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#726

Post by keith »

You 5alking about Monkton? I didn’t realize he was actually in a party ever.
Has everybody heard about the bird?
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#727

Post by Dave from down under »

keith wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:16 pm You 5alking about Monkton? I didn’t realize he was actually in a party ever.
Perhaps the mad hatters party?
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#728

Post by Ben-Prime »

keith wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:16 pm You 5alking about Monkton? I didn’t realize he was actually in a party ever.
After leaving the Tories in the late aughts, he joined UKIP and tried to run for the House of Commons after all the fooferaw about him not being a member of the House of Lords but trying to claim otherwise. UKIP talked him down from running against a non-UKIP ally and threw him a bone by giving him some internal party position instead; by the time he was ousted in the early-to-mid-2010s, he was either the ranking or deputy ranking member for Scotland, IIRC.
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And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

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#729

Post by Dave from down under »

So.... I was right!

The Mad Hatters party! (well.. parties)
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#730

Post by RTH10260 »

:think: :confuzzled:
Two Tory-run councils warn PM of possible bankruptcy
Leaders of Kent and Hampshire county councils say even ‘drastic cuts’ to services will not be enough

Patrick Butler Social policy editor
Mon 14 Nov 2022 22.57 GMT

Two of England’s largest Tory-run local authorities have warned the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, that they will be forced to declare bankruptcy within the next few months because of the unprecedented financial crisis enveloping both councils.

The leaders of Kent and Hampshire county councils said even “drastic cuts” to current services would not be enough to patch up the huge holes in their budgets created by soaring inflation and rising pressures in adult and children’s social care.

In a strongly worded joint letter to Sunak, Kent leader, Roger Gough, and Hampshire leader, Rob Humby, said while they recognised the difficult national economic circumstances, “we cannot sit by and let two great counties sleepwalk into a financial disaster”.




https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... bankruptcy
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#731

Post by RTH10260 »

Labour calls for Truss and Kwarteng to renounce redundancy payments
Lisa Nandy says it would be ‘abhorrent’ for ex-PM and ex-chancellor to get five-figure sums after disastrous mini-budget

Harry Taylor
Mon 14 Nov 2022 22.31 GMT

Labour has called for Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to hand back the redundancy payments they are due for their time in Downing Street, saying it would be “abhorrent” if they kept them.
:snippity:
Truss is in line to get £18,860, about £365 for each day she was prime minister, while Kwarteng could get £16,876 for his 38-day tenure. His sacking made him the second-shortest-serving chancellor in history.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... y-payments
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#732

Post by RTH10260 »

clown car crash
Mike Bloomberg forced to apologise after Boris Johnson speech criticising China
Exclusive: Ex-PM said to have described China as ‘coercive autocracy’ in speech to Asian businesspeople and diplomats

Pippa Crerar Political editor
Fri 18 Nov 2022 17.49 GMT

The billionaire financier Mike Bloomberg was forced to apologise to hundreds of guests at a major Asian business event in Singapore this week after complaints about a speech by Boris Johnson that robustly criticised China.

The former UK prime minister, the after-dinner speaker at the flagship Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, was said to have described China as a “coercive autocracy” to about 500 Asian businesspeople, investors and diplomats.

While his comments would not be regarded as controversial in the UK, where there is concern over Beijing’s human rights record, approach to Taiwan and closeness to Russia, the majority of Asian countries are much more favourably inclined towards China and share strong economic and diplomatic ties.

In remarks that may alarm Rishi Sunak’s government and bolster his own support among Conservative MPs, Johnson is also said to have announced that he was taking a “temporary hiatus” from the frontline of British politics, suggesting he still harbours ambitions of returning to power.

Bloomberg, who invited Johnson and whose organisation was hosting the event in partnership with the Singapore government, acknowledged at the conference on Thursday that some attendees may have been “insulted or offended” by Johnson’s remarks.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... sing-china
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Post by RTH10260 »

Delay UK voter ID checks or face election result challenges, officials warn
Exclusive: Lack of time to implement photo ID rules ‘may prevent voting’ in English local elections in May

Peter Walker Political correspondent
Thu 10 Nov 2022 14.01 GMT

Electoral officials and councillors are urging ministers to delay the rollout of mandatory voter ID checks at May’s local elections, warning that a short timetable and lack of clarity about the rules could cause thousands of people to be disfranchised.

