Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by Adam Ef

I got quoted £75 for them to re-sole my boots... that originally cost me £60.

I had my Gaerne boot soles replaced with new Vibram soles a couple of years ago for £50 at local cobblers shop. (who incidentally closed due to Covid and hasn't reopened yet !)

[svenrico]

Posted in covid thread but worth repeating I think as a general gripe of the day.

I am quoting from a letter written to my local paper regarding The Health and Care Bill being debated in parliament to end competitive tendering by private companies for NHS work.
As the letter writer says - this will actually mean more privatisation as it allows the award of NHS contracts without due process and scrutiny.
Sounds like legalising corruption to me !
So what can we do about it ?!

[Seeker]

A dinosaur has been spotted in Lincolnshire...

...and it has a name: John Hayes MP

he thinks climate change efforts should be delayed (as he pockets £50k/yr from oil firm).
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ope...from-oil-firm/

[Seeker]

Our judges are independent of the government. Dominic Raab doesn't like that and wants to override judgements that ministers disagree with.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/hr-...110196.article

[garynortheast]

We are sleepwalking into totalitarianism.

[embee]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Our judges are independent of the government. Dominic Raab doesn't like that and wants to override judgements that ministers disagree with.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/hr-...110196.article

Folk should just be aware of the difference between the "European Convention on Human Rights" and the "Human Rights Act".
The ECHR (as it is commonly referred to, though that acronym is also used elsewhere for the Court) is/was nothing to do with the EU as such, a common mistake. It was essentially an outcome after WW2 for members of the Council of Europe (including the UK) to agree on basic freedoms/rights (not to be tortured or unlawfully executed by the state etc, a lot of namby pamby stuff really) .
The HRA is the UK's act of Parliament which ensures the ECHR is enacted in the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe...n_Human_Rights

It is standard practice for would-be dictatorships to gain power by identifying an "enemy" and using popularism to win votes on the basis of bigotry and prejudice, xenophobia, lies etc. Vote for us and we'll sort "them" out for you.

Once in power they take measures to control state media (e.g. BBC), and then take measures to restrict or neuter the state justice system, at least the bits they don't like which are usually the parts which can hold the government to account. Look at any despot or dictator and you'll find those measures in the power grabbing process. Once they get to the point where it is near impossible to actually challenge them, they grant themselves emergency powers or use statutory instruments (not requiring Parliamentary debate) to simply enact the laws they want.

Familiar?

Be careful, we get what we deserve.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by embee

It is standard practice for would-be dictatorships to gain power by identifying an "enemy" and using popularism to win votes on the basis of bigotry and prejudice, xenophobia, lies etc. Vote for us and we'll sort "them" out for you.

Once in power they take measures to control state media (e.g. BBC), and then take measures to restrict or neuter the state justice system, at least the bits they don't like which are usually the parts which can hold the government to account. Look at any despot or dictator and you'll find those measures in the power grabbing process. Once they get to the point where it is near impossible to actually challenge them, they grant themselves emergency powers or use statutory instruments (not requiring Parliamentary debate) to simply enact the laws they want.

Familiar?

Be careful, we get what we deserve.

and meantime the three members of a four member "stronger together" nation get dragged down by being outvoted by a majority populous of the fourth member.

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by Bibio

and meantime the three members of a four member "stronger together" nation get dragged down by being outvoted by a majority populous of the fourth member.

Yep. de Pfeffel and his cadre of crooked cronies are trying to claw back enough of the devolved powers of the three Celtic nations to render them even less effective in resisting Wastemonster. Here in Wales we've just had 8 of our 40 MP's replaced with English MPs.

[maviczap]

Cancer it can feck off

Read today on FB, that someone I met on holiday in 2018 has pancreatic cancer. Younger than me, a lovely guy, nice wife. Its not curable, and my German friend succumbed to it last December. This guy only has a short time left

I went to a colleagues funeral last month, cancer got him too.

It can feck off, the Cnuting cancer

[garynortheast]

It's a vile disease. I know to many people who have had it or have it currently.