We really can't go any longer without saying something about the momentous events playing out across the Atlantic. As I write this, Joe Biden has taken the lead in what was thought to be the staunchly republican State of Georgia. By sweet irony and on its own it now looks to ensure that the world can be saved from enduring for much longer the obscenity that is President Trump.
Regular readers will be aware that I decided to rashly 'call' this election in Biden's favour at 11.47 GMT on November 4th having been glued to the absolutely brilliant and forensic reporting on CNN and having become completely disillusioned with BBC news coverage. If you want a fair but straight-talking version of what the hell is going on across the pond, I'd suggest you go there. You have no idea how my mood has lifted by the wonderful news unfolding amidst this terrible global pandemic. God Bless Georgia!
Addendum
It's becoming increasingly clear that Mr Trump has been 'hoist by his own petard' and when the inevitable oscar-winning film is made, it will be a wonderful moral tale where good triumphs over evil. Rather than do the right thing and encourage everyone to cast their vote safely by mail-in, he chose to politicise this hugely popular option, branding it as unsafe and open to fraud. By so doing he almost certainly significantly lowered the Republican turn-out, whilst at the same time increasing the Democratic vote.
By his twisted and completely cynical, warped logic, he then imagined he could steal the election by subsequently disenfranchising millions of postal votes! The man is not only utterly deluded, nasty and amoral, he's almost certainly been responsible for many thousands of deaths by politicising the wearing of face masks.
History is quite rightly not going to treat this man kindly. It seems a certain German bank want speedy repayment of $340million and there are several criminal cases to answer just as soon as his Presidential immunity ceases. I don't have children, but blimey there's one heck of a moral lesson to teach future generations here.
Brilliant quote from the secret barrister to the orange one - 'You’ve not only lost, but have inexplicably now chosen to stand in front of the world and soil yourself in a final, fitting act of self-debasement.
ReplyDeleteYou really should have listened to your lawyers and kept quiet'.
It also looks like the high ranking Republicans have distanced themselves from Trumps petulant manchild tantrums.
ReplyDeleteI think it highly likely that his rantings will cause some civil unrest in places, which won't bode well for him as there's several states queuing up to arrest him on racketeering and tax evasion charges once he looses the protections he has being custodian of the Whitehouse.
It's ironic, that it's his practically total disregard for the pandemic that's lead to the massive increase in postal votes that he's so unhappy about now!
A Biden win also creates a huge headache for Johnson and the Tories on this side of the pond.
Maybe there's some socially orientated country that might be willing to offer Trump assilum?
'Getafix
Or even 'asylum'.
Delete'Getafix
Its a weird combination of disturbing, exciting & pitiful watching the GOP (i.e. the Republican Party) starting to distance themselves from The Malignant Orange Tumour & leaving him to stew in his own wretched bile.
ReplyDeleteClearly they benefitted personally & politically from his tenure of the last four years but it seems Trump has exhausted his power & influence, pushing his boat out way too far for anyone else to consider it worth the ride.
He'll be a very dangerous animal now - bitter, angry, resentful, wounded.
As mentioned already, we'll now see how much he is *actually* worth as the loans are called in and the extent of his crooked activities unravel.
Aesop's Hare & Tortoise come to mind as I watch the Biden figures overturn Trump's substantial voter-in-person leads in Georgia, Nevada, & Pennsylvania.
Jim Acosta, CNN: "Sources close to the White House said some senior officials inside the White House and the campaign are beginning to quietly back away from Trump, in acts of self-preservation, as the returns in Pennsylvania and Georgia indicate the President will not win reelection."
DeleteI think he was taken over by aliens. Possibly from Mexico
ReplyDeleteFrom HMPPS website
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-preparedness-in-prisons
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-and-prisons
Not a peep about NPS
If you work with cases where mental health is critical, i.e. links with mental health casework section:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/invitation-to-mhcs-open-session
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892498/probation-roadmap-to-recovery.pdf
DeleteLAST UPDATED 9 JUNE 2020
NPS twittering -
ReplyDelete1. Is this the zenith of achievement?
"Well done #TeamCheshire 86% of you logged into @NPSEQuiP in September, to keep well informed and up to date with your practice..... Highest in the country!"