One senior election official, who is responsible for voting in a major local authority, told the Guardian they feared a large number of election results could end up being challenged in the courts if the system was implemented as planned.

“So many people could be affected, or stopped from voting, that it could definitely sway some results,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I imagine there could be formal challenges to results. We just have to hope it’s not us.”

The rule that all voters for English or UK-wide general elections must show photographic identification was among a series of changes introduced in the controversial Elections Act, which came into effect in April.

While opposition parties argue voter ID is unnecessary and likely to particularly suppress turnout among disadvantaged groups, there is a specific worry about its rollout for local elections across England in May.

The 344-page legal guidelines setting out how the system will operate were only put before parliament last week and are unlikely to come into effect until January, giving election officials minimal time to adapt.

One major complication is the duty of councils to issue people with an electoral identity document if they do not have any of the agreed forms of photo ID, such as a driving licence or passport.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... cials-warn
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Supreme court rules against Scottish parliament holding new independence referendum
Nicola Sturgeon says ‘Scottish democracy will not be denied’ after court blocks route to referendum

Libby Brooks and Ben Quinn
Wed 23 Nov 2022 14.28 GMT

The Scottish parliament cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK supreme court has ruled, in a unanimous judgment likely to anger Scottish nationalists who say the country’s future is for Scottish voters to decide.

The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said immediately after the ruling: “Scottish democracy will not be denied.”

She said: “Today’s ruling blocks one route to Scotland’s voice being heard on independence – but in a democracy our voice cannot and will not be silenced.”

Sturgeon said she respected the ruling, but accused Westminster of showing “contempt” for Scotland’s democratic will.

“This ruling confirms that the notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership of nations, if it ever was a reality, is no longer a reality,” she told a news conference.

Sturgeon said her government would look to use the next general election as a “de facto referendum” on separating from the rest of the UK after more than 300 years.

Insisting that the SNP “is not abandoning the referendum route, Westminster is blocking it”, she said: “We must and we will find another democratic, lawful and constitutional means by which the Scottish people can express their will. In my view, that can only be an election.”



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... m-indyref2
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#735

Post by RTH10260 »

Thousands defrauded in £48m hoax which let scammers impersonate high street banks
More than 200,000 potential victims in the UK alone have been directly targeted through fraud website

Thomas Kingsley
8 hours ago

Hundreds of thousands of Britons have been defrauded in a multi-million-pound scam via a website that allowed criminals to pose as high street bank representatives.

International scam website iSpoof was taken down in the UK’s biggest-ever fraud operation by the Metropolitan Police, codenamed Operation Elaborate. More than £48 million was taken from victims as a result of the platform, the force said.

More than 200,000 potential victims in the UK alone have been directly targeted through the website, which allowed scammers to pose as high street banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, Natwest, Nationwide and TSB.

At one stage officers found that almost 20 people a minute were being contacted by scammers hiding behind false identities using the site which launched in December 2020.

The biggest loss to a single victim was more than £3 million while every victim lost £10,000 on average.




https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/c ... 31586.html
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UK workforce exodus could force BoE to raise interest rates, says chief economist
Departure of more than 500,000 workers since Covid risks stoking inflation, says Huw Pill

Richard Partington Economics correspondent
Wed 23 Nov 2022 18.21 GMT

The surge in people quitting the British workforce because of ill health or early retirement could force the Bank of England to further increase interest rates, its chief economist has warned.

Huw Pill said the departure of more than half a million workers from the jobs market since the Covid pandemic risked stoking inflationary pressures, long after the shock from sky-high energy prices is likely to fade.

In a speech to business leaders in London, he suggested the rise in economic inactivity – when working-age adults are not in a job or looking for one – could force a response from Threadneedle Street.

