In the news

Not followed the thread closely

You may be mixing up Patel and the whale here.

I'm afraid I have no idea. The old small state identities that still existed in the 19th century are not very strongly felt today, I think. The postwar administrative restructure quite deliberately created new boundaries that, with the exceptions of Saxony, Bavaria, Hamburg, and Bremen, and to a small degree Baden-Württemberg, bear little resemblance to historical borders but are instead based on all sorts of other considerations, such as the Allied occupation zones at the time, or on creating more contiguous administrative areas than in the heavily-pixellated small states (although a great many of those were swallowed up by Prussia in the 18th and 19th centuries, their boundaries were retained administratively inside Prussia).

Sent to Sheppey? I'd rather be diced and devoured by Japanese gastronomes.

BBC: " ... After the visit, Ms Patel suggested some of Britain's aid budget go to the Israeli army. ... "

Priti Patel's plane doing a U-turn over westminster

From John Rentoul https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/928346862792437760

The BBC Weather map, in my opinion, contributed to brexit.

The map shows all cities with the same shape square, irrespective of the area bounded by whichever administrative body is responsbile,
and,
of the population.
Thus Hull, Bristol and any Scottish city seem to be as 'important' as London.
The metropolitan areas could at least have their boundaries indicated to show
the relative size, even if we did not have an indication of population.

Forgive me if I don't understand why you think that may have contributed to 'Brexit'?

Probably something to do with Michael Fish I think.

Those Europeans, sending their storms over here without warning...

Edit: Actually, didn't it (the storm) come over from America, obliterating everything in its path, without care or thought to its actions and deeds? Strangely familiar.

Why is Priti Patel grinning/smirking in literally every photo taken right after she's (been sacked) resigned? Is she just glad to be out of the mad house?

She's always had that self entitled smirk on her face.

I am sure that given Priti Patel's in depth understanding of aid and development, all the major NGOs (Red Cross, Unicef, Plan etc) are already lining up with job offers.

You don't think her ambition and passion lies with representing and serving the good people of [parliamentary aide please add whatever our constituency is called here] and that a career as a dedicated backbencher awaits?

isnt she technically still an MP? she would have to quit the whole lot to take up any offers shirley?

BBC: " ... After the visit, Ms Patel suggested some of Britain's aid budget go to the Israeli army. ... "

isn't that the army that has been killing innocent palestinians for many many years, one of the best funded armys in the world, loaded to the gunnels with american weapnery

seems totally fair we can give them some of our foreign aid budget

isnt she technically still an MP? she would have to quit the whole lot to take up any offers shirley?

Tell that to George Osborne, how many jobs did he have as a back bench MP, 3 at least.

eu voting today to ban glycophosphate ( ? ) roundup / neo nicotinoids

hopefully it will lead to the recovery of bees and other insect species after the recent massive decline in their populations

go bees !

although i'm sure bayer merk dow monsanto are bribing politicians left right and centre to stop the ban ( allegedly )

Hahaha, did you come down with the last rain shower?

MPs sit in the afternoons and evenings for a reason, so they can get their snouts in the trough by working part time in the City.

To be fair to some MPs, this is mainly Tory wankers.

about the only thing that merks japanese knowtweed. horrible stuff tho.

top spot.

leaving typo for lolz.

This is a bit weird!

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/paying-for-fake-friends-and-family/545060/

I'm well in for that - my friends and family are rubbish.

Well, if you can afford £40 per hour (which is less than I thought it would be), go for it.