Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Jacob]

Shouldn't there be seven white stars on that logo somewhere? Or did they go dark

[Sheilbh]

They've got a website with the countdown to 7am on Monday:
https://thegpcfiles.com/

And this graphic so it feels like it is definitely something to do with Government Procurement Cards:

[mongers]

They've got a website with the countdown to 7am on Monday:
https://thegpcfiles.com/

And this graphic so it feels like it is definitely something to do with Government Procurement Cards:

What happendeded in 2021 from Jan 1st to Dec 31st?

Or is it just a reference to the year as a whole?

[Tamas]

I'm spending a lot of time trying to unpack what this could possibly mean:

To grant Ukraine's request carries a huge risk – better to help it gain battlefield advantage as a basis for peace talks

It's easy to unpack whose side he is on from this bit:

At some stage in any war, interests will diverge. Russia wishes to see western support for Ukraine as a Nato aggression, a view partly validated by the west's global economic sanctions and fierce ostracism of all things Russian. It sometimes seems as if London and Washington were eager to support Vladimir Putin's paranoia.

[Tamas]

London fire brigade is reviewing its relationship with the Freemasons after concerns were raised by the Fire Brigades Union, the Guardian has learned.

The concerns were raised at a recent London assembly meeting to discuss a damning independent review that found LFB to be institutionally racist and misogynist.

At the meeting, Gareth Beeton, the FBU's London region chair, highlighted the brigade's acceptance of a £2.5m donation from the Freemasons of London for specialist equipment, which became operational in November 2021. Masonic insignia appears on the sides of two fire engines that carry aerial ladders funded by the Freemasons' donation.

 

[The Brain]

I know very little about modern Stonecutters. Are they racist and misogynist?

[Sheilbh]

During the pandemic when the British people enthusiastically embraced lockdown and curtain twitching, I thought you should probably never bet against the authoritarianism of the British public (I still think a loot about the 30% of people who wanted nightclubs to remain shut forever). More evidence of that here


No wonder Sunak not wearing a seatbelt was a mini-scandal given that, apparently, 15% of the population thinks that should result in jail time

More generally I find it kind of interesting that people seem to care a lot less about property crimes - the throw away the crowd brigade are smaller for mugging and burglary than I would've expected.

Slightly alarmed at the not insignificant number of people who seem to think 5+ years in prison should be the default punishment for literally any crime

[Valmy]

Saying mean things to people should result in 15+ years in prison according to 2% - 9% of the British Population 

[Sheilbh]

I wouldn't pick on that necessarily - basically everything should result in 15+ years in prison according to 2-9% of the British public

[Barrister]

I wouldn't pick on that necessarily - basically everything should result in 15+ years in prison according to 2-9% of the British public

[Sheilbh]

Neo-Nazi group (Patriotic Alternative) at a hotel that houses asylum seekers in Knowsley. They've clashed with the polce and local anti-fascist activists. It's very grim.

Seeing lots now about the organising that they've been doing as this is too big for Liverpool or, I suspect, North-West neo-Nazi groups - I could be wrong but I think this is one where they've got the whole national network to converge. Also really striking that a lot of Irish writers are drawing direct parallels with similar spate of recent incidents in Dublin - it seems like it's more or less exactly the same playbook. But also how it seems to have been organised - anti-fascist groups weren't aware this was coming so weren't organised before hand which is the norm.

In particular both seem to have started with rumours of sexual violence and (possibly fabricated videos) alleging to show an asylum seeker hitting on a fifteen year old girl. But very similar messages - a lot of the organising seems to have been on WhatsApp groups and closed Facebook groups.

Edit: Also looks like paper leaflets in the local community that was positioning this as just a protest and not identifying who was behind it.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I wouldn't pick on that necessarily - basically everything should result in 15+ years in prison according to 2-9% of the British public

and that's how the Brits populated Australia

[Darth Wagtaros]

I know very little about modern Stonecutters. Are they racist and misogynist?

Not that I've experienced.

[Zanza]

How is "Possession of a Knife" defined?

[The Larch]

How is "Possession of a Knife" defined?

That one puzzled me as well.