2. Meanwhile a highly paid civil servant sent this:
"Very excited to formally launch InclusiviTEA for Two today - colleagues across NPS YatH, CRCs and YaTH APs can hook up for informal chat to break down myths & barriers in advance of unification in 2021. Delighted that @DGProbWales & @SoniaCrozier will join 1st round #Engagement"
3. And clearly the pandemic is taking its toll:
"Be like Sonia Flynn and #GetYourFluJab"
4. Leaders in Gtr Manc seem to be enjoying getting together:
"Great to have excellent attendance at GM Head of Ops Briefing. Wide ranging issues & lively discussions around full spectrum of issues affecting region. Specific focus on role of leadership in driving through competing priorities. Thanks everyone!"
*** "role of leadership in driving through competing priorities"
_____
Can't find a thing about managing work during the winter lockdown.
____________________
People tested positive: Daily - 23,287
Virus tests processed: Daily - 344,045
Virus testing capacity: 530,112
Deaths within 28 days of positive test: Daily - 355
FranK.
The shite these probation bigwigs write on Twitter!
ReplyDelete“Happy to say I work for an organisation that works hard to ensure all discrimination is eliminated. Amazing work for inclusion. #hmpps @NPSLDN_Director”
I prefer Trump. They’re both liars. Better the devil you know.
ReplyDeleteTrump's twitter feed is going beserk, with many of them hidden behind Twitter warnings:
ReplyDelete* With the attack by the Radical Left Dems on the Republican Senate, the Presidency becomes even more important!
* Where are the missing military ballots in Georgia? What happened to them?
* Philadelpiha has got a rotten history on election integrity.
* these late ballots past Election Day are illegal, exactly what the President has been saying.
* I easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with LEGAL VOTES CAST. The OBSERVERS were not allowed, in any way, shape, or form, to do their job and therefore, votes accepted during this period must be determined to be ILLEGAL VOTES.
And Don Junior is joining in:
* USPS Carrier in PA Claims Higher-Ups Instructed Workers to Backdate Ballots
* Michigan GOP Chair: Dozens of Michigan counties used the same software that caused 6,000 votes in one county to switch from Trump to Biden.
And after the craziest fucking claims that Democrats ordered black ops helicopters to drop sharpies onto a neighbourhood & cause Republican votes to be discarded (seriously!), there was this today:
"Air Force helicopter shot from the ground in Virginia, bullet injures one crew member aboard"
Hmmm, theories of cause & effect anyone?
Keep watching Georgia! This from the Guardian today:-
DeleteTwo key Senate races in Georgia are headed for a runoff, making the southern state the center of the battle between Democrats and Republicans for control of the Senate.
Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff will face off in a 5 January runoff for Perdue’s seat. Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel was able to get enough votes so that neither Perdue nor Ossoff was able to clear the 50% threshold needed for an outright win.
It became clear earlier this week that Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler are headed for a runoff on the same day for Georgia’s other Senate seat.
Nationally, Democrats and Republicans can each already count on 48 seats in the Senate. Republicans lead uncalled races in Alaska and North Carolina, so the ultimate balance is likely to come down to what happens in the Georgia runoffs.
If Democrats win the Georgia seats, it would leave the Senate split 50-50, with the vice-president serving as a tie-breaker.
If Joe Biden is in the White House, that would mean a vice-president Kamala Harris would be the deciding vote in the Senate. If Donald Trump wins a second term, then it would be Mike Pence, the current vice-president.
Democrats had hoped to wrench control of the Senate from Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, and raised millions of dollars to fight the GOP candidates in states such as Maine, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina. But larger-than-expected Republican turnout prevented a “blue wave.”
Democrats picked up a seat in Colorado, where the former governor John Hickenlooper defeated Senator Cory Gardner, and Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly beat the Republican incumbent Martha McSally. Democrats lost a seat in Alabama, where Republican Tommy Tuberville defeated the Democratic incumbent, Doug Jones.
The race between Ossoff and Perdue, a close ally of Donald Trump, has been characterized by sharp attack ads but relatively moderate political positions.
Both candidates pivoted to the middle vying for a state Trump won handily four years ago, but where swaths of suburbia have shown signs of disillusionment with the president.
Perdue sought to cast Ossoff as backing a “radical socialist agenda”, while Ossoff portrayed Perdue as a “corrupt” Washington insider who has been part of a botched pandemic response.
