Random News Stories

[Reginald Ret]

Well, are YOU the Hardest Worker in Britain?









Didn't think so.

Apparently We're not even a "average worker (outside London)".

[LMNO]

The British are no longer allowed to mock American television.

BBC Two explores the front line of our nation's low wage economy in this new series which follows Brits from across the country through a series of real-world jobs to find Britain's Hardest Worker.

These jobs will take place both out in the workplace and within the confines of a specially created factory, a warehouse space which over the course of five episodes will be transformed to cover the UK's largest blue collar sectors.

The contestants are all there for one reason: to make money. The least effective workers will be asked to leave until only one is left, to be declared Britain's Hardest Worker.

The series will tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time: why is British productivity low? Is the benefits system providing many with a reason not to work or hindering their working opportunity? Is the hidden truth about immigrants simply that they work harder than Brits – and we need them as much as they need us - or are they simply prepared to work for a lower wage? And have the young simply not inherited the work ethic of older generations or have working conditions just got too hard? Who in Britain still knows how to graft? It's time to find out.

Dear The British:  I take it back.

CBS just debuted The Briefcase, a show which takes poverty porn, class anxiety, emotional manipulation and exploitation and packages them all neatly into a pretty despicable hour of primetime television.

[Junkenstein]

The whole thing is, in a word, gross.

UK version coming in less than 6 months.

[Junkenstein]

Coulson found "to have no case to answer" over the still ongoing phone hacking bullshit.

The jury of nine men and six women returned to the court to discover that they would not be passing judgement on Andy Coulson after all.
During the Crown case they had heard evidence from Clive Goodman, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup, all testifying that Mr Coulson had been aware of what Mr Weatherup called the "systematic culture of phone hacking at the News of the World".
But at the end of the day, the court ruled that whether that was true or not, it just didn't matter.
As Mr MacLeod underlined repeatedly in his legal submission, this trial had been about perjury, not phone hacking; and it was that which the Crown had failed to prove.

The fact that he had by all accounts committed a tremendous deal of perjury (Let's be realistic here, I knew [but could not prove] papers were hacking phones since mobile phones became a thing. Look at the headlines and sources and it's just fucking obvious.) during the phone hacking trial seems to be largely dismissed. Almost as if this were something of a political judgement.


Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. Notable political achievements - Nil, as far as I can recall. I'm sure I'll be told at length over several days about all his wondrous works but I can't recall a single one beyond "Regularly pissed". I'm pretty sure he's the chap that originally gave us the euphemism of "tired and emotional" which invariably means "Screaming drunk and shitting themselves in the hallway".

[MMIX]

Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. [snip]

Nope. George Brown was the original "tired and emotional". But you probably don't know who he was. Also, as I'm sure you have realised by now if you listen to the news, if we had listened to Chatshow Charlie we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

Which probably wouldn't have been a bad thing.

[Junkenstein]

Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. [snip]

Nope. George Brown was the original "tired and emotional". But you probably don't know who he was. Also, as I'm sure you have realised by now if you listen to the news, if we had listened to Chatshow Charlie we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

Which probably wouldn't have been a bad thing.

Quite correct on the tired and emotional thing. Memory not what it was.


I've been woefully behind on the news for well over 6 months now. I would say that Kennedy was hardly the lone voice of dissent over Iraq so any credit there seems dubious at best. Or we can pretend he was the only one saying such things. Entirely up to you, really.

You seem to be overly upset about this entire thing. Why?

[Cain]

He also abstained from the Lib Dem vote on joining a coalition government, opposed Blairs raise in tuition fees and a few other things.

A lot of this was pandering to the voters to the left of New Labour, and did not achieve much, but it was welcome regardless.

[MMIX]

Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. [snip]

Nope. George Brown was the original "tired and emotional". But you probably don't know who he was. Also, as I'm sure you have realised by now if you listen to the news, if we had listened to Chatshow Charlie we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

Which probably wouldn't have been a bad thing.

Quite correct on the tired and emotional thing. Memory not what it was.


I've been woefully behind on the news for well over 6 months now. I would say that Kennedy was hardly the lone voice of dissent over Iraq so any credit there seems dubious at best. Or we can pretend he was the only one saying such things. Entirely up to you, really.

You seem to be overly upset about this entire thing. Why?

Because I am living in a world where the "undeserving rich" yanno the Osbournes, Mays, Camerons and that grotesque buffoon Boris Johnson are not suddenly dying too young and you are slashing the diss on Kennedy whowhile he was certainly not the only dissident voice re. Iraq pretty much was the only principled voice crying in the wilderness of Westminster. So, you are entitled to your opinion but from my perspective if you wanted to get a cheap laugh from him you might as well have gone the whole hog and done the "ginger Scots alcoholic - so no surprise there" route.
I hope you don't take this personally, it isn't meant as  a slapdown, more as a sly dig, but you did ask 

[Demolition Squid]

I liked Charles Kennedy. He said stupid things less often than most other politicians and I was a little disappointed he lost his seat to the SNP.

There aren't many other politicians I'd say that about.

