Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Duque de Bragança]

I wonder if there is any nostalgy in Calais for Brits rushing in to get cheap booze. 

This time they might be positively compared to the ... other guests ... of the area

Damning with faint praise.

These "guests" come due to the Brits though.

OTOH, the Sangatte and Le Touquet agreement signed to keep the UK in the EU are now outdated...

[Gups]

But yes. Also very bizzare to see how low down the snp scandal reporting is. I would hope in Scotland it's rather different.

Very much. Frontpage story in every paper.

We should have been going the other way and slackening borders with Europe. But racist 65 year old cunts know best.

Although we have gone the other way. Coming into the UK electronic gates can be used by any EEA passport - as well as for passports from Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and the US (off the top of my head). So more than doubled the number of people who can use them, which I think is probably good.

Not massively keen on ESTA or the rest of the world copying it - I mean every country you travel to collecting information on your employer, or who your "point of contact" is in that country etc seems not great. I don't know - I remember when the amount of information you had to share for API was controversial (especially from Europe at the US), but we're rolling down that road anyway. Not really sure it adds much in terms of safety either.

Sad backwards step on the orient express.

I went through schlipol last week and noticed they've a speific giant  NO ENTRY and a little lonely UK flag next to the automatic aisles.

We should have been going the other way and slackening borders with Europe. But racist 65 year old cunts know best.

But yes. Also very bizzare to see how low down the snp scandal reporting is. I would hope in Scotland it's rather different.

There's literally no report in the Guardian at all. Last mention of the scandal was 12 April. Must surely be an editorial decision but I wonder why?

Fairly high up on the Times though

[Tamas]

My tinfoil hat theory would be that in my experience any corruption/embezzlement cases are quick to sink in the news, Scotland or not.

Maybe I am not looking hard enough but in the Hungarian free press (of what remains of it) I have seen over the years far more detailed and dogged go-afters of obvious cases like the various PPE scandals. They were of course of no legal consequence because the Chief Prosecutor is one of the most loyal Orban vassals, but still. The British press, the big ones at least, seem far more keen to attribute obvious embezzlement and corruption to incompetence. Which I have always found very naive (to avoid more sinister interpretations), but I know others here don't share that view.

[mongers]

My tinfoil hat theory would be that in my experience any corruption/embezzlement cases are quick to sink in the news, Scotland or not.

Maybe I am not looking hard enough but in the Hungarian free press (of what remains of it) I have seen over the years far more detailed and dogged go-afters of obvious cases like the various PPE scandals. They were of course of no legal consequence because the Chief Prosecutor is one of the most loyal Orban vassals, but still. The British press, the big ones at least, seem far more keen to attribute obvious embezzlement and corruption to incompetence. Which I have always found very naive (to avoid more sinister interpretations), but I know others here don't share that view.

I don't think that's especially tin-hat like on your part, as you say I also think there's significanlty more corruption inthe UK than the headlines suggest; sadly I think Brits are much better at covering their tracks, much done on the nod and wink of 'old boy's' networks and the like.  un-

[Richard Hakluyt]

Why go after corrupt politicians and millionaires when an unemployed single-mother-of-three may have been overpaid £20 in benefits?

[Gups]

My tinfoil hat theory would be that in my experience any corruption/embezzlement cases are quick to sink in the news, Scotland or not.

Maybe I am not looking hard enough but in the Hungarian free press (of what remains of it) I have seen over the years far more detailed and dogged go-afters of obvious cases like the various PPE scandals. They were of course of no legal consequence because the Chief Prosecutor is one of the most loyal Orban vassals, but still. The British press, the big ones at least, seem far more keen to attribute obvious embezzlement and corruption to incompetence. Which I have always found very naive (to avoid more sinister interpretations), but I know others here don't share that view.

But this is very specific. It's the lead in the Telegraph, 4th in the Times but nowhere to be seen in the Guardian.

Money scandals do get a reasonable amount of press here. The Parliamentary expenses scandal was the biggest story for months. The Cash for Questions case got loads of coverage ditto David Laws, Owen Paterson and others.

[garbon]

My tinfoil hat theory would be that in my experience any corruption/embezzlement cases are quick to sink in the news, Scotland or not.

