Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tamas]

Your Peak British News of the day:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/22/paranormal-society-nights-watch-crooked-house-pub-site

As large building machinery started arriving on the site of the Crooked House pub on Monday night, fears for the remains of the much-loved building grew – with locals wondering what might happen to it under the cover of darkness.

But one group of people used to staying up all night – the Black Country Paranormal Society – stepped in to guard the site perimeter and make sure all remaining bricks made it to the morning.

"You can't blame people for being suspicious after what has happened," said Dan Pearkes, 37, a local paranormal investigator who was still going strong at the site at 11am on Tuesday, 13 hours after he arrived.

The wonky pub was historically rumoured to be haunted, including by a pub barmaid named Polly, prompting the interest of the paranormal society, who spent the night monitoring spiritual activity as well as warding off any further physical damage.

"We did some paranormal investigating, and we did capture some stuff. But my main purpose here right now is to make sure there is no further destruction because if we're trying to get this rebuilt, we don't want these bricks here being turned to dust," said Pearkes.

"The wanton destruction we've seen has angered me so much, and the people around here are very robust, very honest, we don't take any nonsense."

[Gups]

Sounds like lawyer speak for I think she's guilty too but can't say it.

Guilt is already settled by the time you are pleading mitigation. Presumably the barrister that there is no reasonable argument for mitigating the sentence or had no instructions to argue mitigation

[Sheilbh]

Your Peak British News of the day:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/22/paranormal-society-nights-watch-crooked-house-pub-site

Love the correction:

This article was amended on 23 August 2023 to clarify that Dan Parkes is not part of Black Country Paranormal.

You just know that due to the nerdiest and most intense rows between two rival groups of paranormal investigators in the West Midlands, someone complained to make this clear

[Sheilbh]

Separately party funding stats out for 2022, which I found slightly interesting.

Labour has overtaken the Tories (especially if you include the Co-operative Party - which you should as they're not really that distinct). Their membership numbers and income is down, as is their funding from the unions - but they've seen a big increase in donations which is normally a sign of which way the political wind is blowing. Also I was really interested to see the Greens so high - I imagine some of that must be because they're starting to win quite a lot of council seats so will be increasing the public funding available.

Also that Sinn Fein figure v the rest of the Northern Irish parties is striking - presumably because Sinn Fein is a party across Ireland so as its increased its success in the South there can be a bit of cross-border subsidies?



Didn't realise the Women's Equuality Party is still a going concern - hadn't heard about them in ages.

[Valmy]

That's it? Huh. Each individual Senate race is better funded than UK parties. A lot of your political parties aren't even well funded enough to buy an apartment in London. Surely those are in thousands of pounds?

Not sure whether to be very jealous or pity you.

It kind of reminds me of Canadian level scandals where the nation is outraged because it was discovered Liberal politicians were taking secret donations of...ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

[Jacob]

In Denmark there a significant scandals over inappropriate actions involving a few hundred or a few thousand Euros.

[Sheilbh]

This year's silly season story continues to deliver (also, unlike Geronimo, it doesn't send me into a rage):

Crooked House: Arson arrests in pub fire probe
    2 minutes ago


The pub, known for its sloping walls and floor, was demolished less than two days after the fire
By Oprah Flash
BBC News, West Midlands

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of arson over a fire that tore through the Crooked House pub.

Once known as "Britain's wonkiest" inn, it was set alight on 5 August, leaving it gutted.

Despite being derelict, it was a popular landmark in the Dudley area and its swift demolition prompted criticism from the local community.

A 66-year-old man from Dudley and a 33-year-old man from Milton Keynes are being questioned over the blaze.

The suspects were arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and remain in custody, Staffordshire Police said.

The force is continuing to appeal for any information that may help the ongoing investigation.

A group of more than 21,000 people has formed on Facebook, with campaigners rallying to preserve the site and calling for the Crooked House to be rebuilt.

Protesters angry at the demolition were also involved in a stand-off with contractors on Wednesday, frustrated at what they described as a lack of communication over work at the site.

The much-loved 18th Century building, known for its sloping walls and floor due to mining subsidence in the area, was sold by Marston's to ATE Farms Limited in July.