[Junkenstein]

Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. [snip]

Nope. George Brown was the original "tired and emotional". But you probably don't know who he was. Also, as I'm sure you have realised by now if you listen to the news, if we had listened to Chatshow Charlie we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

Which probably wouldn't have been a bad thing.

Quite correct on the tired and emotional thing. Memory not what it was.


I've been woefully behind on the news for well over 6 months now. I would say that Kennedy was hardly the lone voice of dissent over Iraq so any credit there seems dubious at best. Or we can pretend he was the only one saying such things. Entirely up to you, really.

You seem to be overly upset about this entire thing. Why?

Because I am living in a world where the "undeserving rich" yanno the Osbournes, Mays, Camerons and that grotesque buffoon Boris Johnson are not suddenly dying too young and you are slashing the diss on Kennedy whowhile he was certainly not the only dissident voice re. Iraq pretty much was the only principled voice crying in the wilderness of Westminster. So, you are entitled to your opinion but from my perspective if you wanted to get a cheap laugh from him you might as well have gone the whole hog and done the "ginger Scots alcoholic - so no surprise there" route.
I hope you don't take this personally, it isn't meant as  a slapdown, more as a sly dig, but you did ask 

I take it as neither and suggest you reconsider your view of the man and his accomplishments. Limited as they are, they helped set the stage for the shitshow we've just been through with the coalition so we'll call that smooth move #1.

Yes, the bottle was an easy and obvious joke, but please recall so was the largest part of his political career. His tendancies were hardly hidden or subtle and given the hilarious number of MP's that have had no problems for all kinds of drink-driving exploits it's a consistent reminder that there is a very obvious division in who and who can't get away with breaking the law. Keep turning up to your job drunk and see how long you last. Now please remember that you technically paid for him to do this for many years and the difference between him and say, Boris isn't as wide as you may like to imagine. People called him drinking himself to death years ago and while I haven't followed the fine detail it wouldn't surprise me to find them right. 

But he smiled and occasionally did the right thing. Occasionally even the thing on his manifesto though he had no real political power to actually force any significant changes. Being slightly less shitty than your peers does not make you worthy of adulation.

Although! He was against the Iraq War! Only sane man who saw that it might not have been smart.
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_MPs_who_voted_for_Iraq_War
Err. No.

Across all members, it passed by a majority of 263, with 421 in favour and 263 against. All Liberal Democrats voted against the war; 244 Labour Party members voted in favour (and tabled the motion), as did 139 Conservative Party members

Wait, what?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/feb/26/foreignpolicy.uk2

Tony Blair tonight suffered the biggest Commons revolt of his premiership as 199 MPs rejected his course of action over Iraq.
A much higher than expected 121 Labour MPs broke a three-line whip to voice their concern that the case for military intervention was "as yet unproven".

Wait, What?

Leading the case for the rebels, Labour MP Alan Simpson - fresh from a trip to the US where he attempted to inspect America's weapons of mass destruction - said he regarded the government motion and the war rhetoric that surrounded it as a "real low-point" in contemporary British politics.

"It marks a sense of the disconnection of this house from the society we claim to represent," he said.

The government was increasingly looking for a pretext for war, rather than for the avoidance of one, he argued. "We appear to produce dossiers of mass deception, whose claims are dismissed as risible almost as soon as they are released.

Urging ministers to listen to "our other allies" such as France and Germany, he said: "We need inspections, not invasions."

I think some Blair cabinet ministers may have quit too. Hardly saints, but that takes FAR more balls and sends and much larger message than the leader of an irrelevant party.

I suppose when Galloway dies, we will whip this out as proof he's a living saint too:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britain-goes-war-iraq---4330312

Respect's George Galloway also said no to RAF bombers based on Cyprus hitting militant targets in the Middle Eastern country.

Isis, but the point stands.

The people of the UK seem to have some kind of bizarre obsession with magnifying the positive attributes of the dead to near mythic proportions. The classic is Diana but the same kind of shit is whipped out for anyone above a certain level of fame.

The sad reality is that he could have probably had far more of an impact and been far less likely to succumb to the bottle if he was an MP for either Labour or the Tories. A political career with no real political power is quite tragic.

Please forgive any mis-spellings, I typed this in crayon.

[Junkenstein]

http://wishtv.com/ap/cops-pennsylvania-man-ran-fake-dui-checkpoint-while-drunk/

Police say a man who set up a drunken-driving checkpoint complete with road flares while pretending to be a Pennsylvania state trooper was drunk.

Troopers say 19-year-old Logan Shaulis, of Somerset, parked his vehicle diagonally across state Route 601 and set up road flares at about 4 a.m. Saturday.

A motorist who stopped says Shaulis claimed he was a trooper and demanded to see a driver's license, registration and insurance papers.

That's got to be one of the best drunk tank conversations ever.

[Junkenstein]

http://thesmokinggun.com/buster/florida/walmart-stuffed-animal-defiler-657903

According to a police report, Sean Johnson, 19, "selected a brown, tan, and red stuffed horse from the clearance shelf in the garden department." He then went to the comforter aisle in the housewares section, "proceeded to pull out his genitals," and "proceeded to hump the stuffed horse utilizing short fast movements." The lewd act was captured by surveillance cameras.

