The Labour Government

[hampshireblue]

Water bills are regulated by Ofwat.

I know. But there are many on here who blame Labour for everything-even moaning about their increased car insurance(which subsequently went down, but that's another story)

 

[mosssideblue]

He quoted what Badenoch had said at the time. I was actually reponding to your:

" The sight of a British PM deliberately taking out of context snippets relating to China from ministerial speeches"

LBC put the comments she made into context.

Apparently everyone who has a different view to BKB is either a left wing weirdo, or in my case last week a needy left winger.

PMQ was on as I took a nice drive to Winchester and it was actually the LBC political editor who stated that Badenoch's performance was about as bad as it has been since she bcame leader. But as we all know BKBs views are often detached from reality.

Badenoch is the gift that keeps on giving. Totally out of her depth, but the best the Tories have apparently.

 

[mosssideblue]

I know. But there are many on here who blame Labour for everything-even moaning about their increased car insurance(which subsequently went down, but that's another story)

They cannot comprehend how shit the Tories were in Government and even worse in opposition, so grasp at any straw to have a pop at Labour

 

[hampshireblue]

The causes of their price increases are irrelevant- it still creates inflation.

Now if you think it’s a big collusion by the supermarkets with no fundamental rationale for said price increases across the various supermarkets then time to write to our local MPs and ask government to step in because that would be illegal.

I didn't suggest collusion.The Tesco example does seem to be blatant profiteering on the back of the NI increase that they are so adamant is affecting their business detrimentally.

 

[Roachy]

Water bills are regulated by Ofwat.

Who are a non ministerial government department. Eye watering bill increases are partly down to them, and not the consumers, who's interests they claim to protect.

 

[stonerblue]

Rhiannon whyte bet her family are all for our wonderful open borders policy

Who's she?

 

[hilts]

I know. But there are many on here who blame Labour for everything-even moaning about their increased car insurance(which subsequently went down, but that's another story)

In fairness the govt could do something about ofwat and water industry in general, they have mentioned trying to halt the continuous increase in household bills. Gas electric and water are a big part of it.

 

[Blackley_Blue]

Who's she?

A hotel worker who was murdered by someone who was being put up in the hotel she worked at after arriving on a small boat.

 

[Brewster's millions]

He quoted what Badenoch had said at the time. I was actually reponding to your:

" The sight of a British PM deliberately taking out of context snippets relating to China from ministerial speeches"

LBC put the comments she made into context.

Apparently everyone who has a different view to BKB is either a left wing weirdo, or in my case last week a needy left winger.

PMQ was on as I took a nice drive to Winchester and it was actually the LBC political editor who stated that Badenoch's performance was about as bad as it has been since she bcame leader. But as we all know BKBs views are often detached from reality.

As I said, you’re simply parroting whatever LBC broadcasts and now you’ve just confirmed it. Thanks.

Also, as useless as Badenoch is, her comments in PMQs yesterday have been proved to be largely correct by the release last night of the witness statements submitted by Collins.

There’s a clear shift in tone between the first statement submitted under the last government and then the two which followed under Labour, with the third statement of course lifting text directly from the Labour Party manifesto.

It really is pretty comical to argue that there’s been no political influence on the evidence submitted by Collins when the bloke has quoted directly from the Labour manifesto.

More lies and bluster from this government. Quelle surprise!

 

[Brewster's millions]

They cannot comprehend how shit the Tories were in Government and even worse in opposition, so grasp at any straw to have a pop at Labour

Labour had 14 years to get ready for government and they’ve shit the bed in the first 12 months. Get over it.

 

[mosssideblue]

Labour had 14 years to get ready for government and they’ve shit the bed in the first 12 months. Get over it.

Bless, you really are struggling. Quite pathetic really

 

[AK45]

Labour had 14 years to get ready for government and they’ve shit the bed in the first 12 months. Get over it.

Well I agree actually, although they might have been so floored with the 14 years of shite that they didn't know where to begin. But I think they have been shite since coming into power. Hard to know where to turn as they are all a bag of lying shite.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Well I agree actually, although they might have been so floored with the 14 years of shite that they didn't know where to begin. But I think they have been shite since coming into power. Hard to know where to turn as they are all a bag of lying shite.

genuinely in your opinion.

what party would have done better than Labour this past year ?

what PM would have been better than Starmer this past year ?

 

[AK45]

genuinely in your opinion.

what party would have done better than Labour this past year ?

what PM would have been better than Starmer this past year ?

Mate I voted for them, but as I put it is hard to know where to turn. I couldn't give you an answer who could have been better, but I could tell you that this surely isn't the best is it. Nothing in my life has changed for the better, that's without the shitshow of IDs being proposed.

 

[Brewster's millions]

He’s like Farage. Both gone too early. 3.5 years to go and they’ve both been found out already.

That’s a nice little coping mechanism you’ve developed there. Peculiar, but still nice in a very naive, childish kind of way.

Nobody has had to have a go at this government yet, let alone go too early, because they’ve done it all to themselves.

They thought it couldn’t get any worse in the summer and since then they’ve served up Rayner, Mandelson and this China spy case where the government has constantly placed itself in knots. Time and again they show they’re incapable of getting on top of an issue and getting their story straight. Nobody could have done a better job at undermining them than they’ve done themselves.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

That’s a nice little coping mechanism you’ve developed there. Peculiar, but still nice in a very naive, childish kind of way.

