I noted that Parler, the hard right social media platform, so favoured by Trump and his supporters, shut down recently because none of the app providers wanted their companies to be associated with it, had among its contributors, the ever lovely Tories James Cleverly, Nadine Dories and the Brexit Burger, Michael (Sniffy) Gove. Steve Baker and Ben Bradley also joined up along with other less known names from the Cons.
I’ve often wondered why the broadcasters here pronounce the name similarly to “parlour”, when the obvious way to me, would be “parlay”…as it presumably means “to speak”. Anyone?
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The SNP has been accused of being out of touch because they have launched an independence task force at a time when well over 50% of the population wants independence. Meanwhile the Noble and Aristocratic Lord McConnell says from his vantage point on a comfortable red bench, that the bulk of us don’t want a referendum at the moment. He probably thinks we should wait till 2055, like his friend, De Pfeffel Johnson. It’s the rarefied air that the upper classes breathe that does it, methinks.
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Has anyone worked out how the Home Office, under Ms Patel, managed to lose so many important criminal records? I thought they did daily backups of information of such import.
I saw this tweet which might be the answer…
I work in the scientific research & everything is backed up, you can only ever lose a days data at the most. Considering how important info on criminals is, you’d imagine the Home Office would at least do the same or has it been outsourced & that’s the real problem?
Whatever… it does seem really inefficient even for for global Little Britain and its notoriously chaotic Home Office!
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I also don’t understand how data can be lost. It is actually beyond belief because configuring backups is such a fundamental feature of databases. You should never, ever lose more than a day. In fact, the test of any system is that you can reset it to any point in time. Going further back in time might involve decompressing archived backups so it might take longer but nothing should ever be irretrievably lost. Genuinely puzzled by this one. Can they really be that incompetent? Never seen anything remotely close to that level of stupid.
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The Home Office under even relatively competent Home Secretaries, has always been a massively inefficient thing.
Under the last few they seem to have made incompetence into an art form.
I think, though, that monumentally incompetent, as I am sure Patel is, even she couldn’t have lost all the crime records. This is an excuse. There were clearly some that NEEDED to be lost.
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Ohh I posted this on the last thread but here is a fresh new one. New indy poll – 19 in a row for Yes. Low though 51% after removing d/k. It’s the Scot Goes Pop one but he used a different firm.
https://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2021/01/exclusive-scot-goes-pop-survation-poll.html
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You did, PP.
Worth reading James’s comments.
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I am very encouraged to know that His Magnificence Lord McConnell’s seat in the House of Lords only cost him ยฃ1.5bn in revenues returned to London because his government couldn’t think of anything better to spend it on.
I am just letting you know that I have opened an account at the TSB to finance my attempts to buy a knighthood. I think I’ll call myself Baron Spiv of Mediocrity.
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There are already rather a lot of them…
How much have you put in your TSB account. I think the rates for Lordhoods are quite high, unless you are a suitably endowed woman, or happen to be the brother of the prime minister, which, I take it, you are not?
I was hoping to be a Marquis myself… whatcha think?
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You have better work to do where you are. On the other hand, I am a layabout who enjoys a heavy lunch then a snooze in the afternoon. Forgive my lack of modesty, but I feel I am better qualified than most for a seat in the House if Lords. On reflection, I think I’d the to be a Viscount because I enjoyed those biscuits when I was younger. If I can get the TSB to give me a loan on tick in view of my future earnings (ยฃ305 a day + travel, food and booze) I think I’m in pole position to be a neighbour on the next bench to McConnell, Foulkes, Darling, Smith, Robertson, Reid, Moan and Lidl. Peers of the People.
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Can you get elevated to the House of Lords for being a well-known queen?
Asking for a friend.
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But, Mr Gove, surely you are in an ever more lucrative post where you are.
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Ah well, if you are accustomed to a heavy lunch and a snooze, I cannot deny you have me beat on qualifications.
Sigh…
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These criminal records which have gone walkabout are presumably of those people pardoned by Trump.
Loved the video “To a Tory”.
