UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[Uninformed]

“1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade”:
“It was only after many failed attempts that, in 1807, the slave trade in the British Empire was abolished. However, slaves in the colonies (excluding areas ruled by the East India Company) were not freed until 1838 – and only after slave-owners, rather than the slaves themselves, received compensation.”
https://www.parliament.uk/about/living- ... mpensation.

“In 1793, when the first successful colony was founded on Diego Garcia, coconut plantations were established on many of the atolls and isolated islands of the archipelago. Initially the workers were enslaved Africans, but after 1840 they were freemen, many of whom were descended from those earlier enslaved.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagossians

“The problem is that all UK politicians continue the fiction that Chagossians are not native to the islands and have no property or other rights.”

I suppose tfg could use the same basis to claim all the “workers” brought to the USA could be deported.

It seems that every day I become more embarrassed to be British.

[RTH10260]

the UK - the Torys - want to transfer asylum seekers to Ruanda for processing, especially their "boat people"

Revealed: UK granted asylum to Rwandan refugees while arguing country was safe
Home Office said refugees’ fear of persecution was ‘well-founded’, undermining Rishi Sunak’s claims about East African country

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Antony Barnett
Sat 27 Jan 2024 19.00 CET

Four Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK over “well-founded” fears of persecution at the same time as the government was arguing in court and parliament that the east African country was a safe place to send asylum seekers.

An investigation by the Observer and the campaign group Led by Donkeys reveals for the first time details of Home Office decisions on Rwandans who have been given asylum in the past four months, claiming they were at risk from the regime.

The documents raise fresh questions over prime minister Rishi Sunak’s claim that Rwanda is “unequivocally” safe for asylum seekers.

They are revealed ahead of this week’s debate in the House of Lords over the proposed new Rwanda bill, which aims to prevent legal challenges to transporting asylum seekers to the African state.

The Conservative government wants to send all asylum seekers who enter the UK across the Channel on small boats to Rwanda, arguing it would act as a deterrent. The supreme court last year ruled that Rwanda was unsafe, leading Sunak to introduce new legislation which, he argues, allays those concerns.





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... y-was-safe

[RTH10260]

Climate change

‘Hard month’ for pubs as UK’s dry January set to be driest ever
Almost as many people said they had attempted to go teetotal at the start of this year as in any of the previous 10 years

James Tapper
Sun 28 Jan 2024 08.00 CET

It is set to be the driest January in living memory. Drinks sales in pubs and bars have plunged. Rising numbers of people are drinking low or no-alcohol. And new data indicates that even older people are joining teens and twentysomethings by giving up booze. With three days to go, this has been a grim month for publicans.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) says pubs must adapt quickly by stocking more “lo-no” options and opening their doors more regularly to give community groups a cosy welcome on winter days.


https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... riest-ever

[Suranis]

In Ireland it can be partially put down to the rise in coffee shop culture. Its been growing in Ireland for a while, but it's really exploded here since the pandemic.

People LIKE going out to a coffee shop during the day, and they find it a lot better than going out at night to get plastered and have your ears deafened by loud music. My brother said that someone he knows in the hospitality industry was laughing at all these people opening coffee shops, but then My Brother countered by saying "Yeah, but they are all full." And they are. From the operators point of view its liquid gold - Stick a teabag in a pot and charge 3:50 for it.

If I had the money I'd open a late night coffee shop.

[bob]

It is set to be the driest January in living memory. Drinks sales in pubs and bars have plunged. Rising numbers of people are drinking low or no-alcohol.

* * *

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) says pubs must adapt quickly by stocking more “lo-no” options and opening their doors more regularly to give community groups a cosy welcome on winter days.

"For Dry January, I'm drinking only American lagers."

[RTH10260]

the UK now also too has clean coal

Lee Anderson argues coal is sustainable because it used to be ‘trees and plants’

Ross Hunter
Tue, 6 February 2024 at 6:11 pm CET·

A FORMER deputy chairman of the Conservative Party has claimed that coal is a “sustainable” fuel because it was once made up of “trees and plants”.

Speaking at the launch of a new Tory faction – the so-called Popular Conservatives – Lee Anderson said he wanted to see the opening of coal mines as well as fracking in the UK.

The Tory MP for Ashfield said: “I am an ex-coal miner and I’m one of these people that want to see our pits open. I want to see us frack.

“We’re burning coal in our power stations but it’s foreign coal that comes over on big tankers. How is that contributing to net zero? It’s an absolute nonsense. It gets me very, very angry.”

Anderson then claimed that the burning of imported wood pellets at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire was less sustainable than burning coal from UK mines.

“They say these wood pellets are sustainable because they’re trees, we can grow them again,” he said.

