Syldon

This is peanuts to the profit made on energy in the UK. Refusal to give up passworded digital messages when requested the legal system can lead to imprisonment.

And yet, these people have gouged the UK for billions. All supported by the government who have consistently refused to curtail their actions. So rather than criminalising their mates they hit them with a paltry fine which is probably less than the Tories got in donations.

The mockery behind telling the low paid not to accept high pay rises. This is why all should be looking to join a trade union.

And like everything with the Tories, it is always jam tomorrow, and no thought or willingness on how to achieve the end result.

This really needs a review once they are gone.

Anderson was elected in 2019 with a 5,733 majority with a 62% turn out.

I do not know who the group is that is aiming to remove Anderson. I do have a strong dislike for Anderson, so this one caught my attention. Looking at his nearest rivals (Ash party) brings up what looks very bad on the face of it when it comes to election tampering.

This is the Wiki page for Ashfield independents. The litany of unfounded accusations are incredible.

In 2015 Ashfield Independents leader Jason Zadrozny was arrested and charged with historic child sex offences. The case was subsequently discontinued.

This one was thrown out for lack of evidence.

~~In October 2022 Councillor Tom Hollis was sentenced following his conviction for harassment of his neighbours and careless driving. Part of the allegation involved making a false police complaint about a neighbour~~

In November 2022 Zadrozny and five other Ashfield Independent Councillors were arrested for fraud, election offences, money laundering and misconduct in public office, and remain under investigation awaiting charging decisions

On 17 May 2023, David Martin was charged for allegedly assaulting a police officer when he was arrested in November 2022

On 23 June 2023, Zadrozny was charged with 22 offences including 12 counts of fraud by misrepresentation, five counts of money laundering, four counts of income tax evasion, and possession of a Class A drug.

The fraud by false representation charges relate to the alleged misuse of Nottinghamshire County Council funds between 14 February 2018 and 16 February 2021.

As part of the same investigation, Tom Hollis was charged with two offences for allegedly failing to declare his disclosable pecuniary interest in a property, between 30 May 2019 and 10 September 2021.[16] A spokesperson for the Ashfield Independents said both Zadrozny and Hollis "absolutely deny" the charges and "look forward to clearing their name"

From reading the Wiki one complaint has been upheld and the rest are pending. Some charges are still under investigation. Shouldn't the electoral commission be looking into this?

This is an obscene amount of allegations made against a political rival. Is Anderson using his political status to intimidate the police to do his bidding?

EDIT: on a reread I can see Councillor Tom Hollis was actually sentenced so I will scratch a line through to remove it. I have also edited part of my comment to reflect that.

This is a consequence of the culture wars the Tories pushed in the 90's with the term benefits thieves. They used this to take as much money out of our support system as they could. Osborne doubled down on that idea.

People need to remember that when they buy into this shit that they are mainly shooting themselves in the foot. Very few people manage their whole lives without needing a little extra support when something goes awry.

You will always get some people who will abuse the system. That should never be an excuse to reduce the benefits of the system. What should happen is more research on the best ways to catch them.

The Tory culture follow a theme of pushing the story that we are paying for someone who is abusing the system, and then they follow that up with the system is too expensive.

They are doing exactly this with the NHS also. Just remember there are other countries that spent much less per capita and yield better results when it comes to medical care. The system they would love to push is the US system. This is the most expensive system in the world and yet the yield is beyond dismal.

The reason we pay out benefits is because there is an additional cost to not paying them. Without social support crime increases, wages actually decrease overall, and Mental and physical health deteriorates overall. There is an additional cost with extra stress added to the NHS and social services who have to deal with this. Kids are affected more than any other group.

There is a benefit in as much as we need less for pension pay outs, as this reduces life expectancy. Good luck with that one.

We are now many years outside of the EU now and yet we have next to nothing in place to verify what is coming into the country. The EU are about to make border checks more stringent on their side, and yet we have open borders for anything coming from the EU.

