The state of the UK

[Scot Dutchy]

Chumocracy rules!

[JimC]

How dare they use a LOTR meme!

[Brian Peacock]

You LOTRists are so easily triggered Get over it - snowflake.

[Scot Dutchy]

When you think it cant get any worse it does.

Flood alerts issued for England and Wales as heavy rain forecast

Disruption expected, with 24-hour yellow weather warning in place from 6am on Wednesday

Flood alerts have been issued across England and Wales ahead of heavy rain forecast for the run-up to Christmas, as the Met Office issued a weather warning after downpours over the weekend.

A yellow weather warning for rain in mid and south Wales, as well as southern England, is in place from 6am on Wednesday until 6am Thursday, with 50mm to 70mm of rain expected to fall in south Wales. Disruption to travel and power lines is expected, and officials have warned people to stay alert for potential flooding.

The Environment Agency has also issued eight flood warnings for areas where heavy rainfall is expected, including in areas close to Keswick campsite in Cumbria, the River Don and Dutch River at West Cowick in east Yorkshire, Cogenhoe Mill caravan site in Northamptonshire, between Worcester and Gloucester along the Severn, and parts of Wareham in Dorset.

Sixty-eight flood alerts, for places where flooding is possible, are also in place across England and Wales.

Clearer skies are expected for much of Scotland and Northern Ireland, where temperatures will be cooler and a sprinkling of coastal showers are expected.

[JimC]

When you look up schadenfreude in a dictionary, the phrase "as demonstrated by Scot Dutchy" is there...

[Scot Dutchy]

Just reporting what I read.

[Scot Dutchy]

Cronyism or chumocracy? You pay and he delivers.

Boris Johnson's Tory-linked peerages raise fresh claims of cronyism

Almost a quarter of those ennobled in 2020 were party donors or ex-associates of PM

Almost a quarter of peerages awarded this year have been to Conservative party donors, close associates or former colleagues of Boris Johnson, according to analysis by the Guardian, which raises fresh concerns about cronyism.

On Tuesday, in a highly unusual move, the prime minister announced he had given a peerage to the Tory donor Peter Cruddas, in defiance of advice from the House of Lords.

Cruddas is one of 13 out of 54 people ennobled this year to have either funded the Conservatives or who have an employment or personal connection to Johnson, the Guardian has established. The list includes three donors, four people who worked at the Telegraph with Johnson and four who worked with him at City Hall when he was mayor of London.

The prime minister’s brother Jo Johnson, who stood down from the cabinet and as an MP last year, was also made a peer this year, as was Boris Johnson’s friend Evgeny Lebedev. Johnson is reported to have attended at least four weekend parties at the Russian-born newspaper owner’s restored Perugia mansion.

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS), which wants an elected second chamber, said the appointments gave the impression prime ministers were “able to appoint donors and allies on a whim – and in unlimited numbers”. This year’s peerages have taken the total size of the Lords to more than 830, despite a cross-party agreement three years ago that numbers should over time be reduced to 600.

Willie Sullivan, a senior director at the ERS, said: “The Lords was already packed to the brim with donors and party loyalists, but this past year has seen a bad situation get even worse.

“It would be tempting to call cronyism in the Lords an abuse of the system, but the system itself is fundamentally broken. This situation cannot go on. Public trust is at rock bottom.”

[Scot Dutchy]

Once again chumocracy raises its ugly head.

Tory donor was key shareholder in Grenfell cladding firm Arconic

Exclusive: Most recent donation in 2017 was year plastic-filled panels contributed to rapid spread of fire

A major shareholder in Arconic, the company that made Grenfell Tower’s combustible cladding, donated nearly £25,000 to Boris Johnson and the Conservative party, it has emerged. The most recent donation was recorded in 2017, the year in which Arconic’s plastic-filled panels were the main cause of the rapid spread of fire that killed 72 people.

The bereaved and survivors on Tuesday night called on the prime minister to return the money to Elliott Advisors UK, the British arm of a US private equity company that has a 10% holding in the $14bn (£10.4bn) annual turnover business.

They said the “cosy relationship” undermined trust in the government’s efforts to get to the truth about the disaster.

Witnesses from Arconic, based in France, are refusing to give evidence to the inquiry despite having been called to do so next month. They have cited an obscure French law in justification, though the French government said it did not apply.

[Scot Dutchy]

Even more reason to remove the House of Lords.

The House of Lords is bloated. We need an inquiry into the peerages system

There are too many lords. And the prime minister has too much power over appointments, as we have seen this week
Lord Fowler is lord speaker of the House of Lords

As I sit on the woolsack in the House of Lords for question time, scarcely a week goes by without a peer calling for an inquiry into one subject or another. An inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 emergency; an inquiry into mental health; into prison conditions. Perhaps the time has come for us all to call for an inquiry into the appointments system that has brought us all to the red benches.

I know that there has already been one – an excellent report by a committee under Terry Burns into the size of the House. Indeed, we had a notable success in persuading Theresa May, while prime minister, to pledge herself to a course of “moderation” in making new appointments. But self-evidently, with the new list of 16 appointments published on Tuesday, that has not been enough.

Boris Johnson has now created 52 new peers this year – taking the total size of the Lords to more than 830 – despite a cross-party agreement three years ago that numbers should over time be reduced to 600.

I would suggest four immediate issues for review:

First there remains the whole question of the size of the Lords, which is almost 200 larger than the Commons and far in excess of what is needed to transact its business. Surely the torrent of new appointments has neither public nor political support.

Second, we should recognise that, as long as freedom to appoint lies in the hands of prime ministers – any prime minister – we need at the very least an effective checking system. I am not going to comment on individuals, but what I would say is that the present powers of the House of Lords Appointments Commission are fundamentally deficient. The commission has a strong and independent membership. It is absurd that its powers are only advisory.

As we have just seen, its recommendations can be overridden by No 10. The result is that a prime minister has the power on his or her own to add peers to a house of parliament that can make and, within limits, unmake laws. Is this what the public expect in the third decade of the 21st century?

When the UK reapplies for membership it would be refused due to its undemocratic elected government.

[rainbow]

When the UK reapplies for membership it would be refused due to its undemocratic elected government.

Nonsense. The People's Republic of Albion will be completely democratic, and anyone who disagrees will be sent to Peterborough.

[Scot Dutchy]

When the UK reapplies for membership it would be refused due to its undemocratic elected government.

Nonsense. The People's Republic of Albion will be completely democratic, and anyone who disagrees will be sent to Peterborough.

Are they bringing back hard-labour as punishment?

[JimC]

Just reporting what I read.

With tremendous relish...

[Svartalf]

Gentleman's or Ploughman's Relish?

[Brian Peacock]

There's only one true relish...

[Scot Dutchy]

Just reporting what I read.

With tremendous relish...

The UK is totally corrupt under Johnson. Chumocracy and cronyism is the order of the day. Everybody agreed that the HoL should be restricted to 600 members but he has bump it up to 830. A totally unelected house that can destroy bills and introduce it own legislation.
That is why I report so much as most people outside the UK never get the picture of how corruption has got a hold in the UK government. It is no better than a banana republic. The poor are forgotten and the rich get richer.i