“Now, I’m pretty sure that coal a hundred million years ago was trees and plants. Is that right, Jacob [Rees-Mogg]?

“It was. So, I would argue that that’s sustainable.”

Anderson later claimed that people “aren’t really bothered” where their energy supply comes from.

“That place over there, where we work, the politicians are out of touch with the general public,” he said.



https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lee-anderson- ... 41879.html

[neonzx]

[raison de arizona]

“They say these wood pellets are sustainable because they’re trees, we can grow them again,” he said.

“Now, I’m pretty sure that coal a hundred million years ago was trees and plants. Is that right, Jacob [Rees-Mogg]?

“It was. So, I would argue that that’s sustainable.”

Yeah, there will be plenty more in just another hundred million years.

[RTH10260]

A failing British nuclear arsenal reliant on the goodwill of Donald Trump? It’s a terrifying thought
Believing US-supervised nuclear weapons make Britain safer is not only delusional and unsustainable, it’s dangerous

Simon Tisdall
Sat 24 Feb 2024 22.15 CET

Donald Trump and nuclear weapons are a scary mix. As president, he greatly expanded the US nuclear arsenal, scrapped arms control treaties and repeatedly threatened to start a nuclear war. On leaving office, he stole nuclear secrets from the White House and leaked their contents. A judge recently questioned his mental health.

For close ally Britain, the scariest thought is that Trump, if re-elected in November, could fatally undermine the UK’s “independent” nuclear deterrent, or worse, pressure London into actually using it. If Trump blundered into a nuclear showdown with, say, China, Russia or North Korea, Britain would be expected to back him – and could become a target.

None of these scenarios may be ruled out, despite UK insistence that it retains sole operational control of its four Vanguard-class nuclear missile submarines. In truth, such outcomes grow more plausible as the international security situation deteriorates, Trump threatens to abandon Nato and Europe, and nuclear arms proliferate globally. Successive UK governments are primarily to blame for Britain’s deepening nuclear nightmare. All have colluded in the pretence that the UK deterrent, known generically as Trident, is independent. In fact, the Vanguard submarines rely on American technology, logistics and maintenance, as will their Dreadnought-class successors. The new W93 replacement warhead borrows from US designs.

In practice, the UK’s technical dependence on the US would constrain any attack to which Washington objected

Even the US-made Trident II D5 ballistic missiles that carry the warheads are not owned but leased under the terms of the 1958 US-UK mutual defence agreement (MDA) and 1963 Polaris sales agreement. “UK nuclear weapons are only as independent as the US wants them to be,” a new study by the anti-nuclear Pugwash scientists’ network says. “The MDA [locks] the UK into dependence on the US for the procurement of nuclear weapons,” Pugwash states. “In practice, the UK’s technical dependence on the US would constrain any attack to which Washington objected. For example, the UK is reliant on American software for all aspects of nuclear targeting.”

This chronic dependency would give a re-elected Trump huge leverage, should he choose to use it, in the not improbable event of a security or foreign policy clash with a Labour government, for example, over Ukraine. Britain’s deterrent has always ultimately relied on US goodwill, an all-party commission on Trident noted in 2014.

But Trump’s “goodwill” is a risky basis for a nuclear defence policy. He could, in theory, render the Trident fleet inoperable within weeks. “One way the US could show its displeasure would be to cut off the technical support needed for the UK to continue to send Trident to sea,” a 2006 white paper warned. Yet no one then seriously anticipated dealing with an irrational, antagonistic, isolationist president.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ng-thought

[Volkonski]

University of Cambridge Balfour painting damaged by Palestine Action

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cam ... press.coop

Palestine Action said one if its activists had "ruined" a 1914 painting of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge.

A statement on the group's website said the painting had been "slashed" and sprayed with red paint.

Footage was also posted on social media.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said: "This afternoon we received an online report of criminal damage today to a painting at Trinity College, Cambridge.

"Officers are attending the scene to secure evidence and progress the investigation. No arrests have been made at this stage."

A spokeswoman for Trinity College said: "Trinity College regrets the damage caused to a portrait of Arthur James Balfour during public opening hours. The police have been informed. Support is available for any member of the college community affected.

[Suranis]

Here's the painting.



His crime was supporting a "Jewish Homeland." He also died in 1930 so I'm not sure what the heck they think he had to do with the present situation. Oh ya, just Jewish stuffs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Balfour

[RTH10260]

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917.