Bronies fandom takes another disturbing step.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://thesmokinggun.com/buster/florida/walmart-stuffed-animal-defiler-657903

According to a police report, Sean Johnson, 19, "selected a brown, tan, and red stuffed horse from the clearance shelf in the garden department." He then went to the comforter aisle in the housewares section, "proceeded to pull out his genitals," and "proceeded to hump the stuffed horse utilizing short fast movements." The lewd act was captured by surveillance cameras.

Bronies fandom takes another disturbing step.

Florida, man.

[MMIX]

Additionally, Charles Kennedy dead. [snip]

Nope. George Brown was the original "tired and emotional". But you probably don't know who he was. Also, as I'm sure you have realised by now if you listen to the news, if we had listened to Chatshow Charlie we wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq.

Which probably wouldn't have been a bad thing.

Quite correct on the tired and emotional thing. Memory not what it was.


I've been woefully behind on the news for well over 6 months now. I would say that Kennedy was hardly the lone voice of dissent over Iraq so any credit there seems dubious at best. Or we can pretend he was the only one saying such things. Entirely up to you, really.

You seem to be overly upset about this entire thing. Why?

Because I am living in a world where the "undeserving rich" yanno the Osbournes, Mays, Camerons and that grotesque buffoon Boris Johnson are not suddenly dying too young and you are slashing the diss on Kennedy whowhile he was certainly not the only dissident voice re. Iraq pretty much was the only principled voice crying in the wilderness of Westminster. So, you are entitled to your opinion but from my perspective if you wanted to get a cheap laugh from him you might as well have gone the whole hog and done the "ginger Scots alcoholic - so no surprise there" route.
I hope you don't take this personally, it isn't meant as  a slapdown, more as a sly dig, but you did ask 

I take it as neither and suggest you reconsider your view of the man and his accomplishments. Limited as they are, they helped set the stage for the shitshow we've just been through with the coalition so we'll call that smooth move #1.

Yes, the bottle was an easy and obvious joke, but please recall so was the largest part of his political career. His tendancies were hardly hidden or subtle and given the hilarious number of MP's that have had no problems for all kinds of drink-driving exploits it's a consistent reminder that there is a very obvious division in who and who can't get away with breaking the law. Keep turning up to your job drunk and see how long you last. Now please remember that you technically paid for him to do this for many years and the difference between him and say, Boris isn't as wide as you may like to imagine. People called him drinking himself to death years ago and while I haven't followed the fine detail it wouldn't surprise me to find them right. 

But he smiled and occasionally did the right thing. Occasionally even the thing on his manifesto though he had no real political power to actually force any significant changes. Being slightly less shitty than your peers does not make you worthy of adulation.

Although! He was against the Iraq War! Only sane man who saw that it might not have been smart.
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_MPs_who_voted_for_Iraq_War
Err. No.

Across all members, it passed by a majority of 263, with 421 in favour and 263 against. All Liberal Democrats voted against the war; 244 Labour Party members voted in favour (and tabled the motion), as did 139 Conservative Party members

Wait, what?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/feb/26/foreignpolicy.uk2

Tony Blair tonight suffered the biggest Commons revolt of his premiership as 199 MPs rejected his course of action over Iraq.
A much higher than expected 121 Labour MPs broke a three-line whip to voice their concern that the case for military intervention was "as yet unproven".

Wait, What?

Leading the case for the rebels, Labour MP Alan Simpson - fresh from a trip to the US where he attempted to inspect America's weapons of mass destruction - said he regarded the government motion and the war rhetoric that surrounded it as a "real low-point" in contemporary British politics.

"It marks a sense of the disconnection of this house from the society we claim to represent," he said.

The government was increasingly looking for a pretext for war, rather than for the avoidance of one, he argued. "We appear to produce dossiers of mass deception, whose claims are dismissed as risible almost as soon as they are released.

Urging ministers to listen to "our other allies" such as France and Germany, he said: "We need inspections, not invasions."

I think some Blair cabinet ministers may have quit too. Hardly saints, but that takes FAR more balls and sends and much larger message than the leader of an irrelevant party.

I suppose when Galloway dies, we will whip this out as proof he's a living saint too:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britain-goes-war-iraq---4330312

Respect's George Galloway also said no to RAF bombers based on Cyprus hitting militant targets in the Middle Eastern country.

Isis, but the point stands.

The people of the UK seem to have some kind of bizarre obsession with magnifying the positive attributes of the dead to near mythic proportions. The classic is Diana but the same kind of shit is whipped out for anyone above a certain level of fame.

The sad reality is that he could have probably had far more of an impact and been far less likely to succumb to the bottle if he was an MP for either Labour or the Tories. A political career with no real political power is quite tragic.

Please forgive any mis-spellings, I typed this in crayon.

Nah, your spelling is fine - its a bit of a weird colour though.

[Junkenstein]

I'll take that as "I concede on all points as I am unable to even bother with a counter-argument", shall I?

Poor show, no points awarded, 3 deducted for substandard effort.