[Archived] Extra ! Extra ! Read All About It !

[Baz]

So the Tories are mAking more spending cuts , more job losses and misery for families will follow , but everything is good because Syria will be given billions .

Stuff Syria look after the UK first and foremost !!!!

How about the money spent bombing Syria, the money being lost from tax revenues from the likes of Amazon etc, the inheritance tax cuts for millionaires, the huge wage hike for MPs?

At least money going to supply food, water and shelter for Syrians who have fled to Turkey, is doing some good for people in a desperate situation. I can't imagine that of any of the others above.

[dave birch]

So Boris really means out, when he says out.

He's right when he says trade deals etc can be written and that they will negate losses from leaving the EU.

Be interesting to see how this pans out. I've a feeling that it is going to go to the wire.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Osborne has been a complete failure as chancellor. In 2010 the great Gideon made a number of bold predictions about how his ideological austerity experiment would benefit the UK economy yet in every aspect, from eliminating the budget deficit, to reducing government debt, to his predcitions about the size of the economy, to the debt/gdp ratio, to credit rating, to earnings, he has failed. And this failure has come at a huge cost to the majority of British workers. But then what would you expect from a second-class degree modern history graduate?

History will be the judge Jim. He'll possibly go down as the worst chancellor we've ever had.

"Wear a decent suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem" fantastic

Yeah another foot in the mouth for Lord Snooty. His advisers will have their heads in their hands. I like it when he loses his cool and actually says what he really thinks instead of his usual smarminess.

[ABBEY]

How about the money spent bombing Syria, the money being lost from tax revenues from the likes of Amazon etc, the inheritance tax cuts for millionaires, the huge wage hike for MPs?

At least money going to supply food, water and shelter for Syrians who have fled to Turkey, is doing some good for people in a desperate situation. I can't imagine that of any of the others above.

Agree with you apart from Syria .theres folk in need in the uk . Its like India the amount they spend on space crap and then we give them lots . Stuff it look after your own .

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

How about the money spent bombing Syria, the money being lost from tax revenues from the likes of Amazon etc, the inheritance tax cuts for millionaires, the huge wage hike for MPs?

At least money going to supply food, water and shelter for Syrians who have fled to Turkey, is doing some good for people in a desperate situation. I can't imagine that of any of the others above.

Got to ask, what is this "bombing Syria" thing all about? I don't think I've ever come across such a huge misrepresentation of a policy repeated so many times by so many people. We're bombing IS. IS have invaded Syria and Iraq and are occupying large areas and we're bombing them. Why don't you and all the other anti-bombing people just say "don't bomb IS" or "we need to stop bombing IS".

At least then the argument would be put into its correct context. Of course it wouldn't be half as good a stick to beat the government with but Corbyn's supporters were quick to be up in arms when he was accused of being a terrorist sympathiser so if avoiding exaggerations and misrepresentation then lets have a bit of consistency and state that the government are bombing an invading army in Syria, not Syria. Unless Britain and America actually attacked France in 1944.

[JBiz]

I'm not a historian but I cannot recall consistent bombing campaigns in ww2 on French soil.

You also make the point for me and many others who are against bombing Syria, in many cases we have no real way of knowing for certain who or what we are bombing, when the groups there are so adept at hiding within the public.

To neither a Corbyn supporter or the other - it still speaks volumes that the press and government would prioritise making him out to be a "terrorist sympathiser" in the eyes of the public, as opposed to finding an actual solution to a problem over 100 years old.

[ABBEY]

venkys have more chance of solution solving than politicians to be fair.

[Baz]

Got to ask, what is this "bombing Syria" thing all about? I don't think I've ever come across such a huge misrepresentation of a policy repeated so many times by so many people. We're bombing IS. IS have invaded Syria and Iraq and are occupying large areas and we're bombing them. Why don't you and all the other anti-bombing people just say "don't bomb IS" or "we need to stop bombing IS".

At least then the argument would be put into its correct context. Of course it wouldn't be half as good a stick to beat the government with but Corbyn's supporters were quick to be up in arms when he was accused of being a terrorist sympathiser so if avoiding exaggerations and misrepresentation then lets have a bit of consistency and state that the government are bombing an invading army in Syria, not Syria. Unless Britain and America actually attacked France in 1944.

The bombs are landing in Syria, hence bombing Syria, unless you are officially recognising the sovereignty of the Islamic State?

Pedantic?

Talking about purposeful misrepresentation of facts, see Jeremy Hunts weekend death statistics.

[Steve Moss]

I'm not a historian but I cannot recall consistent bombing campaigns in ww2 on French soil.

"Between the time of the German victory in the Battle of France and the liberation of the country, the Western Allies bombed many locations in France. In all 1,570 French cities and towns were bombed by Anglo-American forces between June 1940 and May 1945. The total number of civilians killed was 68,778 men, women and children (including the 2,700 civilians killed inRoyan).^[1]

The total number of injured was more than 100,000. The total number of houses completely destroyed by the bombings was 432,000, and the number of partly destroyed houses was 890,000."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_France_during_World_War_II

[onlyonetugay]

History will be the judge Jim. He'll possibly go down as the worst chancellor we've ever had.

You're right , history will judge George Osborne, perhaps in the same way it judged Denis Healey , the Labour Chancellor during the 1970's . He was shouted down by the extreme left at Labour Conference , when they had to face home truths about the scale of the spending cuts to keep the UK solvent. If you're old enough to remember, almost Greek like , he had to go to the IMF for an emergency loan as the economy was on the brink of collapse. Denis , known as the " Godfather of Austerity " cut more in one year than George has managed in six !

His unpopularity on the extreme left , meant that Labour elected the unelectable Micheal Foot as leader. Ed Balls described him as " a brave and brilliant chancellor " and he's often referred to as the best Prime Minister Labour never had. With Boris Johnson siding with those for EU out , if the UK does leave , the same might be said about George in another 40 years .

