Emrys
Profile Information
Gender: Do not display
Current location: Scotland
Member since: Mon Sep 7, 2009, 12:57 AM
Number of posts: 6,832
Current location: Scotland
Member since: Mon Sep 7, 2009, 12:57 AM
Number of posts: 6,832
Journal Archives
Lib Dems thrash Tories in parliamentary by-election in North Shropshire
North Shropshire: Lib Dems shock win as Tory by-election defeat piles pressure on Johnson
The Conservatives have lost the North Shropshire by-election, a shock result that will put more pressure on Boris Johnson after a difficult few weeks for the prime minister. Lib Dem candidate Helen Morgan triumphed in the contest sparked by the resignation of Owen Paterson amid a lobbying scandal. She polled 17,957 votes, ahead of Tory candidate Neil Shastri-Hurst on 12,032. Labour's Ben Wood was third with 3,686 votes. https://news.sky.com/story/north-shropshire-lib-dems-shock-win-as-tory-by-election-defeat-piles-pressure-on-johnson-12497814 https://twitter.com/ShropCouncil/status/1471698416178802691 Shropshire Council
@ShropCouncil Here’s the official vote figures - we will tweet out a link as soon as possible.  https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1471696670341615620 Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall NEW: 🚨 LIB DEMS OVERTURN 23000 TORY MAJ AND WIN NORTH SHROPSHIRE BY A BIG MAJORITY🚨 Lib Dems: 17957 Con: 12032 Labour: 3686 Reform: 1427 Green: 1738 Maj: 5925 An enormous victory for the Lib Dems and a bodyblow for the Prime Minister. So a Tory majority of 23,000 became a Lib Dem majority of nearly 6,000 in a seat the Tories have held for almost 200 years. |
Posted by Emrys | Fri Dec 17, 2021, 12:29 AM (9 replies)
1.5m damages settlement over Miami Showband massacre
Survivors and relatives of those murdered in the Miami Showband massacre are to receive nearly £1.5m (€1.75m) in total damages to settle claims over suspected collusion with the loyalist terrorist murderers.
... One of Ireland's most popular cabaret acts, the Miami Showband was targeted as they travelled home to Dublin following a gig in July 1975. A fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers and Ulster Volunteer Force members stopped them at the bogus checkpoint outside Newry, Co Down. Band members were made to line up at the side of the road while attempts were made to hide a bomb on the tour bus. The device exploded prematurely, killing some of the would-be bombers. Their accomplices then opened fire on the band, murdering lead singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy. Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers, were also injured but survived the atrocity. https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/1213/1266497-miami-showband/ Stephen Travers has been waging a dogged decades-long campaign for some sort of reckoning and justice over the atrocity. https://twitter.com/MiamiShowband/status/1470535141592285184 Stephen Travers
@MiamiShowband On the way home from the High Court in Belfast tonight, I stopped at the scene of the massacre to say a prayer and to tell Tony and Fran and Brian that I hope they can now, finally, leave that field forever. 
If you're unfamiliar with the case, Travers posted details of a video last year that explains some of the background (it's been shown on UK terrestrial TV in recent years). https://twitter.com/MiamiShowband/status/1109017140722614272 Stephen Travers
@MiamiShowband Available now on Netflix. This happened to us. Similar atrocities continue throughout the world and will not stop while good people do nothing. For the sake of every victim and potential victim of state-sponsored terrorism and injustice, please #retweet. https://www.netflix.com/gb/TITLE/80191046 |
Posted by Emrys | Tue Dec 14, 2021, 10:23 AM (2 replies)
Another day, another lie from lying liar Johnson revealed
https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1468892847835340806
Sam Coates Sky
@SamCoatesSky How does No 10 square this: In May the PM told Lord Geidt that he did not know who was behind No11 flat refurb until Feb 2021 Today the Electoral Commission says Boris Johnson Whatsapped Lord Brownlow in November 2020 asking for more cash for the No11 refurb   On recent form I imagine that, initially at least, whichever mug has to respond to the media about this will say that No. 10 "doesn't recognize" that the No. 11 flat exists. |
Posted by Emrys | Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:13 AM (0 replies)
A day's a long time in politics
At least it has been over last few days for our shiftless shambles of a prime minister and his sordid bunch of fellow travellers.
