Just to be clear, I didn't start this thread as an anti Starmer, Labour, Conservative, Sunak etc post. I posted it as like I said in the OP, the twitter/X account is gathering momentum on Social Media with the posts being shared more and more.
Yes, I completely get that you were not being anti Starmer/Tory/Labour etc & I weas not suggesting you were, it was a more general point.
My point is to make a FAIR judgement, we need to see all the facts so we can make a balanced view. The Albanian Prison story is a terrific example where only one side of the story was reported. When we see both sides of the story it looks very different. Ditto the TfL Taxi deal. And, no doubt, all the others. Incidentally, I have no problem at all with money being spent anywhere to combat climate change.
We also need to sense-check everything we see, hear or read. If someone says 2 + 2 = 7 we sense-check it & say to ourselves, whoa, hold up, does that make sense? And the same goes with (apparently) dishing out new cars willy-nilly to some overseas Prison Service. There HAS to be more to it than was reported. And there was. And it only took me 30 seconds to find the other side of that tale. And I looked because, on the face of it, as reported, the story made no sense. So I needed to delve deeper to make it make sense. And I did, & it did.
With the High Commission "ONE SUPPLIER" thing, I did not need to delve, as I understand how large Construction Projects work, it was my trade for 40 years. ALWAYS one Supplier/Contractor, & they in turn sub-contract to the specialist trades. A Client would NEVER do that.
All these files will do is amplify establishment contempt whether or not the money is spent wisely. The dogmatic writers and readers of these things will present the data in their minds with extreme bias and ignorance.
Transparency would seem to be a virtue, but when the populace just bark at stuff it probably isn't.
Valid point about Albania i agree that was an earner, not sure what we as a country stand to benefit from the outcomes of these three ?
4/ The UK taxpayer will spend £22,490,382 to support “Green Growth in Nepal” from 2024-2029.
7/ A £10,000,000 contract for “Enhancing Gender and Human Development Outcomes through Systems Strengthening” in Nepal.
3/ The UK Taxpayer will spend £25,000,000 to support Green Urban Growth in Somalia.
Yet pensioners cannot pay their fuel bills, workers facing no pay rises, people are undoubtly going to lose jobs after the budget, record homlessness, our roads in dire need of repairs basicly, this money should stay in our country.
And yet we carry with these payments putting other countries above our own.
Disgusting all round from all parties concerned, it has been going on for many years, it's time it stopped.
Valid point about Albania i agree that was an earner, not sure what we as a country stand to benefit from the outcomes of these three ?
4/ The UK taxpayer will spend £22,490,382 to support “Green Growth in Nepal” from 2024-2029.
7/ A £10,000,000 contract for “Enhancing Gender and Human Development Outcomes through Systems Strengthening” in Nepal.
3/ The UK Taxpayer will spend £25,000,000 to support Green Urban Growth in Somalia.
Yet pensioners cannot pay their fuel bills, workers facing no pay rises, people are undoubtly going to lose jobs after the budget, record homlessness, our roads in dire need of repairs basicly, this money should stay in our country.
And yet we carry with these payments putting other countries above our own.
Disgusting all round from all parties concerned, it has been going on for many years, it's time it stopped.
You don't think that we as a Nation, or us as individuals, should give a helping hand to those less fortunate than us?
You might think things are bad here, but compared to many or even MOST countries, we are living a life of luxury. We really are.
Fancy living for a week or two with no 'leccy, no running water, no flushing toilets, no TV, no radio, no heating, no roads, no Social Security or Unemployment Benefit, no job, and your home bombed to a pile of rubble? And yet, here in the UK, we complain about a few potholes in the roads.
In full Crocodile Dundee style, "Pothole? THIS is a pothole..."
Most of those payments detailed that the government sent for humanitarian aid or diplomacy, in these instances to those less developed countries, is less than 1% of the over 2 billion spent on winter fuel payments last year.
We should be sending a lot more to help those in need, but because we are nation with a large proportion of xenophobic bigots the government would not get away with it.
Government statistics state that we gave £12.78 billion in foreign aid in 2022, so over 6 times the winter fuel costs in 2023/24. I think it's the Government which decides how much is given out in foreign aid. Other than voting in a Government the general public has little say in what happens to the tax they pay. To state that the nation is largely made up of xenophobic bigots based on the billions we give in foreign aid is, in my opinion, wrong. I think this thread is about the millions or even billions that are being given out to what seem to be spurious organisations.