“Rising inactivity among the working age population represents an adverse supply shock, which adds to the difficult shorter-term trade-offs facing monetary policy,” he said.

Pill said the workforce exodus could further push employers to offer higher wages, amid near record job vacancies and the lowest levels of unemployment since the 1970s. This, in turn, could stoke inflation if firms pushed up their prices to accommodate higher wage bills.

“The labour market has continued to tighten and has proved tighter than we had expected, largely owing to the adverse developments in participation that we did not fully foresee,” he said.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-huw-pill
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#737

Post by RTH10260 »

:cantlook: :cantlook: :cantlook: :cantlook: :cantlook:
Thurrock council admits disastrous investments caused £500m deficit
Tory-led Essex authority is on brink of bankruptcy and has appealed to government for emergency bailout

Patrick Butler Social policy editor
Tue 29 Nov 2022 20.18 GMT

A Tory-led council has admitted a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects caused it to run up an unprecedented deficit of nearly £500m and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.

The staggering scale of the catastrophe at Thurrock council in Essex – one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government – is contained in a report made to the council’s cabinet, which reveals it has lost £275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further £130m this year to pay back investment debts.



https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... 0m-deficit
“What we are seeing in Thurrock is shocking and unprecedented. I have not seen anything like this in my 30-year career in local government,” said Rob Whiteman, the chief executive of Cipfa, the public sector accountants body.
... including hundreds of millions lent to companies owned by businessman Liam Kavanagh to invest in 53 solar farms

According to the BIJ, Thurrock invested £655m in Kavanagh’s companies, and expects to lose £188m on the deal. It also expects to make a £65m loss on its investment in a company called the Just Loans Group, which went bust in June, and millions more on a series of other deals that turned sour.
In common with many other councils Thurrock attempted to offset the effects of years of austerity cuts to its funding by borrowing cheaply from the Treasury and investing in commercial business in the hope this would provide an alternative income stream. By 2019, English councils had borrowed over £6bn for this purpose.
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#738

Post by RTH10260 »

Calls grow to disestablish Church of England as Christians become minority
Role of church in parliament and schools questioned as census shows 5.5m fewer holders of faith in England and Wales

Robert Booth, Pamela Duncan and Carmen Aguilar García
Tue 29 Nov 2022 22.21 GMT

Census results revealing that England is no longer a majority-Christian country have sparked calls for an end to the church’s role in parliament and schools, while Leicester and Birmingham became the first UK cities with “minority majorities”.

For the first time in a census, less than half of the population of England and Wales – 27.5 million people – described themselves as “Christian”, 5.5 million fewer than in 2011. It triggered calls for urgent reform of laws requiring Christian teaching and worship in schools and Church of England bishops to sit in the House of Lords.


Across England and Wales, the Muslim population grew from 2.7 million people in 2011 to 3.9 million in 2021. While 46.2% of people said they were Christian, 37.2% said they had no religion – equivalent to 22 million people. If current trends continue, more people will have no religion than Christianity within a decade.


Many of the biggest falls in Christianity were in parts of the north of England, where only a decade ago seven out of 10 people said they were Christian, but now only half do.

The Office for National Statistics 2021 census data on ethnicity, religion and language published on Tuesday also revealed that:



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... e-minority
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#739

Post by RTH10260 »

further details in article
Daily Mail seeks to delay court allegations of high-profile breaches of privacy
Lawyers for group including Prince Harry, Doreen Lawrence and Elton John filed claims two months ago

Jim Waterson Media editor
Fri 2 Dec 2022 19.42 GMT

The Daily Mail has sought to delay the publication of potentially damaging court allegations about its journalism made by Prince Harry, Doreen Lawrence, Elton John and others.

Lawyers acting for the group of high-profile individuals claim they have “compelling and highly distressing evidence” they have been the “victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy” by Associated Newspapers over many years.