Sure and as soon as possible Britain can refocus its centre being and oust that bannana clown Johnson and the Tories fornthei shambles and self interest while people die. Lock downs necessary because the Tories deleted the health services . Billions of pounds maybe but what price have families paid in lives well being and futures. Tories destruction reigns.
DeleteMurdoch wastes no time in dumping a loser - Guardian today:-
ReplyDeleteMultiple Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative media outlets in the United States have shifted their messaging in a seeming effort to warn readers and viewers that Donald Trump may well have lost the presidential election.
The new messaging appears to be closely coordinated, and it includes an appeal to Trump to preserve his “legacy” by showing grace in defeat. The message is being carried on Fox News and in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post – all outlets avidly consumed by Trump himself, especially Fox.
One Fox News host, Laura Ingraham, an intimate of the president ever since she spoke at the 2016 Republican national convention, made an astounding statement that seemed directed at Trump personally, advising him to accept defeat “if and when that does happen” with “grace and composure” and appealing to his sense of his own legacy.
Ingraham said in part: “If and when it’s time to accept an unfavourable outcome in this election, and we hope it never comes, but if and when that does happen, president Trump needs to do it with the same grace and composure he demonstrated at that town hall with Savannah Guthrie. So many people remarked about his tone and presence. Exactly what he needs.
“Now losing, especially when you believe the process wasn’t fair, it’s a gut punch. And I’m not conceding anything tonight, by the way. But losing, if that’s what happens – it’s awful. But president Trump’s legacy will only become more significant if he focuses on moving the country forward.”
The Wall Street Journal has published an opinion piece with almost the exact same message. It is titled “The Presidential Endgame” and subtitled “Trump has the right to fight in court, but he needs evidence to prove voter fraud”.
“Mr Trump’s legacy will be diminished greatly if his final act is a bitter refusal to accept a legitimate defeat,” the piece warns.
Here is how the article opened: “Perhaps it was inevitable that Donald Trump’s re-election campaign would end as his presidency began: with the president claiming victory and his frenzied antagonists denouncing him as a would-be fascist. The reality is that the US can and probably will have a normal election outcome regardless of the shouting between now and then.
“Mr Biden is leading in enough states to win the presidency, and if those votes survive recounts and legal challenges, he will be the next president.”
Top editors at the New York Post – which before the election was the launch vehicle for wild and desperate attacks on Joe Biden’s son Hunter – have “told some staff members this week to be tougher in their coverage” of Trump, the New York Times reported, citing two anonymous employees of the paper.
The Times piece said: “On Thursday, in a sudden about-face, Rupert Murdoch’s scrappy tabloid published two articles with a wildly different tone. One accused the president of making an ‘unfounded claim that political foes were trying to steal the election’. The headline on the other described Donald Trump Jr as the ‘panic-stricken’ author of a ‘clueless tweet’.”
News coverage at Fox News has similarly shown little patience with the lies about voter fraud Trump is advancing in hopes of reversing the election.
Asked about the Trump campaign’s assertion that Republican observers had not been allowed to observe vote-counting, the Fox correspondent states flatly: “That’s not true. It’s not true. It’s just not true.”
DeleteTrump is rapidly losing the support of the Republican establishment, and I think he will live to rue that loss.
DeleteApart from his dodgy dealings and tax evasion, there's other things under the carpet, like his connections to Russia, that be left alone with friends in high places within the Republican elite, but if he finds himself alone and with those friends in high places distancing themselves from him, he's fair game for anything.
I suggest Trump has a rocky road ahead once he leaves office, with much more to answer to then he realizes.
'Getafix
If you are one of those people who subscribe to the theory that Murdoch newspapers always want to be seen to be backing the winning side, then here’s today’s New York Post:
Delete"Ready, Set... Joe?
Biden thisclose to winning presidency"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/nov/06/us-election-joe-biden-donald-trump-result-latest-who-is-winning-live-2020-updates#block-5fa6869a8f0870a6e75f91be
apparently Georgia has formally ordered a recount
DeleteA few reminders.
Deletehttps://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-so-far-atrocities-1-967
https://m.facebook.com/590165869/posts/10155512531540870/
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteGet ready for trump to go ballistic - almost all media have now called the election for Biden in their projections including BBC, CNN etc.
