Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Richard Hakluyt]

This may come as a bit of a surprise to Truss, but kicking shit out of coppers and attempting to set fire to hotels and mosques is somewhat more heinous than unfurling a humorous banner 

[Jacob]

What do you mean! One of them targets Truss and is thus (obviously) significantly more heinous that anything that could happen to other people.

Someone clever once said something like "when I stub my toe it's a tragedy, when you trip and are crippled for life it's comedy."

[Josquius]

Event had to be stopped for security reasons... Hmm.... I hope someone does a check on that one. Looked more like a flounce to me.

[Sheilbh]

Well yeah nobody over here has heard of her.

Yes. I think the turnout at her event at CPAC was underwhelming - and no doubt why the Beccles community theatre appealed so strongly:

Someone clever once said something like "when I stub my toe it's a tragedy, when you trip and are crippled for life it's comedy."

90% sure that's Mel Brooks.

[Richard Hakluyt]

She is essentially an inadvertent comedy act these days, always was I suppose...which makes one wonder about the mental state of Tory party members 

[Sheilbh]

She is essentially an inadvertant comedy act these days, always was I suppose...which makes one wonder about the mental state of Tory party members 

I am always struck at her lack of self-awareness which is just at an astonishing level - like I don't really understand how she functions in society.

Every time I see her I always end up thinking of this:

[Tamas]

I have never seen another far-righter call their side the far-right. Makes me think her heart isn't into it. 

[Josquius]

In shit civil service salaries...

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImcGFnZWFjdGlvbj12aWV3dmFjYnlqb2JsaXN0JnNlYXJjaHNvcnQ9Y2xvc2luZyZwYWdlY2xhc3M9Sm9icyZvd25lcj01MDcwMDAwJnNlYXJjaHBhZ2U9MSZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD05MTMwMTg3MiZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE5MTgwMjQ=

Poland Country Lead, Department for Business and Trade.
Key responsibilities include Developing the UK's approach to trade with Poland.
Salary...
£32,858 - £38,272

[Sheilbh]

From the police inspectorate:

Manchester United
@ManUtd
David Moyes says #mufc must improve in a number of areas, including passing, creating chances and defending.

Obviously the Met is already in special measures but the report sounds pretty damning.

On the "managing offenders" piece - apparently the Met conduct their spot check visits of sex offenders by appointment, which seems to defeat the point of a spot check. In one case a high-risk registered sex offender was not visited for six years despite eight attempts, "there had been no proactive consideration of arresting the individual or issuing a warrant".

Crimes "such as 'indecent images of children, extra-familial child abuse and sexual offences were being investigated by new recruits'." The Met were considerably less likely to catch criminals for "regular crimes" such as theft, assaults and vehicle crime than other forces in England and Wales (less than half as likely).

This is part of the inspection by the police regulator every two years n they're in special measures. But they are also part of two other special inspections - one for failures of child protection and the other following the Casey Report which found it was institutionally biased against women and ethnic minorities (and other minorities).

Reminds me of when you often see people online saying the NHS was rated the best health service in the word by an international health think tank comparing health systems (I think of G7 countries). Which is true - it came top overall. But you look at all of the categories and basically the things it came number 1 as were to do with efficiency, while it was dead last for "saving lives" which seems important

[Josquius]

It's weird as the met is often pointed to as THE police. The guys you call in when something is too big for the local force, having all kinds of specialisms.

I expect khan will get the blame somehow?

[Sheilbh]

It's weird as the met is often pointed to as THE police. The guys you call in when something is too big for the local force, having all kinds of specialisms.

I expect khan will get the blame somehow?

Not from what I've seen.

Khan is jointly responsible for appointing Met Commissioner and holding the Met accountable. Both him and Johnson have shown that, practically, the Mayor has a fair amount of power over who is Commissioner.

But I think everyone gets that the Met's not performing. I think a lot of the blame still attaches to Cressida Dick. There's no suggesting of removing Mark Rowley and from what I tell Cooper and Khan still think his plan to fix the Met is right - I think the slightly more worrying thought is that there may not be a plan B.

I suspect the right plan B might be the Sir Robert Mark option of going from someone who has never served in the Met to reform it. That you need a total outsider (assuming abolishing it and starting from scratch isn't an option - and the way it's going, it might be).

[Tamas]

In shit civil service salaries...

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImcGFnZWFjdGlvbj12aWV3dmFjYnlqb2JsaXN0JnNlYXJjaHNvcnQ9Y2xvc2luZyZwYWdlY2xhc3M9Sm9icyZvd25lcj01MDcwMDAwJnNlYXJjaHBhZ2U9MSZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD05MTMwMTg3MiZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE5MTgwMjQ=

Poland Country Lead, Department for Business and Trade.
Key responsibilities include Developing the UK's approach to trade with Poland.
Salary...
£32,858 - £38,272

   I hope they get some very generous state pension scheme at least.

[Sheilbh]

  I hope they get some very generous state pension scheme at least.

Quite. I see a fair few of these on my LinkedIn as I've looked at some government roles and on the one hand I am public minded and think it would be interesting. On the other I literally couldn't afford to move to a civil service salary (and my flat is well below the average price of a flat like it in London). Which feels a bit of a shame

[HVC]

Speaking of civil service one in four Canadian employees now work for the government. That seems  excessive.

[Jacob]

Speaking of civil service one in four Canadian employees now work for the government. That seems  excessive.

What'd be a reasonable percentage?

For comparison, a quick google gives the following percentages for other countries:

US ~15%
UK ~17%
Denmark ~35%
Oman ~79%
France ~21%

Looking at the wikipedia page (with different, possibly outdated numbers) plenty of countries have a higher percentage than Canada.