Last year they actually checked 28 wagons to get a sample of what is happening, and found 21 to have food that was grossly not fit for human consumption. This was over a year ago and we have absolutely nothing in response to it.

We will have without a doubt, arms and drugs being freely transported into the UK. The food we import will have no standards applied to it. There is a massive risk to our farming industry as we are wide open to disease being imported into the country.

There is a huge disparity between the cost of someone in the EU trading with the UK over someone from the UK exporting to the EU. This has nothing to do with inflation, it is just pure incompetence to act as a government. The stories that have been circling this issue are like vultures waiting for the final moments before death. The EU ended up getting so annoyed with the British governments handling of this issue that they had to send a wagging finger of disapproval straight to Sunak's office.

This is an exert from the report commissioned in July 22.

Despite examples of excellence and a dedicated, capable workforce, Border Force seems to be less than the sum of its parts with significant systemic challenges. There is little capacity for strategic planning or workforce development. The inability of Border Force to plan effectively is further impacted by the delivery failures of enabling functions such as recruitment and procurement. Steps should be taken to address the administrative issues that are continuing to distract the organisation so that it can focus on its core mission.

The date for an expected result from the report is very telling at 2025. This government has done nothing to actually run the country. It has no intention of doing anything either. All promises are always for jam tomorrow and mostly after the election to make it an SEP(somebody else's problem). Sunak's only real push was to get licenses in exchange for family benefits. They are robbing the country blind and we are drowning with the abject lack of management. We really need an election.

I really do not understand what the people of Flitwick were expecting. The Tory party is always about jam tomorrow. Expecting them to actually follow through with a promise was asking more than they should imo.

Joking aside though, we need a mechanism for rogue MPs like this. We need a cross party committee set up after each GE to make the call when an MP gets out of line in this fashion.

The Tories like to spout about minimum terms of service. Well constituents need those also. People rely on an MP to get representation at times when they are desperate. Swanning off for weeks to get a backhander from "I'm a celebrity" etc, or just refusing to work entirely in this fashion should never be acceptable.

Twitter post spot credit to by Max Robbespiere.

It's tempting for many to think Britain will Re-Join EU. But it won't happen. Argument to average voter:

-You won't get any opt-outs

Well duh! And what trade agreement have we made since leaving where that has been a consideration.

-You'll have to pay tens of millions

V's the billions in trade lost, I will take this one.

-You'll most likely have to join Euro

Yep it will be requested.

-You'll have even more immigration

Immigration is up since leaving and businesses need the bodies.

-You'll no longer be self-governing nation

There is not a single trade deal achieved anywhere in the world where you don't have to compromise. That is the point of a trade deal.

-You'll no longer be able to diverge

Considering how shit our food has gone in the UK, I would love some proper standards back.

-You'll no longer be quick & nimble e.g. vaccines

Absolute BS, It was because we have access left over from being in the EU that we got vaccines. It would be harder now in the same circumstances. This has been rebuked over and over.

However, the speed we have dropped HS2 was extremely quick and nimble.

-You'll join bloc grappling with refugee crisis

Culture war, culture war, culture war, culture war,

-You'll join bloc divided north + south financially

Is this any different to what the UK or any country is?

-You'll join bloc divided east + west culturally

Well duh! it is made up of many countries

-You'll join bloc with populist division on rise

Well we can show them how we did it.

-You'll be closer to riotous France

So we will be removing the anti protest crap that has been inflicted on us.

-And you'll soon be joined by Albania, Serbia, Bosnia

So an expanding block?

My prediction -- won't happen in next 50 years.

I think you may be wrong on this one. My guess is two parliaments at most. Once the Tories are out then we can discuss things like adults. There is no name calling for stating the obvious.

So it looks like the arguments for BREXIT has ran its course. We are now into the next level of gaslighting about how bad it would be to go back again.

Go home son the village is missing their idiot.

I am getting tired of both Labour and Tories using the ULEZ as an anti-climate agenda to win votes. ULEZ is not about climate; it is about health issues, especially with regards to kids. This is just one article of many that has emerged over the years.

Soft paywall link removed here.