It's been one of those inflection points that happens so rarely in our politics, with the resulting flak coming from some surprising quarters. I'm talking about Tory MP Owen Paterson, a grifter of ther first water who seemed only last night to have grossly flouted the law and parliamentary regulations and got away with it. Paterson had been the subject of a parliamentary standards investigation resulting from his extensive well-paid links to lobbyists. A couple of days ago: Boris Johnson to back bid to overturn Owen Paterson lobbying inquiry
Conservative MPs to be instructed to support amendment arguing parliamentary standards commissioner’s probe was flawed https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/02/tories-set-to-try-to-overturn-findings-of-owen-paterson-lobbying-inquiry https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1455614511914921989 Adam Bienkov
@AdamBienkov The investigation found Owen Paterson had: - Taken nearly 3 times his MPs’ salary for "paid advocacy". - Broken official lobbying rules - Smeared the commissioner investigating him So now the government is trying to overturn the unanimous decision to suspend him. Henry Zeffman @hzeffman https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1455789501863841794 Adam Bienkov @AdamBienkov Nov 2, 2021 Adam Bienkov @AdamBienkov 59 Conservative MPs have put their name to an amendment that would overturn Owen Paterson's suspension and set up a new committee with a Tory veto designed to rip up the existing Standards system that found him guilty of breaching anti-corruption rules. 
https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1455856398114381824 Adam Bienkov @AdamBienkov Nov 3, 2021 Adam Bienkov @AdamBienkov Boris Johnson’s spokesman confirms the government will back the plan to overturn Owen Paterson’s suspension and rip up the system that found he had broken lobbying rules. Pippa Crerar Even among the incumbent shameless shower of overprivileged chancers, Paterson seems to have been a doozy: https://twitter.com/nw_nicholas/status/1456328808219529216 Mr Ethical
@nw_nicholas I'll spell it out as simply as I can. About 2 weeks before the Paterson brokered government contract to Randox was announced, Randox moved their operation into a tax haven. Why isn't this news? Well, Mr Ethical, ho hum, another day, another scandal. The public is long bored with this constant drip-drip of sleaze among our richer and betters and has become inured to it. Or has it? Before the vote in the House yesterday, immense pressure was put on Tory MPs to fall in line and vote with the government, with a three-line whip being imposed and blatantly unveiled threats being made: https://twitter.com/nicktolhurst/status/1456353999146344454 Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺
@nicktolhurst +UPDATE+ Several MPs have told media contacts that "levelling up funding for their constituencies was threatened" if they didn't vote to back the corrupt MP Owen Paterson yesterday. This is why so many Tory MPs voted for Paterson while simultaneously briefing against Johnson. Meanwhile, the Tories mounted a concerted media push to paint Paterson as a hard-done-by victim. His wife committed suicide not long ago, and this fact was exploited (even by him) to try to appeal for sympathy - sympathy that in any sane and equitable universe would be judged as misplaced: https://twitter.com/BrexitBuster/status/1455814584254750720 Brexit Buster
@BrexitBuster Reminder: this is what greedy Tory swine Owen Paterson really thinks about British pensioners - while he fills his own boots breaking the rules on behalf of his paymasters. Disgusting and despicable - yet exactly the sort of creature Liar Johnson likes around him. #ToryCorruption  NOTE: The forum currently won't let me post all this text as one OP (otherwise I'd have posted it a couple of days ago), so it continues in the comments below. |
Posted by Emrys | Sat Nov 6, 2021, 06:26 PM (6 replies)
NYT op ed: Britain Is Heading Into a Nightmarish Winter
Posted by Emrys | Sat Oct 2, 2021, 07:28 PM (2 replies)
An idiot abroad
The context is Johnson's US visit after the diplomatic hoo-ha with France over the UKAUSUS defence pact announcement.