ReplyDeleteThis is where his head was at an hour ago:
* I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
And during the day:
* People were screaming STOP THE COUNT & WE DEMAND TRANSPARENCY (As Legal Observers were refused admittance to count rooms)!
* Bad things took place during those hours where LEGAL TRANSPARENCY was viciously & crudely not allowed. Tractors blocked doors & windows were covered with thick cardboard so that observers could not see into the count rooms. BAD THINGS HAPPENED INSIDE. BIG CHANGES TOOK PLACE!
And in the UK:
just short of 25,000 new covid-19 cases reported
413 deaths (using 28 day rule)
FranK.
Of course, data manipulation & skewing of the figures to achieve a desired outcome *can* happen in democratic countries:
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/how-uk-government-misrepresented-covid-projections-lockdown-explained
"What else has been wrong with data during the pandemic?
The inaccuracy is the latest in a long line of problems with government Covid-19 data, which has cast a shadow over how the pandemic has been managed and communicated.
Many of the issues have revolved around testing and how the number of tests being carried out have been counted. In May and June the agency reprimanded the government on its testing statistics twice. Rather than show the number of tests that had been carried out, the government included mailed-out tests in an effort to hit its target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of May."
And he's off!
Delete"“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over,” Trump said. “Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated,” Trump said."
That Trump statement in full, as released:
Delete“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.
“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.
“So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”
NBC factcheck - "There are no news reports of a polling site being affected by farm equipment, though Newt Gingrich made a similar claim on Fox News yesterday. None of the more than 165,000 general election reports made to the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline mentioned a tractor... As for the windows and the cardboard — that did happen, but not the way Trump says it did. At a polling site in Detroit, there were hundreds of challengers and observers from both parties inside the poll counting rooms, but when protesters began filming poll workers and challengers from the outside, The Detroit News reported poll workers put up cardboard on the windows to keep protesters from filming them. Only the media is allowed to film inside ballot-count rooms"
DeleteAnd in all the excitement we certainly should not forget:
ReplyDelete"Kamala Harris has become vice-president-elect of the US, the first time in history that a woman, and a woman of color, has been elected to such a position in the White House."
FranK.
I note that whilst the Daily Mail hasn't gone as far as throwing its weight behind Trump, it's already started to invite questions of integrity about Biden.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8922741/amp/Picture-Joe-Biden-Gerry-Adams-IRA-chief-tried-kill-Army-officer-emerges.html
'Getafix
Well in the end it wasn't Georgia that prevented Trump getting to 270 due to a recount, but Georgia is absolutely key to Biden being able to gain control of the Senate in January. Going to be quite a battle and I'll stick with CNN.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the Malignant Baby has access to wifi again:
ReplyDelete"THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!"
71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!
That may be true, Donald dear, but Mr Biden got 74,446,452 votes - which is more than you, so he wins.
How do you know BAD THINGS HAPPENED if the observers couldn't see them happen?
DeleteIt was probably reported by breitbart or Qanon, so it must be true.
Deletehttps://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157793257832561&id=544407560&sfnsn=scwspwa
DeleteBloody kids! I blame Babbage for encouraging them!
Deleteits kind of good though:)
The government is to spend £396m to support poor children and their families in England, following a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford.
ReplyDeleteA winter grant scheme, to be run by councils, will provide support with food and bills, and a holiday food and activities programme is to be expanded.
Rashford said it would improve the lives of nearly 1.7 million children.
The move represents a significant climbdown for the government, which had argued Universal Credit was enough.
bbc news
Guardian gives a different figure of £170m, not £396m:
DeleteThe footballer Marcus Rashford has described being “overwhelmed with pride” at the progress of his campaign to fight child food poverty as ministers announced a £170m winter grant scheme aimed at helping low-income families struggling as a result of Covid-19.
If only I had learned to read properly. BBC news again:
Delete"From the package of support, a £170m ring-fenced fund will be distributed through councils until the end of March, with at least 80% earmarked for help with food and bills.
The holiday food and activities programme will be expanded with a £210m investment to cover Easter, summer and Christmas in 2021.
On top of that, there will be a £16m cash boost for the nation's food banks."