The claimants – who also include Sadie Frost, David Furnish and Liz Hurley – filed proceedings against Associated Newspapers at the start of October. Lawyers acting for the group allege that the Daily Mail’s parent company misused the celebrities’ private information, including an accusation relating to the placing of listening devices in private homes.




https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/ ... of-privacy
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#740

Post by Gregg »

Lord Rothermere and The Daily Mail, it's like OAN in Cockney print. The New York Daily News without the class or ethical standards.
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:dog:

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#741

Post by RTH10260 »

In the US it's disruption of the supply chain, in the UK the basic transport of humans
Rail industry prays for a Christmas miracle to avert strikes
Time is running out for a deal to send threat of disruption into the sidings and keep holiday travel plans on track

Gwyn Topham
Sun 4 Dec 2022 00.05 GMT

Christmas is, of course, a time to believe in miracles – but when the government is reduced to publicly imploring the RMT union to bring out its altruistic side, it seems more likely that the railway is teetering on the edge of a not very festive abyss.

The new rail minister, Huw Merriman, got all sides together on Friday, in a statement of intent. But time is running out to avoid what will probably be the most damaging strike action yet: two 48-hour walkouts across Network Rail and train operators between 13-17 December, and an overtime ban that will bring more disruption to services throughout the Christmas period – right up to another planned week of strikes in early January.

Talks between the RMT, Network Rail – employer of crucial signalling staff – and train operators must hit some sort of agreement by Monday night, or more rail chaos is assured. An 11th-hour truce, as the RMT showed last month, is too late to keep the trains running. And while paying members to stay home, instead of striking, may appeal in the short term, unions will swiftly lose public sympathy should that situation recur.

The first strikes are also due just after the introduction of a new timetable next Sunday, designed to restore more regular intercity trains on Avanti West Coast and more reliable services on Northern and TransPennine Express. Now 11 December – a red-letter day for Avanti’s promised recovery for many months – looks set to herald a week of more mayhem. Train drivers could walk out again, too, around Christmas: Aslef’s executive meets on Tuesday, armed with fresh strike mandates.




https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... rt-strikes
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#742

Post by RTH10260 »

Revealed: UK has failed to resettle Afghans facing torture and death despite promise
Those who risked their lives helping British government face a ‘toxic combination of incompetence and indifference’

May Bulman and Nicola Kelly
Sat 3 Dec 2022 19.00 GMT

Afghan nationals who were promised resettlement to the UK nearly a year ago are facing torture and death while they wait for a response from the British government, the Observer can reveal.

Not one person has been accepted and evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS), launched in January, prompting claims that ministers are showing a “toxic combination of incompetence and indifference”. The scheme was intended to help Afghans who worked for, or were affiliated with, the British government – including its embassy staff and British Council teachers – and all of whom face severe harm at the hands of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, figures show that there are only between five and eight members of staff working on the scheme in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office – the department administering the ACRS – compared with 540 who were working on the Ukraine schemes earlier this year. Sources said there was “no sense that Afghanistan is any kind of priority”.

Britain’s efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghans in the days after the fall of Kabul in August 2021 were heavily criticised when it emerged that many of those who worked for or alongside the UK were left behind. Under Taliban rule, poverty levels in Afghanistan have since surged, the rights of women have been rolled back and the UN has recorded at least 160 extrajudicial killings.

Through open-source intelligence, insights from forensic physicians and interviews with more than a dozen Afghans waiting to be relocated, a joint investigation by the Observer and Lighthouse Reports, a European investigations newsroom, has verified that people whom the UK pledged to help under the ACRS have been severely beaten and tortured by the Taliban.

In other cases, family members have been kidnapped, or have died because of Taliban fighters blocking access to medical care.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... te-promise
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#743

Post by RTH10260 »

UK goes green black
UK’s first new coalmine for 30 years gets go-ahead in Cumbria
Michael Gove greenlights £165m project that will produce estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year

Fiona Harvey Environment editor
Wed 7 Dec 2022 18.20 GMT

The UK will build its first new coalmine for three decades at Whitehaven in Cumbria, despite objections locally, across the UK and from around the world.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, gave the green light for the project on Wednesday, paving the way for an estimated investment of £165m that will create about 500 new jobs in the region and produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year, largely for steelmaking.