Here's Johnson gibbering in broken Franglais on a lawn somewhere in DC: https://twitter.com/kitty_donaldson/status/1440675040744259584 Kitty Donaldson
@kitty_donaldson Boris Johnson, speaking outside the Capitol, says it’s time for the French to “prenez un grip” and “donnez-moi un break” after the spat over a U.K. submarine deal with the U.S. and Australia [Twitter video] Meanwhile, in Adultland ... https://twitter.com/julianborger/status/1440712419077017607 Julian Borger
@julianborger In White House readout of Biden-Macron call, Potus admits fault in AUKUS handling "The two leaders agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners." Will meet next month.  |
Posted by Emrys | Wed Sep 22, 2021, 06:56 PM (2 replies)
Jimmy Savile's Glencoe cottage set to be demolished after vote by locals
A COTTAGE that was once owned by Jimmy Savile is set to be demolished after locals backed the move in an online consultation.
The forum was set up by the Glencoe property’s current owner, the family of retail tycoon Harris Aslam. It was originally purchased at auction after Savile’s death for £212,000 with the buyer intending to live there. It has been repeatedly vandalised with slogans over the years since his death. The depraved paedophile is believed to have abused up to 20 people inside his remote lair nestled in the Highlands. https://www.thenational.scot/news/19570978.jimmy-saviles-glencoe-cottage-set-demolished-vote-locals I'm glad the new owner took the step of running a local public consultation. Human-made landmarks are thin on the ground as you journey through Glencoe (well, since the massacre, anyway), and this cottage has been one of the most prominent for many years, even before Savile lived there (it was once the home of mountain rescue pioneer Hamish MacInnes). A cynic might say that the opportunity of a razed brownfield site in that prized location with the prospect of building a modern, presumably more spacious des res will suit the owner well. But the cottage's very stones are soaked in the misdeeds that were plotted there, in what has long been a very beautiful, but to some people at times brooding and sinister, part of the world even before Savile became infamous. I wonder if a new build will be able to erase that plot's recent history? |
Posted by Emrys | Thu Sep 9, 2021, 02:46 PM (2 replies)
Johnson makes 'unbelievably crass' joke about Thatcher closing coal mines
Prime minister denounced for comments on visit to Scotland, where he refused to meet Nicola Sturgeon
On a visit to Scotland on Thursday, the prime minister made a number of provocative comments, stating that a second referendum on Scottish independence is “about as far from the top of my agenda as it is possible to be”. ... Speaking to reporters after a visit to the Moray East offshore windfarm, off the north-east coast of Scotland, the prime minister was questioned about Labour leader Keir Starmer’s remarks on Wednesday that there should be a “hard-edged” timetable for cessation of oil and gas exploration. Johnson said: “We understand the importance to the north-east of Scotland of the oil and gas industry. The contracts that have been signed should not just be ripped up. But we need to transition as fast as we reasonably can.” Pressed on whether he wanted to set a firm deadline, he replied: “Look at what we’ve done already. We’ve transitioned away from coal in my lifetime. Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coalmines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal all together”. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/05/johnson-makes-unbelievably-crass-joke-about-thatcher-closing-coal-mines Maybe not big news - Johnson makes an offensive shite "joke" while on a whirlwind tour to woo the Scots as self-declared Minister for the Union - but what's guffawed about in Scotland doesn't always stay in Scotland: https://twitter.com/Elwick70/status/1423375787286274053 Bryan Elwick
@Elwick70 Boris Johnson laughing about the closure of the coal mines in the 80s and 90s. He really does think it’s funny The destruction and misery visited upon 100s of working class communities, some that still haven’t recovered today, makes him smile He’s no friend of the Red Wall 
 |
Posted by Emrys | Thu Aug 5, 2021, 06:00 PM (4 replies)
