no weapons present.
"We anticipate the evidence from the families will be that they were shot in bed, most likely while asleep."
The family said the youngest was 14 years old.
The special forces squadron said in post-operational paperwork that operatives were "engaged by armed men" so returned fire, resulting in the nine deaths.
It added that three AK-47 assault rifles were found in the outbuilding. The SAS has been accused of planting weapons in order to justify illegal killings.
An internal special forces Serious Incident Review, which had access to photographs taken by the SAS at the scene and statements from the British troops involved, concluded that "the actions taken were wholly appropriate" and recommended "no further investigative action".

The inquiry is set to hear submissions on behalf of the families of 33 people, including eight under-18s, who were killed by special forces.
Members of the families called on the inquiry to "provide us with the truth".
Allegations of cover-ups of illegal activity and inadequate investigations by the Royal Military Police (RMP) will also be examined.

'My family want the truth'​

One member of the Saifullah family, whose father, two brothers and cousin were killed by the same SAS squadron during a night raid on 16 February 2011, said they are "having nightmares and dreams filled with difficulties" since the raid by British forces.
"My family and I request the inquiry team to provide us with the truth and explain to us why and on what basis we had to go through this cruelty," they said.
Mansour Aziz has called on the inquiry to listen to two children who were severely injured by British forces during a night raid on their family home in August 2012. The existence of the highly classified operation was first revealed by the BBC last year.
He said: "Our house was raided by foreigners and my brother and sister-in-law were killed and their two children severely injured whilst they were sleeping in their bed.
"We want to know the truth and why it was our house that was raided. We are asking for the court to listen to these children and bring justice."
Imran was three years old and his brother Bilal one and a half when they were shot and seriously wounded by UK special forces.
Mr Glasgow also told the hearing of claims that Afghan partner units "refused to serve with UK special forces due to their behaviour".

In his opening submissions, he said: "Let there be no misunderstanding for those who have something to hide - the inquiry will use all its powers to make sure that if there is credible information of wrongdoing... no matter how senior their position, they are referred to the relevant authorities."
Two RMP investigations, codenamed Operation Cestro and Operation Northmoor, are also expected to be scrutinised by the inquiry.
The latter, a £10m project set up in 2014 to examine allegations of wrongdoing by British armed forces, involved over 100 military police officers. Its detectives investigated evidence that one SAS squadron had killed dozens of unarmed men, detainees and civilians, but resulted in no charges being brought.
Operation Cestro investigated the killing of four young people in Loy Bagh village in Helmand on 18 October 2012. The youngest were 14 and 12 when they were killed by a member of the SAS. The RMP referred three soldiers to the Service Prosecuting Authority - including the shooter on four counts of murder - but it resulted in no prosecutions.

An MoD spokesman said: "The MoD is fully committed to supporting the inquiry as it continues its work.
"It is not appropriate for us to comment on allegations which may be within the scope of the statutory inquiry and it is up to the statutory inquiry team, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, to determine which allegations are investigated."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67054702
 
UK Tories ain't that bad in my book
Hello!

Tory MP who ‘exposed himself to staff member and trapped him in hotel bathroom’ facing suspension

Peter Bone, who denies the allegations, was also found to have ‘repeatedly pressurised’ employee to give him a massage in the office

Spoiler :
Tory MP Peter Bone could be banned from parliament for six weeks after he was found to have indecently exposed himself to a staff member and trapped him in the bathroom of a hotel room.

The parliamentary commissioner for standards upheld five allegations of bullying and one of sexual misconduct against the Wellingborough and Rushden MP. The recommended six-week suspension for Mr Bone would trigger a recall petition if approved by parliament, creating a fresh by-election headache for Rishi Sunak.

Mr Bone was found by parliament’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP), which rules on complaints against MPs, to have “committed many varied acts of bullying and one act of sexual misconduct” against a member of his staff in 2012 and 2013.

The MP, elected in 2005, was found to have engaged in “violence, shouting and swearing, mocking, belittling and humiliating behaviour, and ostracism”.