The original letter from Balfour to Rothschild; the declaration reads:

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Created 2 November 1917
Location British Library
Author(s) Walter Rothschild, Arthur Balfour, Leo Amery, Lord Milner
Signatories Arthur James Balfour
Purpose Confirming support from the British government for the establishment in Palestine of a "national home" for the Jewish people, with two conditions



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration

[RTH10260]

tsk tsk tsk

National Lottery operator had borrowed millions from Kremlin-owned banks
Exclusive: Syndicate agreed to lend up to €640m to Allwyn in 2020, two years before contract awarded

Rob Davies
Sat 9 Mar 2024 06.00 CET

The company behind the national lottery was borrowing millions from Kremlin-owned banks when it won the UK’s largest public-sector contract, the Guardian can reveal.

Russia’s two largest lenders, VTB and Sberbank, were part of a syndicate that agreed to lend up to €640m (£545m) to Allwyn in 2020, two years before the pan-European gaming specialist was named the “preferred bidder” for the £6.5bn lottery contract.

While Allwyn repaid the portion of the loan attributable to the two Russian banks in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the funds appear to have helped support the group during the costly process of bidding for the lottery.

Loans from the Kremlin-owned Sberbank and VTB, extended via European subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Germany respectively, remained in place for nearly a month after both lenders were placed under sanctions by the UK government.

Allwyn repaid the debts in late March 2022, after the Gambling Commission had chosen the company to run the lottery, ahead of the incumbent operator, Camelot, and a bid from the media tycoon Richard Desmond.

There is no suggestion that Allwyn, ultimately owned by the Czech billionaire Karel Komárek, was in breach of sanctions or that there was any Russian influence over the bid. There is also no evidence to indicate the Russian loans were used to finance the bid for the lottery directly.

Allwyn said it informed the Gambling Commission about the loans and its intention to repay them on 28 February, four days after VTB was placed under sanctions by the UK, and that it followed Treasury sanctions guidance.

But the loans raise questions about whether MPs were given the information they needed during select committee sessions scrutinising Komárek’s business links to Russia.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... wned-banks

[much ado]

There has been little information about the family of the Prince and Princess of Wales since the Princess' abdominal operation in January. Apparently in order to squelch rumors, Kate Middleton posted a picture to social media of herself and her children on British Mother's Day, wishing everyone a happy Mother's Day.

This did not solve the problem.

The Kate Middleton Situation Was Already Weird. Now It’s a Lot Weirder.

People were not happy. Immediately, comments flooded in claiming that the image had been photoshopped. Initially, I saw this and felt annoyed—big surprise, the royal family touch up their official images. Given the circumstances, it’s not ideal from an optics perspective that she’s not wearing her wedding ring, but that could be for any number of reasons. Swelling after a significant surgery, for instance! People were saying that the children’s fingers are doing odd things, and therefore the image must be A.I. But children do weird things with their fingers. So what? I did not want to get sucked into the orbit of the tinfoil-hat brigade.

But I thought I would do my due diligence and ask some photographer friends what they thought of the picture. I was sort of hoping they would say, “Oh, yeah, just some routine editing mistakes here, nothing out of the ordinary,” and I could put this whole thing to rest. That is not what they said. They pointed out multiple places where the image didn’t make sense. The inexplicable blurriness of Kate’s hair and one of her hands, tiles not matching up on the floor beneath their feet, a truly hatchet bit of photoshopping around Princess Charlotte’s sleeve. “These are such basic mistakes,” one person said, “that there is something fishy happening here.” Another photographer said: “It’s mad how bad it is. If I was a betting man, I’d put money on her face being switched in it.”

Kate says she did it...

Then, at around 10:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Sunday, something truly unprecedented happened. Reuters, Getty, and the Associated Press all pulled the image. A notification from AP read: “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” The palace has also refused to offer any comment at the time of writing. (Update, March 11, 2024: Kensington Palace released a statement from Middleton on Monday: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”)

An article in Cosmopolitan details some of the issues...

6 Glaring Photoshop Errors in the "Manipulated" Kate Middleton Portrait

Is there something going on at Kensington Palace?

[Uninformed]

If it wasn’t for the tame media and sycophantic talking heads the true amateurishness of “the palace” and their insistence on spinning everything (even when it’s not necessary) people might have some idea of what really goes on. Unfortunately or otherwise that’s never going to happen.

[Suranis]

She's probably still just laid up from the operation. But they are not allowed to say that a royal family member is sick.

[much ado]

She's probably still just laid up from the operation. But they are not allowed to say that a royal family member is sick.

There is video from today of her in a car with William, but it is very dark.

Kate Middleton Seen Leaving Windsor with Prince William for Private Appointment After Issuing Photo Apology

My guess is that she does not feel as beautiful and radiant after the operation and was trying to disguise that.

[Sam the Centipede]

The " omigosh the news agencies killed the photo, wot evil is this?! " screeching on Xitter amused me.

News agencies have strict criteria about the editing permitted in news (incl. sports) photography. Essentially cropping and cosmetic adjustments of colors and lighting are permitted, nothing more.