The foreign aid is often a diplomatic process with other end goals and often times can be related to making profit in the end for the UK i.e. a back door to resources. There are a lot of positives to diplomacy, not least the humanity too.
There are many many other factors at play in each situation and each would have to be looked at specifically to see how and why they happened, and with all the details of course.
Standard procedure around the UK tends to be - find something that might look like you can shout at the government about, and then argue about it with people whether you've got the facts or not and then call for heads to roll and just keep repeating that.
Valid point about Albania i agree that was an earner, not sure what we as a country stand to benefit from the outcomes of these three ?
4/ The UK taxpayer will spend £22,490,382 to support “Green Growth in Nepal” from 2024-2029.
7/ A £10,000,000 contract for “Enhancing Gender and Human Development Outcomes through Systems Strengthening” in Nepal.
3/ The UK Taxpayer will spend £25,000,000 to support Green Urban Growth in Somalia.
Yet pensioners cannot pay their fuel bills, workers facing no pay rises, people are undoubtly going to lose jobs after the budget, record homlessness, our roads in dire need of repairs basicly, this money should stay in our country.
And yet we carry with these payments putting other countries above our own.
Disgusting all round from all parties concerned, it has been going on for many years, it's time it stopped.
You don't think that we as a Nation, or us as individuals, should give a helping hand to those less fortunate than us?
You might think things are bad here, but compared to many or even MOST countries, we are living a life of luxury. We really are.
Fancy living for a week or two with no 'leccy, no running water, no flushing toilets, no TV, no radio, no heating, no roads, no Social Security or Unemployment Benefit, no job, and your home bombed to a pile of rubble? And yet, here in the UK, we complain about a few potholes in the roads.
In full Crocodile Dundee style, "Pothole? THIS is a pothole..."
The media are beginning to pick up on it all as per below.
REVEALED: The staggering amount we are sending to Somalia.
British taxpayers will be sending at least £25million to Somalia over the next five years as part of the Government's "Green Urban Growth" initiative.
It comes as Rachel Reeves makes drastic cuts to public services at home to plug what she insists is the £22billion black hole left by the last government.
Against this tough economic backdrop at home, the Government has awarded a contract for the "delivery of a Green Urban Growth (GUG) programme" in Somalia.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) awarded the contract to DT Global International Development UK LTD last month.
The contract, which is due to run until 31 July 2030, will see £25million worth of taxpayer money going to the crime-ridden country as part of the Government's green initiative.
The programme aims to support Somalia cities to "become more inclusive and resilient to cope with rapid urbanisation and climate change", according to the Government's website, and will help "harness green growth opportunities that contribute to poverty reduction and build longer-term resilience for Somalia's Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and the urban poor".
In addition to the £25million, the contract has an extension option of 24 months and allows for an increase in value of up to an additional £25million which may include funding from other donors to support collaboration and partnerships on urban development.
The revelation has sparked an outcry this week after it was widely shared on social media, with users accusing the Government of "woke waste" as Britons face increasingly difficult economic conditions.
Several netizens called for the immediate creation of the UK's answer to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Donald Trump and Elon Musk's radical attempt to wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.
The media are beginning to pick up on it all as per below.
REVEALED: The staggering amount we are sending to Somalia.
British taxpayers will be sending at least £25million to Somalia over the next five years as part of the Government's "Green Urban Growth" initiative.
It comes as Rachel Reeves makes drastic cuts to public services at home to plug what she insists is the £22billion black hole left by the last government.
Against this tough economic backdrop at home, the Government has awarded a contract for the "delivery of a Green Urban Growth (GUG) programme" in Somalia.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) awarded the contract to DT Global International Development UK LTD last month.
The contract, which is due to run until 31 July 2030, will see £25million worth of taxpayer money going to the crime-ridden country as part of the Government's green initiative.
The programme aims to support Somalia cities to "become more inclusive and resilient to cope with rapid urbanisation and climate change", according to the Government's website, and will help "harness green growth opportunities that contribute to poverty reduction and build longer-term resilience for Somalia's Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and the urban poor".
In addition to the £25million, the contract has an extension option of 24 months and allows for an increase in value of up to an additional £25million which may include funding from other donors to support collaboration and partnerships on urban development.