Nobody has had to have a go at this government yet, let alone go too early, because they’ve done it all to themselves.

They thought it couldn’t get any worse in the summer and since then they’ve served up Rayner, Mandelson and this China spy case where the government has constantly placed itself in knots. Time and again they show they’re incapable of getting on top of an issue and getting their story straight. Nobody could have done a better job at undermining them than they’ve done themselves.

Mate, me and the vast majority of others tuned out from you a while back.

You lack any form of objectivity and cherry pick “facts”.

My guess is that you tried to get a job at the Spectator, but you were turned down for being too partisan.

 

[hampshireblue]

As I said, you’re simply parroting whatever LBC broadcasts and now you’ve just confirmed it. Thanks.

Also, as useless as Badenoch is, her comments in PMQs yesterday have been proved to be largely correct by the release last night of the witness statements submitted by Collins.

There’s a clear shift in tone between the first statement submitted under the last government and then the two which followed under Labour, with the third statement of course lifting text directly from the Labour Party manifesto.

It really is pretty comical to argue that there’s been no political influence on the evidence submitted by Collins when the bloke has quoted directly from the Labour manifesto.

More lies and bluster from this government. Quelle surprise!

Says the bloke who pretty much quoted his best pal Kimi. "Why he expects anyone to believe a word he says". Only she managed to involve Jeffrey Epstein in the same question.

You may not like LBC, but over the course of the day they are pretty well balanced. But I guess being such a Left Wing hater, balance doesn't really work for you does it? I'm sure GBNews is more up your street.

BKB

 

[hampshireblue]

In fairness the govt could do something about ofwat and water industry in general, they have mentioned trying to halt the continuous increase in household bills. Gas electric and water are a big part of it.

I agree but it takes time to unravel an industry that has been in private hands for so long.

 

[stonerblue]

A hotel worker who was murdered by someone who was being put up in the hotel she worked at after arriving on a small boat.

Ta.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Starmer on horns of dilemma over China’s seven-year mega-embassy saga

Decision time is coming after Labour called in the planning application for a new building in east London

www.theguardian.com

Probably unrelated from the spy case.

The UK’s Keir Starmer won power last year with a to-do list longer than Harry Styles’s One Direction-era hair, but reviving the British economy was right there up the top.

So when he met China’s Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 last year, sure, Starmer raised Hong Kong’s detained pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, but he swiftly also dispatched his own Chancellor of the Exchequer to Beijing with verbiage around his government’s “commitment to explore deeper economic co-operation.”

But then the diplomats got in the way.

Okay record scratch. Not exactly, but embassies are involved.

It all started with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia Beijing’s long-planned “mega embassy” on the site of the old Royal Mint, near the Tower of London. It’s a sprawling complex that’d be 10x China’s current embassy and the biggest embassy anywhere in Europe, hence the apparent requirement for every British headline to add ‘mega’.

But the project has sat in limbo since 2022, when local officials blocked planning permission over security and community concerns. Those concerns you ask?

The building drawings showed several areas “redacted for security reasons”, implying some kind of intelligence asset or activity

The complex itself is located right above sensitive fibre-optic cables near London’s financial district (pssst, espionage)

Neighbours voiced unhappiness about all the inevitable traffic and protests, and

The broader public voiced unease at British heritage being handed over to China.

Side bar, but it’s odd China redacted its building plans. Every country that can spy, does spy. And ordinarily you just make up a cover-story for whichever part of the embassy you plan to jam full of spies and listening gear: oh, that vast, windowless, heavily fortified floor up there? Haha nothing to worry about, just the sauna!

Anyway, the local council then blocked China’s embassy plans again in 2024.

So the decision has now climbed all the way up to the (new) housing secretary, who’s attempting to stick to a 21 October deadline. And he’s in a real bind:

China is peeved given it paid a cool £255m for the property back in 2018, and has been burning more cash every year it’s been stuck in development purgatory. Beijing is now arguing the UK is breaching its obligations under the Vienna Convention (which regulates how countries treat diplomats/embassies).

And the US is losing patience, too: successive White Houses have warned the UK about this embassy, partly on intelligence-sharing concerns: the ‘five eyes’ () arrangement is only as strong as its weakest link, and a vast London compound hoovering up every byte of data might weaken the UK link. But the US also realistically wants allies onboard in countering an increasingly assertive China.

Anyway, take your pick, Keir: keep the US happy, or keep China happy, though your economic recovery realistically involves figuring out how to keep them both happy.

And while he works on that, it’s all metastasizing into a political problem for Starmer on two fronts. First, tabloids report that China has periodically halted the water supply for British diplomats over in Beijing! That, together with China slow-walking its approval for the UK’s own embassy upgrade in Beijing, looks like a classic reciprocal pressure tactic.

But second, UK prosecutors also just abruptly dropped an explosive case against two British men both called Christopher (Christopher²) accused of spying for China, with Starmer facing claims the case collapsed after his government avoided labelling China an “enemy” in testimony.

The two tales combined are feeding into opposition claims that he’s weak on China.

He’s sent his foreign office chief (Olly Robbins) to Beijing in an upcoming visit billed as routine, but the timing could not be worse.

Anyway, that’s how the most boring diplomatic work — embassy construction paperwork — has turned into the latest proxy front for East-West relations.