170+210+16 = 396
Fun times ahead - At least Trump has until mid-Jan 2021 to install hidden mics, cameras etc throughout the Whitehouse, fill the waste pipes with expanding foam, place kippers under carpets, piss in all the kettles...
ReplyDeleteI watched Johnson this morning speaking about how hard and difficult it is (has always been) to negotiate trade deals with the USA.
ReplyDeleteThat seems a million miles away from his oven ready, first in the queue rethoric he spluttered about to push Brexit through.
Parliament goes into Christmas recess on the 20th of December, 11 days before the transition period ends. Deducting weekends there's now only 30 parliamentary working days to agree any deal with the EU.
Of course we've been told about the wonderful free trade deal we've signed with Japan, but if you dig down into the detail it's just a crock of smoke and mirrors. We also have a wonderful free trade deal with Kenya too, but I'm not exactly sure just what we'll be trading there, free or not.
I think it will be interesting to watch the Tory benches in Parliament this week. Its squeeky bum time now, and I feel many will be unsettled by the result of the US election. I feel some Tories will become more flexible whilst others will dig in even harder as time rapidly runs out for any chance of a UK/EU trade deal.
Whatever way Johnson decides to play it, he's likely to upset particular factions within the Tory party.
I see trouble ahead on the Government benches!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-japan-trade-deal-liz-truss-exports-b1619263.html%3famp
'Getafix
Sunday's covid-19 data from Biden's new best-friend-forever-govt
ReplyDeletenew cases reported: 20,572
deaths (28 day rule): 156
No updates on tests carried out, test capacity, deaths where covid-19 is on the death certificate or any other data e.g. hospitalisations, numbers on ventilators, etc)
Over the water it looks like The Malignant One finally found his phone a couple of hours ago:
"We should look at the votes. We’re just beginning the tabulation stage. We should look at these allegations. We’re seeing a number of affidavits that there has been voter fraud."
"We believe these people are thieves. The big city machines are corrupt. This was a stolen election. Best pollster in Britain wrote this morning that this clearly was a stolen election, that it’s impossible to imagine that Biden outran Obama in some of these states."
"Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal."
And he's having an impact in Third World America:
"Supporters of Donald Trump have come out to protest against his election defeat, refusing to accept defeat and echoing the President's unsubstantiated allegations that the Democrats won by fraud.
Chanting “This isn’t over!” and “Stop the steal", crowds of up to a few thousand — some of them openly carrying guns - decried the news of Joe Biden's victory.
In Atlanta, outside the state Capitol in the longtime Republican stronghold of Georgia, chants of "Lock him up!" rang out among an estimated 1,000 Trump supporters." [presumably they meant Biden, not Trump]
I love that the GOP - a party that has spent millions & millions of $$$'s on Trump's campaign - held a press conference, headlined by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in the car park of a garden centre sandwiched between a crematorium and a sex shop.
DeleteThe images are just the most amazing, the bestest ever pictures, no beautiful images like this have ever been seen before.
I know! God I've got a problem - I can't turn the damned thing off now and am addicted to CNN....heeeeelp.....
DeleteRich Hall has an excellent pitch about CNN, NBC, FoxNews. For CNN in Britain he says:
Delete"in place of the adverts they show a waterfall which they call '30 seconds of calm' followed by temperatures from around the world, then jake tapper or dana bash or someone else comes on & gets worked up about something and they get a load of people in boxes to back 'em up: its not a debate, its an echo chamber."
However much my political sympathies resonate with CNN, its both funny & true!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000nvtr
Meantime RT (russia today) is mourning Trump's demise, blaming Biden supporters for provoking Trump supporters to be violent, causing them to publicly carry weapons for their own safety, repeating Trumpist allegations about 'stealing the election', accusing the Democrats of being worse losers than Trump in 2016 by implying Russia helped Trump win, etc etc.
DeleteMaybe Trump will relocate to Russia & move in with Putin?
He's going off on one again:
ReplyDelete"Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!"
And the Junior Tumour isn't faring much better:
"We went from 4 years of Russia rigged the election, to elections can’t be rigged really fast didn’t we???"
Better still...
"70 million pissed off republicans and not one city burned to the ground."
Yet.
Junior is clearly dogwhistling The Proud Boys & those heavily armed Trump supporters on the streets of the USA.