The revelation has sparked an outcry this week after it was widely shared on social media, with users accusing the Government of "woke waste" as Britons face increasingly difficult economic conditions.
Several netizens called for the immediate creation of the UK's answer to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Donald Trump and Elon Musk's radical attempt to wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.
Anyone care to guess where that article was published? Sorry, no prizes.
Living in Somalia is not exactly a garden party.... I really don't care what others may think or say, these people need & deserve our help. There is a massive humanitarian crisis in Somalia & it behoves us all to lend our support in any way we can. It's officially one of the poorest countries in the World.
They don't complain about reduced Winter Fuel Allowance or poor Pensions as they don't get any of either.
Gazan family allowed to settle in UK under Ukrainian scheme - as Home Office warns of 'floodgates opening'
A judge has ruled that a Gazan family can join a relative in the UK under a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees - leading to fears the decision could pave the way for a new wave of asylum seekers.
Hugo Norton-Taylor decided that the Palestinian family of six should be able to move to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
The initiative was set up in March 2022 to allow Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia to move to the UK if they had a relative who was a British citizen or had settled status. The scheme ended last year.
But a Palestinian family - a father, mother and four children - whose home had been blown up in an air strike applied to move to Britain under the programme, claiming that their situation was so "compelling" that they should be let in anyway.
They were initially rebuffed because their case didn't fit the scheme, with the rationale that it is up to Parliament which countries can benefit from resettlement programmes, the Telegraph reported.
But Norton-Taylor, an upper tribunal judge, overruled this decision, and found that the family had the right to come to the UK on the basis of their Article 8 right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Judge Norton-Taylor ruled that their specific situation outweighed the public interest in keeping to British immigration rules.
The ruling has sparked fears that a precedent could be set, and millions more people in similar war-torn circumstances could theoretically be given permission to come to the UK.
The Conservatives' Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the ruling could serve as “a basis for anyone in any conflict zone anywhere in the world with relations in the UK to come here”.
He added: “The UK has generously helped people in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong with specific humanitarian schemes. We cannot have judges simply making up new schemes based on novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law.
“It is clearer than ever that radical changes to human rights laws are needed – so Parliament, and not judges, make decisions about eligibility to come to the UK. Now there is a ceasefire in Gaza, I hope that the Government appeals this decision based on the new facts on the ground."
A Home Office spokesperson said that they had contested the case "rigorously".
“The latter court ruled against us on the narrow facts of this specific case.
"Nevertheless, we are clear that there is no resettlement route from Gaza, and we will continue to contest any future claims that do not meet our rules.”
The same judge, Norton-Taylor, also ruled in favour of a failed Albanian asylum seeker who claimed he had the right to stay in the UK based on his relationship with his wife's children by another man.
Norton-Taylor also decided in 2022 that a convicted rapist from Afghanistan should not be deported back to his home country because of the risk posed to him by the Taliban.
As GB NEWS has been mentioned I thought I'd post this which is also being shared on the Socials, to be fair they raise good points for both sides of the argument.
Maybe not, the government are apparently fighting tooth and nail against this.
No surprise there I suppose. We are living in the age of I'm All Right Jack.
Some of these stories are now being picked up by the mainstream media. I think you have made a valiant to defend at least some of them. However the average person will not be bothered to lift the bonnet, as you have done. They will just read the headlines. If you were struggling to make ends meet, you might think that shrimp farms in Bangladesh was a step too far. I fear the stories will just increase that tw at Farages ammunition.
Maybe not, the government are apparently fighting tooth and nail against this.
No surprise there I suppose. We are living in the age of I'm All Right Jack.
Some of these stories are now being picked up by the mainstream media. I think you have made a valiant to defend at least some of them. However the average person will not be bothered to lift the bonnet, as you have done. They will just read the headlines. If you were struggling to make ends meet, you might think that shrimp farms in Bangladesh was a step too far. I fear the stories will just increase that tw at Farages ammunition.
With hindsight, it's easy to see why we voted for Brexit, & how Trump got back into power.
The annoying thing is that it only takes the very minimum of effort to look deeper & find "the other side" of these stories, & the reasoning.
Folks WANT things to be wrong, so they can finger-point, as we have seen from some Forum regulars.