The mine will also produce an estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, increasing the UK’s emissions by the equivalent of putting 200,000 cars on the road.

The vast majority of the coal produced will be for export, as most UK steel producers have rejected the use of the coal, which is high in sulphur and surplus to their needs.

Where these exports will go is uncertain, as most European steelmakers are turning away from the use of coal and adopting green methods such as electric arc furnaces and renewable energy.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... in-cumbria
ETA.

a discussion article at https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... e-colliery
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Post by RTH10260 »

RTH10260 wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:24 am UK goes green black
UK’s first new coalmine for 30 years gets go-ahead in Cumbria
Michael Gove greenlights £165m project that will produce estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year

Fiona Harvey Environment editor
Wed 7 Dec 2022 18.20 GMT

The UK will build its first new coalmine for three decades at Whitehaven in Cumbria, despite objections locally, across the UK and from around the world.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, gave the green light for the project on Wednesday, paving the way for an estimated investment of £165m that will create about 500 new jobs in the region and produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year, largely for steelmaking.

The mine will also produce an estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, increasing the UK’s emissions by the equivalent of putting 200,000 cars on the road.

The vast majority of the coal produced will be for export, as most UK steel producers have rejected the use of the coal, which is high in sulphur and surplus to their needs.

Where these exports will go is uncertain, as most European steelmakers are turning away from the use of coal and adopting green methods such as electric arc furnaces and renewable energy.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... in-cumbria
ETA.

a discussion article at What is the Cumbrian coalmine and why does it matter? The Guardian
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#745

Post by RTH10260 »

I guess Boris Johnsons "bid deal" with the US is off the table in the near future
John Kerry examining likely impact of new UK coalmine
US climate envoy says he will publicly criticise UK’s approval of Cumbrian mine if it adds to emissions

Fiona Harvey Environment editor
Sat 10 Dec 2022 06.00 GMT

John Kerry, the US climate official, has said he is closely examining the UK government’s approval of a new coalmine, over concerns that it will raise greenhouse gas emissions and send the wrong signal to developing countries.

Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, said he was taking a close interest in the mine, the first to get the go-ahead in the UK for 30 years, and that he would speak out publicly against the approval if it did not meet strict criteria.

“I’m asking my people to give me a better download on exactly what the emissions implications are going to be,” he said in an interview on Friday evening.

“Coal is not exactly the direction that the world is trying to move in, or needs to move in. What I want to know is the level of abatement here [such as whether the resulting greenhouse gases will be captured and stored] and the comparison of this particular process in the production of steel,” he said.




https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... k-coalmine
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#746

Post by Uninformed »

“Decade of neglect means NHS unable to tackle care backlog, report says”:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... eport-says

“A “decade of neglect” by successive Conservative administrations has weakened the NHS to the point that it will not be able to tackle the 7 million-strong backlog of care, a government-commissioned report has concluded.
The paper by the King’s Fund health thinktank says years of denying funding to the health service and failing to address its growing workforce crisis have left it with too few staff, too little equipment and too many outdated buildings to perform the amount of surgery needed.
The UK’s poor public finances, health service staff suffering from exhaustion, and a wave of NHS strikes this winter will also lead to ministers being unable to deliver key pledges on eradicating routinely long waits, the thinktank says.”

As if it wasn’t deliberate. All that potential profit going to waste. How long before private healthcare and insurance companies leave a “rump” NHS to care for the less well-off?
If you can't lie to yourself, who can you lie to?
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#747

Post by RTH10260 »

Sunak is a puzzling PM – the more you see of him, the less there appears to be

John Crace
Tue 20 Dec 2022 19.19 GMT

:snippity:
Rishi Sunak is a conundrum. Schrödinger’s prime minister. The more you see of him, the less there appears to be. A man who doesn’t much care about anything. A man so rich he can afford not to be seen to even care about his wealth. His beliefs dictated by a Goldman Sachs training manual. The country just an intellectual playground for him. Its people just problems to be solved. Preferably with a PowerPoint presentation. He is a man without emotional affect. Either dead or empty inside. Or just completely disconnected.