Maybe I am not looking hard enough but in the Hungarian free press (of what remains of it) I have seen over the years far more detailed and dogged go-afters of obvious cases like the various PPE scandals. They were of course of no legal consequence because the Chief Prosecutor is one of the most loyal Orban vassals, but still. The British press, the big ones at least, seem far more keen to attribute obvious embezzlement and corruption to incompetence. Which I have always found very naive (to avoid more sinister interpretations), but I know others here don't share that view.

But this is very specific. It's the lead in the Telegraph, 4th in the Times but nowhere to be seen in the Guardian.

Money scandals do get a reasonable amount of press here. The Parliamentary expenses scandal was the biggest story for months. The Cash for Questions case got loads of coverage ditto David Laws, Owen Paterson and others.

There is an article now a few articles down about someone criticising the SNP as deluded about the scandal.

Now #2 article if you click on UK tab. But yeah not great look that it took so long.

[Jacob]

... but I know others here don't share that view.

Maybe I was wrong on this

[Sheilbh]

But this is very specific. It's the lead in the Telegraph, 4th in the Times but nowhere to be seen in the Guardian.

As mad as it is I think it might genuinely be a resource issue. News UK for example has an office in Glasgow and separate Scottish papers (though some desks are shared). From what I can see the Guardian only has two Scottish reporters and they've not been doing many stories in the last week (also the Easter holidays? ).

Money scandals do get a reasonable amount of press here. The Parliamentary expenses scandal was the biggest story for months. The Cash for Questions case got loads of coverage ditto David Laws, Owen Paterson and others.

Agree and I think ultimately Transparency International flags issues in the UK but it is a comparatively not very corrupt country (joint 17) on their collation of 13 different international surveys and studies into corruption. I don't think they're all wrong.

Generally in my view it is more likely to be incompetence than corruption - and where I think there is corruption is the standard stuff (for politicians and civil servants) of a revolving door with consultancies and big government contractors. I suspect there will be prosecutions on PPE I think there are some very dodgy stories around Hancock especially - Margaret Mone was raided by the police and I wouldn't be surprised to see more on that. And fraud, financial crime, white collar crime investigations are slow. The SNP are collapsing now but this investigation started two years ago - it's going through accounts and millions of emails etc (covid parties are easier to evidence ).

Although again I'd flag that following recent court decisions newspapers cannot even reveal that someone is being investigated by the police. Ironically politicians are about the only people you can still report that about because they tend not to sue for libel/it's bad politically.

I think when there's a story things tend to get a lot of coverage in all the papers - see the covid parties, which was a Mirror scoop that hurt a Tory PM but that all the papers got in on it. There have been a lot of stories hinting at things in the Guardian but that even the Guardian hasn't followed up on - and I love the Guardian but it is, proudly, a paper with a side.

I'd add I used to work on public procurement projects for a while (including the "lean procurement" process) - and given the amount of process, box-ticking, formal assessments, stakeholder reviews and general bureaucracy I find it really difficult to believe there was much if any space for corruption or indeed any real discretion (plus fear of judicial review by losing bids) But I saw occasional cock-ups

[Josquius]

Interesting topic for Panorama yesterday. Covering low traffic neighbourhoods and the 15 min city hysteria.
In typical bbc fashion they gave way too much credit to the opponents.
In one particularly dumb bit they showed how a trip between east and west central Oxford would now take 30 minutes driving around the ring road... Missing the entire point of controls in the centre of encouraging other modes of transport.

Still. This stuff is finally breaking through to mainstream media. The guardian in recent days has had 2 articles on how car dominated streets are to blame for why kids don't play outside anymore. Which is pleasing to see recognised.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Latest arrest in the SNP finance debacle :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65309791

[Sheilbh]

Three hours before Yousaf is giving a speech setting out his agenda - today was supposed to be "reset day" for him Poor sod.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The sums of money are so piffling too, the sort of money that an American politician could lose down the back of the sofa and not notice 

Though in general I do think that is a good thing.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, even if there hadn't been alleged fraud, I feel like 600k is probably less than a competitive House candidate in the US would expect to raise, far less a national party of government.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yousaf will be wanting to lose the label "continuity candidate" asap