So Willum'n'Kate's photo was killed because it was a cut-and-paste job which definitely falls outside their criteria. There might be more sinister aspects, but this isn't one.

[Suranis]

Ya, once it became obvious the Photo was altered the Press would have pulled it. No sinister vampire overlord machinations needed.

[Sam the Centipede]

Ya, once it became obvious the Photo was altered the Press would have pulled it. No sinister vampire overlord machinations needed.

Welllllll… not pulled it in the way intended, rather than disappearing the shopped photo gained massive exposure and appeared on more front pages. A corollary of Streisand Effect.

Some people on socials "just asking" the "can't they afford a professional photographer?", "why wouldn't they use a pro?" questions … so suspicious … not.

Apparently the mam and da like to take photos themselves - who knew modern parents like photos of their kids? And if the punters like informal family photos why not use one instead of annoying the kids and wasting a morning with a pro.

And with their own photos there is no issue about who owns copyright, although how much of a factor that could be, I don't know.

[RTH10260]

UK home care workers cannot work as visa regime tightened, says employer
Grosvenor says it is prevented from making 3,000 visits a week as it pays migrant workers to sit at home because permits not renewed

Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent
Wed 13 Mar 2024 06.00 CET

One of the UK’s biggest home care providers says it is paying dozens of migrant workers to sit at home and do nothing because the Home Office has not renewed key immigration permits.

Thousands of workers, mostly from Africa, were welcomed into the UK to help fill the one in 10 care worker jobs vacant after the Covid crisis. But after scammers abused the system, leading to allegations of modern slavery, the government appears to have tightened the application of the rules.

“It has gone from one extreme to the other,” said Darren Stapelberg, the chief executive of Grosvenor Healthcare, the UK’s third largest domiciliary care provider, who is paying reduced wages to 30 Zimbabwean workers and faces having to do the same to 90 more in the coming months. “It was very, very easy to sponsor people to come over, but the system has been abused, so now they are making it almost impossible to get new people in and staff who are already here can’t get renewals.”

Eleven of his workers have left the country, despite a care worker shortage of 152,000 across England. “We are losing workers who have made a great contribution to this society, at a time when you could quadruple our workforce and still not have enough staff,” he said.

The newly hostile environment comes after the government issued 106,000 care worker visas in 2023. But hundreds of companies that have never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulator were granted licences and the chief inspector of borders found that 275 visas were issued to a care home that did not exist.

As part of a crackdown, ministers announced in December that care workers would no longer be able to bring in dependent partners and children. The CQC warned MPs that modern slavery was becoming a feature of the care system.



https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... rmit-rules?

[Whatever4]

Ya, once it became obvious the Photo was altered the Press would have pulled it. No sinister vampire overlord machinations needed.

Welllllll… not pulled it in the way intended, rather than disappearing the shopped photo gained massive exposure and appeared on more front pages. A corollary of Streisand Effect.

Some people on socials "just asking" the "can't they afford a professional photographer?", "why wouldn't they use a pro?" questions … so suspicious … not.

Apparently the mam and da like to take photos themselves - who knew modern parents like photos of their kids? And if the punters like informal family photos why not use one instead of annoying the kids and wasting a morning with a pro.

And with their own photos there is no issue about who owns copyright, although how much of a factor that could be, I don't know.

NO!!!! You don’t understand! Kate is dead, or beaten to a pulp, or had plastic surgery, or has a colostomy bag, or is miffed at something William did. People all over social media have theories and evidence!! King Chuck had her murdered or forgot her name or something! Ambulances were screaming away from every property the royals own on any given date!! WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN!?!?!? VARIOUS PEOPLE HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY LOOK-ALIKES!!

Kind of amusing to watch the frenzy. I’m waiting for a mob to descend on Windsor to demand proof of life.

[Sam the Centipede]

King Chuck

Never never never "Chuck", that's purely American, not used in the Old Country. Either Charlie or Chas (rhymes with jazz, based on an old convention of abbreviating given names on signs and in documents, in this case Charles–>Cha^s).

Kind of amusing to watch the frenzy. I’m waiting for a mob to descend on Windsor to demand proof of life.

Perhaps the mob will chase the king away ("you murdered (future) Queen Catherine, is Henry VIII your role model?") and he'll be forced to hide somewhere obscure, perhaps up a tree in Worcestershire like the previous King Charles?

[RTH10260]

Off Topic

Cha^s).

Nifty coding you got there I was wondering how you managed to get a "s" above a hyphen

[Whatever4]

King Chuck

Never never never "Chuck", that's purely American, not used in the Old Country. Either Charlie or Chas (rhymes with jazz, based on an old convention of abbreviating given names on signs and in documents, in this case Charles–>Cha^s).

Chuckles.