All of which was just perfect for Rish!’s first appearance before the liaison committee – the supergroup select committee made up of the committee chairs that Bernard Jenkin, the liaison chair, allows to attend. And admittedly this time Jenkin had chosen a predominantly D-list cast of committee chairs – all the really good ones have either been promoted or excluded – so Sunak was not unduly taxed. But even so, he was perfectly robotic in his meaningless management bollocks replies. His handlers would have been thrilled. He didn’t even once make eye contact with anyone in the room.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ears-to-be
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#748

Post by RTH10260 »

UK Border Force strike: armed forces cannot detain people, emails reveal
Exclusive: those covering for staff have no power to stop suspected criminals if they have valid travel documents

Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor
Sat 24 Dec 2022 16.08 GMT

Soldiers and sailors covering for striking Border Force staff at passport control do not have the power to detain people they suspect of criminal activity, leaked documents show.

Emails reveal that people suspected of crimes such as carrying a false passport, drug smuggling, people trafficking and victims of modern slavery cannot be stopped by members of the armed forces if they hold valid travel documents.
:snippity:
About 600 armed forces personnel and 200 civil servants from the Home Office have been brought in to cover for Border Force officers during the strike, which is due to continue every day of December except for 27 December.

They were given five days of training and have been brought in to take people’s passports and check them against the “warnings index [WI]” – a Home Office watchlist database with information such as previous immigration history and matters of national security.

Border Force guards are usually given three weeks of training as a minimum before they interact with the public. After the three weeks, they are given a mentor to work alongside for up to a month to ensure they can work solo on a passport desk.
:snippity:
The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: “The government has boasted there are no queues at passport control, but of course there are no queues if no one’s being stopped.




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ils-reveal
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Brexit and triple PM ‘disaster’ tested respect for democracy, says Commons speaker
Lindsay Hoyle tells of divisiveness of EU vote and ‘bizarre’ revolving door of ministers in 2022

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor
Tue 27 Dec 2022 17.00 GMT

People’s respect for democracy has struggled in the aftermath of Brexit and throughout a year of political turmoil in which the UK was governed by three prime ministers, Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons, has said.

The Labour MP who keeps order in the Commons said Westminster had “never seen anything like it before” with the “disaster” of three prime ministers within three months.

He said parliament had shown itself at its best in 2022 in its response to the death of the queen, which had been “very, very moving”. But people were disappointed with what went on in politics and were left “wondering what was happening to our democracy”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, he said: “People became very, and were, disgruntled … Brexit divided the country, divided families, and people’s respect for a democracy has struggled. And, of course, we didn’t help this year with what went on.”

He described the experience of a “bizarre” revolving door of ministers in the Commons, saying “we never knew who was going to be at the dispatch box”.




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:o
No 10 ‘concerned’ MPs engaged in ‘sex and heavy drinking’ on trips abroad
Downing Street says reports of raucous behaviour of all-party trips are a matter for parliament

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor
Wed 28 Dec 2022 17.01 GMT

No 10 has said it is “very concerning” that MPs were reportedly met by sex workers in their hotel rooms and engaged in raucous drinking while on parliamentary trips abroad.

The prime minister’s deputy official spokesperson said the oversight of trips taken by all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) was a matter for parliament but expressed concern about some of the behaviour reported by Politico and the Times.

“We have seen some of the reports and some of the behaviour reported is clearly very concerning,” he said.

“The prime minister believes MPs should be working hard for the public and the vast majority are focused on trying to solve our shared challenges, whether that be supporting the most vulnerable or working to making our schools better and streets safer.

“The regulation of APPGs is a matter for the House and the standards committee is conducting an ongoing inquiry into APPGs. The process around them is a matter for the house rather than government.”

There has been longstanding concern about the operation of APPGs, which often organise fact-finding trips for MPs abroad where there can be hospitality paid for by foreign governments or companies.




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