Snap General Election called

[Stones of granite]

It doesn't matter if it's officially down to Rees-Mogg. Johnson wants this, so it's happening. If he didn't want it, it wouldn't be happening. De facto, it is down to Johnson.

We're back to the discussion on accountability vs responsibility. How far has Boris looked into this in detail or just told JRM to make it happen? I doubt seriously that this is Boris' plan, nothing about him suggests he has that much grasp of the detail and at the moment he has plenty of other things to consider. The general concept is probably Boris', but the clownish detail is JRMs for sure.

He could have achieved the same with a number of MPs in the house and the rest online with equal voting for all via technology. It could have been the start of a revolution in how the Commons operates with electronic voting instead of this ludicrous filing out to be counted in various lobbies. Instead we get this.

Agreed, the general concept, the ultimate responsibility is Boris's, the detail is presumably delegated to Rees-Mogg.

They should do it the other way round - just for the comedy value.

[Digby]

I've no idea why when we're discussing this they even need to file into lobbies to assent or disagree with a proposal, even the system working as it's meant to seems anachronistic at best. I can see why Mogg is a fan of pretending we're not even into the 20th century yet, but for the rest of them it's just weird and surely they should have better uses of their time!

[Stones of granite]

I've no idea why when we're discussing this they even need to file into lobbies to assent or disagree with a proposal, even the system working as it's meant to seems anachronistic at best. I can see why Mogg is a fan of pretending we're not even into the 20th century yet, but for the rest of them it's just weird and surely they should have better uses of their time!

There's a rumour of a disagreement between Rees Mogg and Johnson. Apparently Rees Mogg thinks that formal parliamentary business should be undertaken in Latin, but Johnson disagrees and is insistent on Ancient Greek.

[Mellsblue]

I've no idea why when we're discussing this they even need to file into lobbies to assent or disagree with a proposal, even the system working as it's meant to seems anachronistic at best. I can see why Mogg is a fan of pretending we're not even into the 20th century yet, but for the rest of them it's just weird and surely they should have better uses of their time!

There's a rumour of a disagreement between Rees Mogg and Johnson. Apparently Rees Mogg thinks that formal parliamentary business should be undertaken in Latin, but Johnson disagrees and is insistent on Ancient Greek.

And there I was assuming it was the old double-breasted suit or single breasted suit debate rearing its ugly head again.
Let’s not get started on the six kids with one woman or three.

[Stones of granite]

I've no idea why when we're discussing this they even need to file into lobbies to assent or disagree with a proposal, even the system working as it's meant to seems anachronistic at best. I can see why Mogg is a fan of pretending we're not even into the 20th century yet, but for the rest of them it's just weird and surely they should have better uses of their time!

There's a rumour of a disagreement between Rees Mogg and Johnson. Apparently Rees Mogg thinks that formal parliamentary business should be undertaken in Latin, but Johnson disagrees and is insistent on Ancient Greek.

And there I was assuming it was the old double-breasted suit or single breasted suit debate rearing its ugly head again.
Let’s not get started on the six kids with one woman or three.

Johnson always looks like he's grabbed someone else's jacket in the rush to get out of someone else's bedroom.

[Digby]

I've no idea why when we're discussing this they even need to file into lobbies to assent or disagree with a proposal, even the system working as it's meant to seems anachronistic at best. I can see why Mogg is a fan of pretending we're not even into the 20th century yet, but for the rest of them it's just weird and surely they should have better uses of their time!

There's a rumour of a disagreement between Rees Mogg and Johnson. Apparently Rees Mogg thinks that formal parliamentary business should be undertaken in Latin, but Johnson disagrees and is insistent on Ancient Greek.

Classic

[Puja]

So, uh, how about that Covid-19, huh?

Very nice.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

There's a rumour of a disagreement between Rees Mogg and Johnson. Apparently Rees Mogg thinks that formal parliamentary business should be undertaken in Latin, but Johnson disagrees and is insistent on Ancient Greek.

And there I was assuming it was the old double-breasted suit or single breasted suit debate rearing its ugly head again.
Let’s not get started on the six kids with one woman or three.

Johnson always looks like he's grabbed someone else's jacket in the rush to get out of someone else's bedroom.

Someone I know worked on an event where they got to watch Johnson rehearse his ‘just-rolled-out-of-bed, oh shit, sorry I’m late folks, forgot I was speaking at this event today’ routine ahead of time. It must have been strange to watch in an empty room.