Such dissonance won't be new territory for UK probation staff who have to cope with similarly distorted thinking on a daily basis, e.g. Johnson, Gove, Cummings, Wancock, Buckland, Jenrick, HMPPS, NPS, sex offenders, DA perpetrators, etc.
Eric Tumour doesn't want to miss out on the fun either:
Delete"Does anyone believe that Biden, a candidate who had a tough time filing a room, got 8.89 million more votes than Obama 2012? This while @realDonaldTrump set vote records never seen before in the Republican Party (achieved 7.5 million more votes 2016) and is “down”?"
Twitter staff must be exhausted with all of the warnings, deletes & hides they're having to issue. Presumably its all good business?
Nothing from Putin or Xi, at least nothing identifying them. Plenty of 'bot activity though.
Interesting times... people have long memories, it seems:
ReplyDelete"BORIS Johnson will face an uphill struggle to win over Joe Biden because of the Prime Minister's "racist comments" about Barack Obama.
And it’s not just the President-elect who’s not too fond of the Eton-educated toff in charge of the UK, one source close to the new team told The Sunday Times: “If you think Joe hates him, you should hear Kamala.”
It dates back to 2016, at the height of the Brexit referendum, when Obama urged “citizens of the United Kingdom take stock of their relationship with the EU” and “be proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices – democracy, the rule of law, open markets – across the continent and to its periphery”.
Johnson, who was the most prominent Leave campaigner, accused Obama of removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office because of his “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.
Writing in the Sun, the Tory said: “Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender."
At the time Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP, called the article “appalling” .
He said Johnson was “unreliable and idle about the facts”, as there was still a Churchill bust inside the White House."
"Mr Johnson, according to The Sunday Times, is said to have joked with Downing Street officials that Mr Biden was "one of the few world leaders I haven't insulted".
There could be work to do for Number 10 to prepare the relationship, however, after an aide of former president Barack Obama labelled the Prime Minister a "shapeshifting creep" following Mr Johnson's congratulatory tweet on Saturday.
Tommy Vietor, referencing Mr Johnson previously suggesting Mr Obama's "part-Kenyan heritage" was behind his "ancestral dislike of the British empire", said: "We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump."
In other UK govt news
ReplyDeleteIn a legal filing dated 30 October, government lawyers revealed that £17bn had been spent by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Covid-related goods and services since the start of the financial year in April.
"UK government fails to publish details of £4bn Covid contracts with private firms
Good Law Project and MPs call for independent inquiry over apparent breach of UK law
The government has failed to publish any information about £4bn of Covid-related contracts awarded to private companies, in what appears to be a continuing breach of UK law.
The gap was uncovered by campaign group the Good Law Project, which along with a cross-party group of MPs, is suing the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in the high court. They are accusing his ministry of an “egregious and widespread failure to comply with legal duties and established policies”.
Government departments are required by law to publish details of contracts no later 30 days after awarding them. The measures are designed to reduce the risk of fraud and improve value for money by allowing proper scrutiny of how taxpayer cash is spent."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/uk-government-fails-to-publish-details-of-4bn-covid-contracts-with-private-firms
BBC:
Delete"Mr Eustice told BBC Breakfast: "A test is only as good as the speed with which you can turn a result around.
"What we've really been focusing on more recently is a faster test, so that people can act more quickly to prevent the spread of the virus so this, if we can make it work, is a major breakthrough."
Rapid or "lateral flow" tests need there to be high levels of the virus in the body to work. They are similar to pregnancy tests and are easy, cheap and fast."
However quickly one gets one's result, surely a test is only any use if its accurate?
What if its less than 50% accurate???
"A rapid coronavirus test that gives results in 20 minutes missed more than 50% of positive cases in a Greater Manchester pilot, according to reports. The test, which is part of the Government’s mass-testing strategy, known as Operation Moonshot, identified only 46.7% of infections during a trial in Manchester and Salford last month, according to a UK newspaper.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that it was “incorrect” to suggest the rapid test has a low sensitivity, adding that it had been validated in another recent pilot.
But in a letter seen by a national newspaper, scientists from Greater Manchester’s mass testing group (MTEG) raised concerns about the accuracy of the OptiGene Direct RT-Lamp test.
“The current available data from the Manchester pilot shows low sensitivity (46.7%) of the Direct RT-Lamp platform,” the letter said.
