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Build Back Corrupter

The Conservative Party is helping donors apply for public roles, with officials offering behind-the-scenes support and directing applicants to a secretive Number 10 unit closed to members of the public.

Leaked documents show that Tory officials have referred supporters to the prime minister’s appointments unit, whose existence is not widely acknowledged and which operates using interchangeable names.

Ben Elliot, the party chairman, is among those to have helped donors navigate the appointments process, often raising funds for political purposes at the same time.

In one instance, in May 2020, Elliot, 46, received a message from a donor who had conceived of a new role for himself overseeing emergency Covid-19 loans. Elliot responded by looping in two people to an email: one of Boris Johnson’s most senior advisers and an aide at party headquarters. He told his colleagues the donor would be an “excellent candidate”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-party-nudge-donors-plum-jobs-no10-zr5g2wv8n?

using as much of the product as possible (less waste) is a good thing

You're right on that. I'm not convinced a world full of EV's & related industry will be significantly more pleasant than a world full of ICEV's but that's probably another discussion.

The price of MAGA caps has gone up to $50. One of the many, many ways Trump has been cashing in. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/12/us/politics/donald-trump-business-interests.html (No paywall with the iamadamdev browser extension)

Good thread from Tom Tugendhat MP (yes, yes, he’s a Tory…) about how we should be dealing with Russia.

I’m always a little bit dumbfounded that we (Western Europe) got ourselves into a situation where Putin can turn the screws on us by cutting off the gas.

We thought our sanctions would box him in. But Russia has adapted to them . He can live with them.

I am assuming that the whole Russia Ukraine thing is hysteria. If it comes out of the selected mouth piece of this Government then it can only be bullshit and a tactic.

The question is, what is the ulterior motive? I don't think it is solely a diversion from party gate....but they're up to something.

Yeah, the Tories are the only people in the world talking about it. It's all made up. Biden and Macron are in on it with Boris. And they're all lizards.

Yes, quite right, the British government has massed 100,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border in order to distract from domestic issues.

Knew it!

In terms of centrist positions, I find myself uncomfortably approving this one more than Starmer's (which was embarrassing rehashed culture war BS mixed with a bit more Corbyn bashing to keep the left in line). Amazing to see a politician come out with some nuanced reflection resulting in a political position.

I feel dirty. I still don't want a Tory PM.

Indeed, when the Russians bombed Tblisi in 2008, they were playing the long game - knowing full well how this precedent would play out in the UK six years later.

If you predict that Russia won't invade Ukraine in the near future you may indeed be proven right, but it doesn't make you clever. It just means things didn't work out that way – for now.
And claiming you somehow can see through it all, that Putin's foreign aggression is only a game he plays with the West, makes you kind of a dick IMO. That makes light of the ~ 15,000 killed in the war in eastern Ukraine, and the ~ 200 killed in Georgia.

Yes, Putin is constantly keeping the West in mind, and has proven adept at calculating our reactions, but his nasty policy towards his neighbours is fully home grown and would set the agenda pretty much regardless of NATOs moves (or lack there of).

TBH I rate Tugendhat on a lot of things.

His voting record is straight-up conservative "pro-business", small government. But every time I've heard him speak he presents as bright and knowledgeable on his topic. Yes, he's got standard Tory opinions on lots of things, but he seems to at least express his own mind are argue coherently.

Could also be that the current crop of shisters have made anyone normal who possesses a semblance of values look good.

Yeah - probably a bit of both, to be fair.

I took away his point being that it's not necessarily and saying that we need a more proactive approach.

Got to say that hitting Russian offshore wealth has been something of a hobby horse of mine for a long time now. So I'm probably just gassed by someone with a name airing my pub views.

But that would be cutting off a major source of funding for the Tories, which would take a degree of integrity that is completely beyond the cabinet.

Yes.

And if you did it properly it would hit whole swathes of financial services (so more tory donners).

I also wonder what the figures for indirect Russian donations are like.

Problem is that we try to point the finger at Nordstream and the European reliance on Russian gas- and the response is laughter as we are equally reliant on Russian money.

tory donners

Eat the rich?

And then spew them out into the gutter. I like this analogy.

The question is, what is the ulterior motive? I don't think it is solely a diversion from party gate....but they're up to something.

Keeping Wagatha Christie off the front pages. Why the f*ck is that sh*te even news???

The commitment for Ukraine not to join NATO being floated seems like a pragmatic resolution of the current crisis.

An embarrassing statement from the Met:

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/cressida-dick-resignation-metropolitan-police-federation-says-it-has-no-faith-in-london-mayor-sadiq-khan-12541947

Not many listeners at the top of the Met it seems

That's all Putin has wanted from the beginning

What’s the benefit of them not joining nato?