[Sandydragon]

In other news Farage will no longer be hosting a show on LBC. I know that will truly upset everyone.

[Mikey Brown]

Ha. Old now but I hadn't ever seen this before. The inner workings of politics huh.

[Sandydragon]

I do wonder if a dog would actually win in some constituencies if they wore the right colour of rosette?

[Puja]

I do wonder if a dog would actually win in some constituencies if they wore the right colour of rosette?

Ooh, I can answer that one! Yes they would.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has set up "a cross-governmental commission to look at all aspects of racial inequality in the UK" and has decided the best person to lead it is someone who has been loud about institutional racism being a myth and that "the current accusations of institutional racism by lobbyists and activists" are "a perception more than a reality".

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 1592315368

Puja

[Digby]

Why did they slow down for a protestor running in front of the PMs car? That doesn't feel like the right thing to do

[Which Tyler]

Since when was pemission required to expose corruption?

[Son of Mathonwy]

Since when was pemission required to expose corruption?

That Jenrick isn't under investigation (and at risk of automatic removal from office) shows how weak our controls are. If this happened in Russia, or Africa, or Latin America it would be taken as an indication of a corrupt regime.

[Digby]

So Boris unveils his great plan, we're going to borrow and build, borrow and build, and then for the variation borrow and build.

Maybe the plans will be for infrastructure that creates future growth and really gets a bang for the buck, and maybe the plans will take account of climate change, but in advance I'm not anticipating competency

[Sandydragon]

Its only a £5billion pot, it won't go that far.

[Digby]

And most of that was already announced, turns out he was just expelling some hot air

[Puja]

And most of that was already announced, turns out he was just expelling some hot air

This my shocked face.

Mind, he has really surprised me with his offer of residence to the Hong Kongers owed a British Overseas Passport. It's the morally right thing to do, a strong censure to China, and a very sensible bit of foreign policy and diplomacy, which still leaves me baffled as to how it's come from the mouth of Boris Johnson.

Puja

[Digby]

I'm pleased about the offer of sanctuary to holders of BOP in HK too. I'm not sure it's sensible, but it seems the right thing to do

[Digby]

I'm not really sure if this deserves to be in this thread or the Brexit one, either way it's a lot of money being used to get something at best comparable to Galileo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53279783

And it's only a lot of money to buy into an American company that we'd joint own with an Indian communications company, we could still face hurdles with the US dependent on what we want to do with the technology, especially when it comes to any Chinese involvements. It's certainly not the UK alternative we were told we'd have, and it's only a few hundred million to buy in, it's going to take billions more for an idea that might not work out.

Yet another giant fuck up courtesy of Brexit, but with Boris in charge debt is a problem for the future and providing that's not his future he doesn't seem to care

[Digby]

OneWeb as a construct wasn't intended to be used for a navigational system payload, so we're going to have to see if as a concept it can be converted despite it operating at an orbit height around 1/17th of other navigational systems proven to work. I'm sure OneWeb did a terrific job selling the UK government this wouldn't be a problem, but they were failing and looking for any path out of bankruptcy having laid off more than 80% if their workforce and simply keeping enough people in place to keep current satellites (or their capital spend to date) in orbit whilst desperately seeking new investment, but this isn't proven and the UK government has a miserably bad record on technology projects.

I presume we're buying into OneWeb rather than starting our own UK company because of the hope it'll be cheaper to try and piggy back a system that was meant for something else, though Galileo was better and cheaper than either of those options, so again hearty congratulations to team Brexit you useless lying wankers

[Digby]

Having just posted the above 2 comments I've just now read an article on a website which seems to be more about technology updates than any particular bias, but others might know as left/right or perhaps more importantly remain/batshit crazy in bias

https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/30/oneweb_bs/

[Digby]

Another update (and he does concede this might not be a stupid move by the UK government and it might even pay off, but there are some concerns raised)




I can say chatting to some maths gurus at a well known tech company named after a river not quite as long as the Nile they're pissing themselves with laughter, even the British one who's pro Brexit and pro Trump (and in a really bad mood he can't get back out to New York from Sutton Coldfield) is between laughter and pain from his chin hitting the floor

[Stones of granite]

I've no idea what the rationale is behind this investment, but one thing seems clear to me - it can't be about creating yet another GNSS system. It just doesn't make any sense from either a technical or commercial perspective (who wants to be 5th to the market..?).

There must be some reason for it that hasn't been disclosed yet, and so far I have been unable to come up with a convincing guess.