badgerx16

As the song goes "The Christmas you get you deserve". There were 11 candidates, and more people voted for Gorgeous George Galloway the Gorbals Gobshite than any of the others. If they didn't know his past, ignored it, or went for the candidate with the best hat, it doesn't matter - they executed their democratic mandate and he came out on top. They could all have voted for the Independant local candidate who came second, but enough of them preferred the rabble rousing self publicist with no ties to the town, and proibably no intention of even opening an effective constituency office. No point crying foul after the event. He won't be their MP after the next GE.

Fester

Historically, those in Northern Ireland ? ( On either side ).

They didn't have to vote for him. It is their choice.

What makes you think the alternatives will be any better ?

Trucks full of food, massive crowd of desperately hungry people, nervous Israeli troops with loaded weapons. What could possibly go wrong ?

Eyewitnesses report many of the victims were run over by the trucks.

Of course he was, the Roswell alien confessed.

Apollo 11 suffered computer problems during it's descent to the lunar surface, used up more fuel than it was supposed to, came in too quickly on approach, and missed it's planned landing zone.

Enough fuckwits willing to donate to his appeals on Truth Social.

That nobody watches.

Don't forget the Japanese lander that also toppled over.

Perhaps an increase in Government income might help - maybe try raising taxes.

...if Mara and Sulemana had a brain cell between them.

This is a far higher level than Birmingham.

You could program a keyboard shortcut for that comment.

eBay auction ?

Is Fraser actually there ?

Manning doesn't look comfortable on a football pitch.

Generally what is happening is that Councils are shredding every non-statutory Department. That might be Libraries and other cultural services such as Art Galleries or support for theatres - Birmingham is closing down ALL cultural services. Some Councils have shut down CCTV monitoring in city centres, others reduce the number of staff working in services such as Planning to the minimum required to process applications to the absolute Legal minimum service level. Ancilliary support services for schools, such as peripatetic music teachers might be paid off, highways maintenance is pared to the minimum possible, ( pothole repairs etc ), and basically anything that is not specifically tied down by Statute is in the line of fire. Basically this boils down, for Unitary Councils like Somerset, to Education and Social Services getting ring fenced, everything else can go. In my particular case, a section of 45 staff was cut down to less than 30, with most of my work actually ending up being added to an existing outsourcing IT contract - without saving anything as the outsourcing costs increased.

Have a look and find out how many the 4 districts that combined to form the Council had previously cut in the last 10 years. Before it was abolished to form the Unitaries, Somerset CC had already cut £130M in the previous 8 years.

Quills

Local Government financing is a joke, as the Government will always spin the line that 'efficiency' will drive service improvement whilst funding is slashed. As part of the 'efficiency savings' that saw one local authority's funding cut by 45% over this period, I can honestly say that such as assertion is bullshit. You cannot take away with one hand and at the same time expect more and more services to come under LA control. Part of the problem historically has been Business Rates, where the locally collected monies are pooled by Westminster then apportioned back out by way of a formula that does not recognise local social issues. As an example, Blackpool was a 'net contributor' to the national BR pool, meaning it got back less than it collected, yet Croyden was a 'net beneficiary', getting apportioned more than it collected. There are also many other smaller issues that impact LA finances; Coucils pay out Housing Benefits on behalf of the DSS, but do not get recompensed for the full amount they pay out, a percentage is retained by the DSS that is supposed to account for fraud, and the LA is meant to recover these monies through pursuing fraudulent claims. Generally, the amount the central Department retains is more than the amount of fraud committed. However, overall it is simply that central Government, especially the Tories since Osborne was Chancellor, see Local Government as the main focus for austerity, as it is a far less emotive issue than trying to restrict NHS funding. They cut the central funding and tell the Councils they can raise Council Tax to compensate, then restrict the percentage by which C-Tax can be raised such that there is a shortfall in the Councils' funding.

In amongst the WW2 whataboutery, what is the view on whether the reponse to Oct 7th would have been different with a less Nationalist Israeli Government ?

The American justification was to stop the war without the need for a full scale invasion of Japan, the casualties from which would have been horrendous on both sides. The bombing of Hiroshima was intended to be the leverage for this, but after the bombing there was a significant risk of a military coup in Japan, as a result of which fanatical elements of the army, who formed the Governmenrt, would have driven the nation to utter destruction rather than suffer the ignomy of surrender, so the second bomb was dropped - Nagasaki was the 'alternative' target, the orginal was masked by cloud. After the second bomb was dropped, factions close to the Emperor managed to regain control and the Emperor, who up to that point was rarely seen and never spoke publicly, made a national broadcast announcing that Japan would surrender. ( One side conspiracy theory has it that the bombs had to be dropped to frighten Stalin with this new wonder weapon, but tthe Russians already knew about them ).