A gentleman got VERY excited on the Forum yesterday & started 4 different threads in 21 minutes because he thought there were two identical cards in the Sky Poker deck. I mean, really, if you actually thought about it for a second or two, how could that be possible? It's a piece of software code. And you might be forgiven for thinking that if there were two identical cards in the Sky Poker "deck", other players might have noticed it....
Comments
Yes, I completely get that you were not being anti Starmer/Tory/Labour etc & I weas not suggesting you were, it was a more general point.
My point is to make a FAIR judgement, we need to see all the facts so we can make a balanced view. The Albanian Prison story is a terrific example where only one side of the story was reported. When we see both sides of the story it looks very different. Ditto the TfL Taxi deal. And, no doubt, all the others. Incidentally, I have no problem at all with money being spent anywhere to combat climate change.
We also need to sense-check everything we see, hear or read. If someone says 2 + 2 = 7 we sense-check it & say to ourselves, whoa, hold up, does that make sense? And the same goes with (apparently) dishing out new cars willy-nilly to some overseas Prison Service. There HAS to be more to it than was reported. And there was. And it only took me 30 seconds to find the other side of that tale. And I looked because, on the face of it, as reported, the story made no sense. So I needed to delve deeper to make it make sense. And I did, & it did.
With the High Commission "ONE SUPPLIER" thing, I did not need to delve, as I understand how large Construction Projects work, it was my trade for 40 years. ALWAYS one Supplier/Contractor, & they in turn sub-contract to the specialist trades. A Client would NEVER do that.
Transparency would seem to be a virtue, but when the populace just bark at stuff it probably isn't.
4/ The UK taxpayer will spend £22,490,382 to support “Green Growth in Nepal” from 2024-2029.
7/ A £10,000,000 contract for “Enhancing Gender and Human Development Outcomes through Systems Strengthening” in Nepal.
3/ The UK Taxpayer will spend £25,000,000 to support Green Urban Growth in Somalia.
Yet pensioners cannot pay their fuel bills, workers facing no pay rises, people are undoubtly going to lose jobs after the budget, record homlessness, our roads in dire need of repairs basicly, this money should stay in our country.
And yet we carry with these payments putting other countries above our own.
Disgusting all round from all parties concerned, it has been going on for many years, it's time it stopped.
You don't think that we as a Nation, or us as individuals, should give a helping hand to those less fortunate than us?
You might think things are bad here, but compared to many or even MOST countries, we are living a life of luxury. We really are.
Fancy living for a week or two with no 'leccy, no running water, no flushing toilets, no TV, no radio, no heating, no roads, no Social Security or Unemployment Benefit, no job, and your home bombed to a pile of rubble? And yet, here in the UK, we complain about a few potholes in the roads.
In full Crocodile Dundee style, "Pothole? THIS is a pothole..."
We should be sending a lot more to help those in need, but because we are nation with a large proportion of xenophobic bigots the government would not get away with it.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2022/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2022
There are many many other factors at play in each situation and each would have to be looked at specifically to see how and why they happened, and with all the details of course.
Standard procedure around the UK tends to be - find something that might look like you can shout at the government about, and then argue about it with people whether you've got the facts or not and then call for heads to roll and just keep repeating that.
At last, a c hink of light for the Gazans.
REVEALED: The staggering amount we are sending to Somalia.
British taxpayers will be sending at least £25million to Somalia over the next five years as part of the Government's "Green Urban Growth" initiative.
It comes as Rachel Reeves makes drastic cuts to public services at home to plug what she insists is the £22billion black hole left by the last government.
Against this tough economic backdrop at home, the Government has awarded a contract for the "delivery of a Green Urban Growth (GUG) programme" in Somalia.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) awarded the contract to DT Global International Development UK LTD last month.
The contract, which is due to run until 31 July 2030, will see £25million worth of taxpayer money going to the crime-ridden country as part of the Government's green initiative.
The programme aims to support Somalia cities to "become more inclusive and resilient to cope with rapid urbanisation and climate change", according to the Government's website, and will help "harness green growth opportunities that contribute to poverty reduction and build longer-term resilience for Somalia's Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and the urban poor".
In addition to the £25million, the contract has an extension option of 24 months and allows for an increase in value of up to an additional £25million which may include funding from other donors to support collaboration and partnerships on urban development.
The revelation has sparked an outcry this week after it was widely shared on social media, with users accusing the Government of "woke waste" as Britons face increasingly difficult economic conditions.