In its report, the standards commissioner found Mr Bone had:
  • Indecently exposed himself to the complainant on an overseas trip, initially in the bathroom of the hotel room they were sharing and then in the bedroom
  • “Verbally belittled, ridiculed, abused and humiliated” the complainant
  • “Repeatedly physically struck and threw things at” the complainant
  • “Imposed an unwanted and humiliating ritual on” the complainant, including instructing, or physically forcing, the complainant to put his hands in his lap when Mr Bone was unhappy with him or his work
  • “Repeatedly pressurised [the complainant] to give him a massage in the office”
The “willful pattern of bullying also included an unwanted incident of sexual misconduct”, in which Mr Bone indecently exposed himself to a staff member in a hotel in Madrid.

The report detailed how Mr Bone booked a single hotel room for himself and the complainant during a work trip in Spain, which one staffer told The Independent is extremely unusual.

Mr Bone then became angry when the complainant separated the two single beds in the room before engineering a situation in which the complainant was “confronted by his penis at very close quarters”, the report said.

In a statement posted on Twitter/X, Mr Bone said the allegations were “false” and “without foundation”, adding: “None of the misconduct allegations against me ever took place.”

Mr Bone indicated he would fight the suspension, saying it has been “an honour” to represent his constituents and “I will continue to represent them to the best of my ability.”

He accused the parliamentary watchdog’s investigation of being “flawed and procedurally unfair”. “I am currently in discussion with lawyers what action could and should be taken,” he added.

Mr Bone’s complainant first complained about the MP’s behaviour to the Conservative Party in 2017, but it was unresolved and parliament’s watchdog began investigating five years later.

The complainant felt that he had to leave his job as “a broken shell” and give up a career in politics entirely. The report said there had been a “long-lasting negative impact on his life”, adding that he has suffered continuing anxiety and required treatment for his health.

The Liberal Democrats called for Mr Sunak to withdraw the Conservative whip from Mr Bone.

Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said Britain deserves better than “endless Conservative Party sleaze and scandal”.

She added: “Rishi Sunak needs to remove the whip from Peter Bone and call on him to resign. There is no place anywhere in our society for this kind of sexual harassment and bullying.”

The recommended six-week suspension for Mr Bone would trigger a recall petition if approved by parliament.

It would set up the latest in a series of testing by-elections for Mr Sunak in safe Conservative seats, with the party lagging Labour in the polls.

Mr Bone has an 18,540 majority in the seat, smaller than that overturned by Labour MP Keir Mather in Selby and Ainsty in July.

His recommended suspension comes days before Mr Sunak faces key by-elections in Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth – with voters able to give their verdict on the government’s performance.

Mid-Bedfordshire is Nadine Dorries’s former seat, which she quit in protest at being left off of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.

Tamworth’s by-election was forced by the suspension of Chris Pincher, who was found to have drunkenly groped two men at a private members’ club last year.

Labour is the second biggest party in Mr Bone’s Wellingborough seat and, with an 18-point lead in the polls, could threaten to turn the constituency red for the first time since Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.

In July, Labour celebrated its largest-ever by-election win in Selby and Ainsty, with a 23-point swing away from the Tories. On the same day, the Liberal Democrats won a huge victory in Somerset, toppling the Tory safe seat of Somerton and Frome.

How many continued examples of bullying of all kinds, not just sexual, within a party that seems to revel in calling itself ‘the nasty party’ does it take for people to be convinced that the Tories are a bunch of, well, nasty people?
 
Peter Bone is one of the most Brexity of Tories. one of the three famously looking glum on the morning of the referendum "victory".
 
Two byelections, two massive swigs to Labour

Labour takes Nadine Dorries’ former seat in Mid Bedfordshire byelection

Labour have won the Mid Bedfordshire byelection, overturning a huge majority and delivering a significant blow to Rishi Sunak’s hopes of holding on to power at the next general election – expected to be in 2024.

Alistair Strathern takes the parliamentary seat vacated by the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, beating the candidate hoping to hold it for the Conservatives, Festus Akinbusoye. Strathern overturned a majority of 24,664 – believed to be the greatest such result at a byelection since at least 1945.

Labour overturns huge Tory majority to win Tamworth byelection

Labour has overturned a near 20,000-vote Conservative majority in Tamworth, winning the area for the first time since a bellwether byelection in 1996.

Labour’s Sarah Edwards received 11,719 votes ahead of Andrew Cooper, the Tory candidate, who received 10,403 – a majority of 1,316 for Labour. It was a 23.89% swing to Keir Starmer’s party. Voter turnout was low at 35.87%, little more than half the 2019 figure.
 
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