According to the newspaper, the scientists said they had “significant concerns” and felt the data did not support a large scale rollout of the tests to staff in clinical settings, such as hospitals and care homes."
On the Govt's Contract Finder webpages:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5f1ba2e0-e41f-4970-9297-dc460f8a95f4?origin=SearchResults&p=1
Market engagement for new pan Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) externally provided operational fast-track scheme The Leadership, Talent and Capability team (LTC) within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) People Group have designed the outline of a new pan HMPPS scheme which will fast-track external candidates who have been educated to degree level into senior operational management roles across prison, probation and Youth Custody Service (YCS).
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/765b3014-1785-4167-b89a-0e94f93bfd11?origin=SearchResults&p=1
Ingeus is applying for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Dynamic Framework to deliver rehabilitation and resettlement services across multiple Lots and geographical locations. We are looking to deliver services with specialist partner organisations who can deliver localised and tailored services to achieve tangible and positive outcomes in the lives of service users.
Ingeus are looking to build partnerships with experienced organisations in providing high-quality rehabilitation and resettlement support to service users.
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/63ca1891-a140-4bea-af69-f6b25b87813e?origin=SearchResults&p=1
**Deadline for submissions extended to Friday 13 November 2020 at 12 noon**Health Education England (HEE - the Commissioner) are commencing a tender for the provision of a National Oversight Hub for the Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF).
Health Education England (HEE), in partnership with NHS England and Improvement and Her Majesty's Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS), is seeking to engage with a provider (or consortium of providers) to deliver a co-produced, central hub (the 'Hub') to provide national quality assurance and oversight of all Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF) training. The KUF programmes aim to support growth of skills and knowledge of the workforce across the health, criminal justice and third sector, to effectively support those with complex mental health needs associated with a diagnosis of 'personality disorder'.
Contract value: £2,534,475 which includes infrastructure costs for 3 years and training demand for year 1.
Also:
Deletehttps://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/9ff1b630-123e-4b16-bcff-71f94c6205db?origin=SearchResults&p=1
Accommodation and support services for defendants released from court and prison on bail and offenders released from custody who meet the necessary eligibility criteria including those released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) and an Additional Licence Cohort (ALC).
This is an early call for market engagement. We would welcome contact from housing providers across the sector who are well experienced in working with offenders, delivering accommodation services, rehabilitation services, trauma-informed approaches etc. Whilst the Service will be competed nationally, we are keen to work with providers of all sizes, the MoJ would encourage potential partnerships and consortiums that maximise its access to expertise across this market and accommodation stock across England and Wales.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-54873105
ReplyDeleteIn all the excitement of Trump/Biden, vaccines in your Xmas stocking and the Platinum Blancmange on the telly again, the statisticians seem to have forgotten to upload and covid-19 data.
ReplyDeleteFranK.
A Cohen Bros screenplay?
DeleteEstablishing shot - Philadelphia
Fly-zoom into Rudy Giuliani spewing bullshit from the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. He is standing behind a wobbly lectern between a crematorium and a dildo shop. In the sparse crowd a bemused onlooker stares at his phone. Cut to shot of the screen which shows the POTUS Twitter feed announcing "big press conference at Four Seasons".
________
It seems the landscaping company has swiftly sought to cash in on its newfound fame, selling merchandise emblazoned with Trump-inspired puns - “MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN”, read one sticker on sale on the company website on Monday. It also featured the phrase “LAWN AND ORDER!” The stickers were selling for $5 each.
from Guardian & others
Oh, they've woken up.
Deleteuk we-love-the-EU-really-we-were just-joking-with-you-about-brexit govt covid-19 data Monday 9/11/20
new cases: 21,350 from 277,000 tests
Test Capacity of 518,000 - why not use it?
What about all those additional Liverpool tests?
deaths (usual 28 day rules): 194
deaths with covid-19 on certificate - not updated since October
FranK.
The screenplay needs a finishing touch - how about having a convicted sex offender testify to the vote fraud on the podium alongside Giuliani?
Delete"Poll watcher Darryl Mikell Brooks was convicted in the 1990s of sexual assault, lewdness and endangering the welfare of a minor. He was charged with exposing himself to two girls aged 7 and 11.