Several netizens called for the immediate creation of the UK's answer to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Donald Trump and Elon Musk's radical attempt to wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.
Anyone care to guess where that article was published? Sorry, no prizes.
Living in Somalia is not exactly a garden party.... I really don't care what others may think or say, these people need & deserve our help. There is a massive humanitarian crisis in Somalia
& it behoves us all to lend our support in any way we can. It's officially one of the poorest countries in the World.
They don't complain about reduced Winter Fuel Allowance or poor Pensions as they don't get any of either.
No surprise there I suppose. We are living in the age of I'm All Right Jack.
A judge has ruled that a Gazan family can join a relative in the UK under a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees - leading to fears the decision could pave the way for a new wave of asylum seekers.
Hugo Norton-Taylor decided that the Palestinian family of six should be able to move to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
The initiative was set up in March 2022 to allow Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia to move to the UK if they had a relative who was a British citizen or had settled status. The scheme ended last year.
But a Palestinian family - a father, mother and four children - whose home had been blown up in an air strike applied to move to Britain under the programme, claiming that their situation was so "compelling" that they should be let in anyway.
They were initially rebuffed because their case didn't fit the scheme, with the rationale that it is up to Parliament which countries can benefit from resettlement programmes, the Telegraph reported.
But Norton-Taylor, an upper tribunal judge, overruled this decision, and found that the family had the right to come to the UK on the basis of their Article 8 right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Judge Norton-Taylor ruled that their specific situation outweighed the public interest in keeping to British immigration rules.
The ruling has sparked fears that a precedent could be set, and millions more people in similar war-torn circumstances could theoretically be given permission to come to the UK.
The Conservatives' Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the ruling could serve as “a basis for anyone in any conflict zone anywhere in the world with relations in the UK to come here”.
He added: “The UK has generously helped people in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong with specific humanitarian schemes. We cannot have judges simply making up new schemes based on novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law.
“It is clearer than ever that radical changes to human rights laws are needed – so Parliament, and not judges, make decisions about eligibility to come to the UK. Now there is a ceasefire in Gaza, I hope that the Government appeals this decision based on the new facts on the ground."
A Home Office spokesperson said that they had contested the case "rigorously".
“The latter court ruled against us on the narrow facts of this specific case.
"Nevertheless, we are clear that there is no resettlement route from Gaza, and we will continue to contest any future claims that do not meet our rules.”
The same judge, Norton-Taylor, also ruled in favour of a failed Albanian asylum seeker who claimed he had the right to stay in the UK based on his relationship with his wife's children by another man.
Norton-Taylor also decided in 2022 that a convicted rapist from Afghanistan should not be deported back to his home country because of the risk posed to him by the Taliban.
In another decision in 2021, Norton-Taylor gave a convicted Kosovan drug dealer leave to remain in the UK on human rights grounds.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/gaza-family-settle-uk-ukrainian-refugee-scheme/
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/boris-johnson-says-mar-a-lago-is-a-great-place-for-people-of-gaza-to-settle/ar-AA1ySRg6?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=03c5aa208dd24f61aea02c89b6400b0d&ei=48#fullscreen
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/judge-who-granted-palestinian-family-asylum-made-wrong-call-says-keir-starmer/ar-AA1yUlhx?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=dcceb838da374b1bd6bb051413717c9c&ei=74#fullscreen
I think you have made a valiant to defend at least some of them.
However the average person will not be bothered to lift the bonnet, as you have done.
They will just read the headlines.
If you were struggling to make ends meet, you might think that shrimp farms in Bangladesh was a step too far.
I fear the stories will just increase that tw at Farages ammunition.
@HAYSIE
You are right.
With hindsight, it's easy to see why we voted for Brexit, & how Trump got back into power.
The annoying thing is that it only takes the very minimum of effort to look deeper & find "the other side" of these stories, & the reasoning.
Folks WANT things to be wrong, so they can finger-point, as we have seen from some Forum regulars.
A gentleman got VERY excited on the Forum yesterday & started 4 different threads in 21 minutes because he thought there were two identical cards in the Sky Poker deck. I mean, really, if you actually thought about it for a second or two, how could that be possible? It's a piece of software code. And you might be forgiven for thinking that if there were two identical cards in the Sky Poker "deck", other players might have noticed it....