The politicians of mouse stature who dominate the political right at the moment are truly little creatures completely lacking in anything inspirational or aspirational beyond the promotion of self.
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We should be grateful to them. They make our job a lot easier. They are simply so inadequate to the tasks.
Douglas Ross is one of the least competent opposition leaders I’ve ever come across. What on earth does he think he’s doing.
He may be pleasing his core support with his anti-SNP, anti-Scotland sniping 24/7, but that’s no enough for him to get anywhere near government. To do that he would hae to persuade people that he could do the job better than Nicola.
LOL.
Muppet.
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The problem is though Tris that he doesn’t need to be elected to governance in Scotland.
English voters will do that for him.
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OT. Hearing on the Keatings ยง30 case starts on Thursday at 10:00, and is being streamed on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/117663600216678.
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Thanks, Ed.
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First random thought: Parler is pronounced parlor (British parlour) here in the States too. Wiki just says: “The company’s name was taken from the French word “parler”, meaning “to speak”.The name was originally intended to be pronounced as in French (/pษหrleษช/ PAR-lay), but is now pronounced as the English word “parlor” (/pษหrlษr/ PAR-ler).”
Not a lot of far right American white supremacists, neo-nazis, and insurrectionists know how to speak French I guess.
Trumpy has been effectively silenced since he was banned from Twitter and Facebook. It had been assumed that he would go to Parler or other such far right social media sites, but then Parler was removed from the Amazon servers and the Apple and Google app stores. At the same time big corporations started suspending contributions to the GOP. Trump may hate the traditional Wall Street big money Republicans, but money is one thing that Republicans still understand. So Trump was apparently persuaded that there were no acceptable alternatives and has stayed silent.
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Ah ha… I suspected it was something like that.
I can hear a redneck making an arguments for “parlor” as opposed “parlay”.
Ha ha… nothing like hitting the right wing in their pockets.
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My understanding is that amongst certain xenophobic groups, it’s regarded as weak to pronounce foreign words in the correct way, and therefore they ‘anglicise’ it. Either that, or they literally don’t know the difference which I suppose is partially forgivable (as much as ignorance can be forgiven).
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Yes, I can imagine some people absolutely refusing to pronounce anything in a foreign way on the basis that bloody foreigners should pronounce stuff like proper people…
I neve cease to be amazed at those who criticise the French for not pronouncing the final letter of the majority of their words… ridiculous idea, they say… with not a THOUGHT or as presumably they would have it “thou gi hit” to the wide number of letters that aren’t pronounced in English words.
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Yes, SoP, I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why the AngloBritish privileged elites may learn French, and even Ancient Greek, at Eton and even Oxbridge, but persist in speaking them as if French people (and Ancient Greeks) were all posh Englishpersons who make noises like fnaugh fnaugh roobahb roobahb fnaugh when they talk. Like the Queen talks French, if you’ve ever heard that – makes proper linguists and normal people want to pull their teeth out one by one.
I mean, what’s the point of being a proper posh Englishperson if you go around pronouncing inferior languages the way the plebs and oiks who speak them do? Those johnny foreigners really need to buck up and learn how to speak them properly!
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I remember hearing Liz speaking French with that Quรฉbรฉcois dj who managed to get through to the palace pretending to be the Canadian PM and talked her into committing against the province.
It took me a while to realise that she was actually speaking French.
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PS: Last Trump report! About 36 hours left in his presidency.
Trump is not attending Biden’s inauguration, but is planning a big military sendoff to Florida, with red carpet, color guard, and a 21 gun salute. Maybe an Air Force flyover.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/15/trump-hold-departure-ceremony-morning-biden-inauguration/4178260001/
There’ll be no big inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House this year, and no Inaugural Balls. We’ll have a virtual parade and a virtual ball. Pretending that a TV show is better than the real thing was very big in Democratic circles, even before the Covid pandemic. Better for the environment and the greater public good you know. ๐
https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2021/01/18/957802213/bidens-inauguration-is-going-to-look-very-different-heres-what-to-know
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I’m sure Trump is considering just how many outrageous acts he can cram in before his pardon-signing sharpie is snatched from his tiny hands.