[onlyonetugay]

"Between the time of the German victory in the Battle of France and the liberation of the country, the Western Allies bombed many locations in France. In all 1,570 French cities and towns were bombed by Anglo-American forces between June 1940 and May 1945. The total number of civilians killed was 68,778 men, women and children (including the 2,700 civilians killed inRoyan).^[1]

The total number of injured was more than 100,000. The total number of houses completely destroyed by the bombings was 432,000, and the number of partly destroyed houses was 890,000."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_France_during_World_War_II

Good research and you beat me to it ! I vaguely remember covering this in A level history many years ago . War is horrible and there will always be innocent victims . However we must stand up as a country and fight Islamic Facism as our fathers and grandfathers fought National Socialism. If that means bombing the scum that are attempting to establish an Islamic State , then so be it . I see that as my taxes well spent . As SKH said , we certainly aren't bombing Syria , that is a total misrepresentation.

[Audax]

Woman walked around Moscow holding the severed head from a child; shocking and sick.

Yes, read up for the details.

[yoda]

Woman walked around Moscow holding the severed head from a child; shocking and sick.

Yes, read up for the details.

Grandmother of the child apparently, wearing a Hijab when arrested by Moscow police.

edit story has now been edited, the grandmother bit has been deleted

[K-Hod]

Saw that this morning. Truly awful stuff.

[Mike E]

I felt a bit sick when I heard of it

[ABBEY]

Aw bless give her a cuppa

[perthblue02]

Aw bless give her a cuppa

It was pretty horrific Abbey, think you will need to throw in a few custard creams with the cuppa and a full body massage after the nice chat to sort that one out.

[perthblue02]

If carlsberg did headlines -

Catholic priest Fr Stephen Crossan 'caught snorting cocaine in Nazi room'

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-35688401

Makes a welcome change for the vatican from child abuse I suppose, speaking of which big story over here

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-29/george-pell-says-catholic-church-made-'enormous-mistakes'/7206676

Suppose the phrase "made enormous mistakes" translates as did not cover it up as well as we thought we had.

[jim mk2]

Tories looking after core southern vote. And the northern Tory turkeys still don't get it.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/jan/11/council-cuts-north-loses-out-to-the-south-newcastle

[adopted scouser]

'New day' is 25p this morning.

It was crap yesterday and it was free.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Tories looking after core southern vote. And the northern Tory turkeys still don't get it.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/jan/11/council-cuts-north-loses-out-to-the-south-Newcastle

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35694164

More job losses in the private sector. Usual story of being unable to compete with foreign companies who pay their workers peanuts. Like the entire UK manufacturing industry over the last 50 years, the government could have subsidised it to keep it going. But then at the moment I suppose we have a massive spiralling debt that might need sorting out.

In any case, nobody cares as always, barely makes the news (certainly doesn't in the Guardian), will be forgotten about tomorrow if anyone even notices it today. Only public-sector job losses matter.

[Dean]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35694164

More job losses in the private sector. Usual story of being unable to compete with foreign companies who pay their workers peanuts. Like the entire UK manufacturing industry over the last 50 years, the government could have subsidised it to keep it going. But then at the moment I suppose we have a massive spiralling debt that might need sorting out.

In any case, nobody cares as always, barely makes the news (certainly doesn't in the Guardian), will be forgotten about tomorrow if anyone even notices it today. Only public-sector job losses matter.

You seem to have a consistent habit of undermining your own arguments. If you hadn't been so snide with your last sentence, you might have made a valid point.

The loss in the steel works was national news for ages. When big job losses come in the automotive/banking/tech industries, it's also national news. I'll find examples of all of those if you really want me to, but I suspect you don't need it.

What you posted is a local news story. Why would the Guardian run with it? I'll be surprised if gets on the first page even at local level.

[jim mk2]

It's the same old public sector = bad, private sector = good nonsense, usually posted by people that work in the private sector.

That's the same privates sector folks that came close to bankrupting the country in 2008 and had to be rescued by the public sector.

[oldjamfan1]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35694164

More job losses in the private sector. Usual story of being unable to compete with foreign companies who pay their workers peanuts. Like the entire UK manufacturing industry over the last 50 years, the government could have subsidised it to keep it going. But then at the moment I suppose we have a massive spiralling debt that might need sorting out.

In any case, nobody cares as always, barely makes the news (certainly doesn't in the Guardian), will be forgotten about tomorrow if anyone even notices it today. Only public-sector job losses matter.

Two things stand out for me in that story about the plastic bag maker closing down.

1. This is the unintended consequence of creating behavioural change.

2. The quote from the person who had worked there for 30 years is quite harrowing really. It must be such a scary and worrying time for them.

[onlyonetugay]

It's the same old public sector = bad, private sector = good nonsense, usually posted by people that work in the private sector.

That's the same privates sector folks that came close to bankrupting the country in 2008 and had to be rescued by the public sector.

That's utter nonsense.

What concerns people who work in factories is that the Politicians have done sweet FA to support the manufacturing industry, and Labour who purport to represent the working classes are just as guilty. There were more job losses in manufacturing under Tony Blair's Labour government than under Margaret Thatcher. Barbara Castle presided over 1,000s of job losses in the textile industry in Blackburn and did nothing to help . It was a Labour Government that cosied up to the Bankers in the knowledge that they'd get enormous tax receipts each month/year to spend on the public sector. During those long years in office they created an environment so that the financial sector flourished at the expense of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.

Taxpayers and borrowed money, distributed by the government , rescued the banks , the public sector had nothing to do with it

https://www.nao.org.uk/highlights/taxpayer-support-for-uk-banks-faqs/