Speaking to Politico, Mr Brooks denied the charges he was convicted of, saying he was framed by the police. “I went to prison for three-and-a-half years," he said. "That’s what they said I was did. I was 25-years-old,” Brooks said. “I was an activist always doing the right thing. They lied on me. The cops set me up.”"
Where's Ghislain Maxwell when you need her?
"A compromise to placate Cummings"
ReplyDeleteTHE NATION'S HEALTH IS TO BE PUT AT RISK BECAUSE NO-ONE IS PREPARED TO TELL CUMMINGS TO FUCK OFF & KEEP HIS NOSE OUT. WHITTY SHOULD BE PUBLICLY OUTING THE BASTARD.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/uk-set-to-cut-covid-self-isolation-period-from-two-weeks-to-10-days
"According to the source, Whitty discovered on Tuesday last week that a press release had been drafted to use the rapid tests to halve self-isolation to seven days, with the eventual goal of scrapping the self-isolation period entirely by offering tests to people as soon as they are notified of a contact with an infected person.
Whitty is said to have been implacably opposed on public health grounds, arguing that the incubation period for the virus was too long to allow immediate testing and the rapid tests would fail to detect every infected person.
The proposal to test after eight days, with permission to leave the house on the 10th day, was “cooked up” as a compromise, to placate Cummings, the source said.
Downing Street did not deny the claims."
Fucking outrageous!!! Shitty unreliable rapid flow tests & reduced quarantine periods. Why not just lick each others' faces and have done with it!?! Bollocks to any benefits from lockdown, lets go for mass infection as fast as possible.
I'm now convinced Cummings would be happy & in his element watching thousands die.
See you next Tuesday Dom.
Wondering about the lateral flow test?
Deletehttps://cdn.website-editor.net/6f54caea7c6f4adfba8399428f3c0b0c/files/uploaded/Innova-SARS-Cov-2-Antigen-test-IFU.pdf
In the absence of anything probation, more crap from inside the head of The Malignant Orange Tumour:
ReplyDeleteNevada is turning out to be a cesspool of Fake Votes. @mschlapp & @AdamLaxalt are finding things that, when released, will be absolutely shocking!
Wisconsin is looking very good. Needs a little time statutorily. Will happen soon! @Reince @SeanDuffyWI
Trump has tonight fired his defence secretary, and cast suspicion on the timing of Pfizers announcement on a possible vaccine, holding the news back as part of the conspiracy that 'stole' the election from him.
ReplyDeleteHe's facing multiple prosecutions, and his wife is said to be about to file for divorce.
Trump is in total meltdown, but he's still the President of the USA. As such he still holds considerable power, and is in a position to cause great harm on a global scale.
Isn't it time to remove him now for reasons of national security?
It just can't be right to leave someone as angry, unstable and as unpredictable as Trump as the leader of a superpower with access to nuclear weapons?
'Getafix
No, because you can't just remove someone from office because you think they might do something crazy. In fairness, Trump has probably been the least militaristic US president in modern times.
DeleteThe reality as well is that either Trump or one of his offspring will probably be back in power in 2024 anyway. The election results show that whilst the American public had grown tired of the dysfunctionality of Trump as an individual, Trumpism will probably go from strength to strength, underpinned by a voting base totally fired up to put the right the perceived wrong of the 'stolen' election.
"Trump has probably been the least militaristic US president in modern times."
DeleteNo, he's been 'sneaky' there. He's also been reckless. He's used black ops (assasination), economic warfare (sanctions), supported abusive/oppressive regimes with weapons, finance & covert boots on the ground. He's sent others to do his dirty work overseas and internally, e.g. Proud Boys. He's pushed America to the brink of civil war (and is still stoking that particular fire) & he took the world to the brink of international war:
https://theweek.com/articles/887257/4-reasons-beware-trumps-decision-kill-soleimani
He's done plenty of batshit crazy stuff already (inject bleach?), his tweets are dogwhistling the far right.
If he's silenced now - as the UK should be silencing our own fruitbat Cummings - then there's a good chance that the extreme right will return to the fringes rather than include the millions who are feel 'lost' & looking for something to identify with.
Speaking of silence - who'd have guessed? Russia, China, Turkey, Brazil & Mexico keep schtum about Biden's achievement while their orange chump is refusing to accept the election.
Delete