With any luck, he’ll have an extradition order to New York served on him the moment Biden swears the oath of office.
A 21-gun salute from America’s worst president ever … yeah, par for the course, really.
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Ed……Trump’s big show at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland (the air force base where they keep the two Air Force Ones) should be complete and the plane in the air by Noon, at which time Biden will have become Commander in Chief of the armed forces and could cancel the 21 gun salute that Trump has ordered.
The modern tradition has been that the departing president boards the Marine One helicopter at the Capitol, AFTER the inaugural ceremony is complete. Then he flies to Andrews when he is no longer president. By not attending the inauguration and traveling to Andrews before Noon, Trump can order up his own departure ceremony.
No one knows how many pardons Trump will grant to wealthy friends and GOP donors before Noon Wednesday. Rumors are that a thousand or more are under consideration.
I share your hope for Trump’s extradition back to New York.
The old president’s last Air Force One flight back home on inauguration day was a nice tradition. Just one more thing that Trump screwed up.
The last scene from “The West Wing” TV series. President Josiah Bartlet flies home to New Hampshire:
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When Richard Nixon resigned after Watergate and went home to California, he boarded Marine One on the White House South Lawn for the flight to Andrews. Nixon was in Air Force One over Kansas when Gerald Ford took the Oath of Office as the 38th President of the United States in the East Room of the White House.
Marine One flies directly over the White House Ellipse, a park where Donald Trump would incite a mob to insurrection 47 years later.
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I don’t know whether this is correct or not Danny, but there are reports that the Pentagon have refused Trump’s request for a military send-off.
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They wanted to turn the 21 guns on Trump instead of saluting him.
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Marcia……Works for me!
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Thanks Alex. Sounds like the Pentagon brass behaving sensibly. I’ll check that out. I’ve been suffering from news media overload lately, and have been staying away from much of the Trump news and inauguration news. Probably missed it! ๐
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…you mean like a “rendition flight” from Florida to New York?
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LOL, Jake, that’s it.
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LOL… So, rather typically of Trump, despite being in disgrace, banned from FB and Twitter and the laughing stock of the world, he intends to go out all with a big noise…
Like he was a king.
What a waste of money, but just further confirmation of his vanity.
He’ll be crowing about the fact that he got a bigger parade and a bigger inauguration crowd than Biden.
I suspect we’ll be laughing about him in years to come.
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Danny:
Melania asks him what he’s thinking about …
Nah, I’m only joking.
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Tris……That line just wouldn’t work with Trump, would it?….LOL.
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Probably not, Danny.
If he could answer, his thoughts would undoubtedly be inordinately vulgar.
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According to MSNBC, about 3/4 of Republican voters still think that Biden stole the election. That is going to be a problem for years and years to come. With his lies, Trump may just have rendered America ungovernable.
I’d ask Cassandra, except she’s wearing her COVID mask over her eyes and lying down in a darkened room.
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Yes Ed……that’ll be a real problem in years to come!
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Yes, he’s left a right mess behind him.
If they believe the election was rigged, they must also have no faith in their state officials AG and governors, including many Republican governors, who certified the results; no faith in their coutrts who threw out his cases and no faith in the Supreme Court of the USA…
Come to that they must have no faith in Mitch McConnell and a shed load of Republican senators and congresspeople.
That does make the country ungovernable.
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Trying to counter these false belief systems is tremendously difficult, because confronting affected people with facts doesn’t work. Still, it serves as a sharp and spine-chilling reminder of how Hitlers happen. Maybe that will help over the longer term, once the scales have lifted from people’s eyes.
Just trying to find a half inch of silver lining to tack onto the nearest funnel cloud.
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Yes Tris……Ironically, events conspired to finally hand Trump a larger inaugural crowd than someone else. For his inauguration, old Joe is going to face a national mall that is closed to the public, with an audience of maybe a thousand or so socially distanced invited guests. Trump will only be able to brag about it in Florida while playing a round of golf. ๐
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I’m sure, Danny, he will believe that no one bothered to turn up for Sleepy Joe because they all know that he stole the election.
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