South Staffordshire Council has said the foundations and bricks from the historic pub will stay on site as work to remove hazardous waste is carried out.

The local authority is conducting its own investigation into the demolition.

Apparently there are people - presumably beyond the Black Country's paranormal investigation community - camping at the site to monitor what the contractors are up to

[Valmy]

I am starting to get the feeling these people really like their pub.

[HVC]

Wonder how many actually patronized the pub before it resembled a used matchstick.

[Sheilbh]

It was derelict and, when open, apparently a not very good pub. You'd basically go once for the novelty.

[HVC]

So they wanted to save a derelict shell of a building indefinitely? I feel for tamas

[Zanza]

On the party finance story above:

Just checked and the German parties had an income of 520 million and spent 440 million in 2020 (last year I found figures for). So much less than America, but much more than the UK.

About 37% of the income is from taxes as parties are a crucial part of a democracy and are thus funded by the state. Rest is mainly membership fees (if you want to be a voting party member here, you have to join the club and pay your dues) or donations (in good part from the politicians of said parties).

I guess a very different setup than in the US or UK.

[Grey Fox]

So they wanted to save a derelict shell of a building indefinitely? I feel for tamas

They are fighting the good fights against the worse kind of human beings found in the West. Real Estate Developers.

[Josquius]

As I said before this story being such big news is a good thing.
Not because this pub was particularly special, but because this kind of thing happens all the time and nothing ever happens. Developers get away with not quite literal murder all the time.
This particular case has seen the reaction finally boil over. Which is a very good thing. Hopefully other developers will think twice before doing this and punishments will be harder.

[Sheilbh]

About 37% of the income is from taxes as parties are a crucial part of a democracy and are thus funded by the state. Rest is mainly membership fees (if you want to be a voting party member here, you have to join the club and pay your dues) or donations (in good part from the politicians of said parties).

I guess a very different setup than in the US or UK.

There's a lot of variance in the UK - by party.

There's public money for opposition parties that is broadly tied to how they performed in the last election - but that's basically for the term and, from my understanding, isn't allowed to be used for electoral campaigning expenses. It's meant to be for running costs. At the parlimentary level there's a formula where it's based on seats and votes won, so the Greens get a lot of money for one MP but many votes. It's also why winning lots of council seats is a big deal for Green party finances. The theory is basically the government has the machinery of the state, it costs money to be in opposition to that so they need state funding. There's been many proposals for public funding for election campaigns/political parties in general - but the public hate it so it doesn't happen

Of the other parties - a big chunk of funding comes from large donations (over £7,500). For the SNP, Lib Dems and Tories that is broadly from individuals, for Labour it is largely from affiliated trade unions. When you join one of those unions you can opt out of the "political fund" which is basically what each affiliated union uses to fund the Labour Party. I suspect the union affiliation/funding is possibly the most distinctive feature of UK party funding.

Membership fees are also part of it - but party membership has collapsed since 1990. A few decades ago it was standard for both parties to have millions of members. The Tories are on around 170,000 and Labour about 400,000 (after a recent peak at 500,000+ under Corbyn) - I think all the others are under 100,000. As in Germany that's broadly required to have a vote in party matters. But party membership used to be relatively normal and it's now unusual. Membership in political parties has really collapsed since the end of the cold war/early 90s (I think this trend is observed across Europe):


But broadly I'd say party membership money matters more to the SNP and Lib Dems than it does Tories or Labour who have large individual or institutional donors.

The most surprising party on that list is probably the Socialist Party which is one of the remnants of Militant who win basically no votes. But they're Trotskyists so my understanding is that you are required to pay quite a lot to study (and need to sit a paid test) before you're allowed to join and, if they're still operating anything like they did when they were Militant, there is an expectation that supporters give quite significant chunks of their income. Back when they were just entryists in Labour rather than an independent party they had more full time staff than the Liberals and about half as many as the actual Labour Party - but often they were unpaid full time workers so were expected to go on the dole or live off the money of their partner (who was normally also a member of the tendency). If you weren't a full timer you were expected to pay a lot of your income and you will find them selling their paper at more or less any left wing demonstration.