#u.k. government

[comraderaccoon]

Can the U.K. please just declare Larry the official PM, please? 

#Larry the Cat #British #british politics #British PM #Lizz Truss #U.K. #u.k. government #u.k. economy #u.k. news #prime minister #U.K. crumbling like a cookie during teatime #Dear God #I kinda had a feeling that her being the last PM to meet the Queen was a bad omen #Lettuce #Cat #Cats #No wonder the Brits were so good at satire

[queerbreadcrumbs]

U.K. public: Hey we’ve got some real serious problems like our healthcare system is falling apart and lots of us are working full time jobs but can’t afford to power and heat our homes and if we have children we can’t afford to continue working so can we please do something about all that?

U.K. government: Hold on, I need to stop trans people from changing a letter on their birth certificates.

U.K. government: Also fuck Scotland lol.

#transgender #transgender uk #u.k. government #uk #u.k. news

[mabhsavage]

Pictures like this just make me think I’m living in a long, exhausting prank show. This is U.K. politics. I mean wtf is even happening

#Ready4Rishi #Ready for Rishi #Rishi Sunak #no I do not endorse him #tax the fucking rich please #U.K. politics #U.K. government #conservative leadership race #conservative leadership election

[sir-klauz]

since the gas prices tripled I am hearing 10x “it’s cold innit” and for the sake of stopping this please decrease the prices again

#gas prices #I hate small talk about the weather this is gonna kill me #freezing weather #uk weather #british gas #gas industry #u.k. government

[quarterpastmidnight]

Just sitting here having nightmarish visions of the Haunted Pencil putting a bid in for the P.M job, and then Boris comes along.

#fuck me drunk #never trust a tory #we need a general election NOW! #u.k. government

[silver-rings-and-rabbits]

I feel very conflicted about the queen’s death.

On the one hand I feel I *should* be mourning because...tradition? I guess?

On the other I can think of PLENTY of reasons not to.

Just because colonialism didn’t affect me doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

The queen was born into wealth by luck of the draw. Maybe she did something once but I am under 30 and I cannot think of a single significant thing the royals have done in my lifetime. Meanwhile, for over ten years, a bunch of clowns have been residing in parliament and tearing the country to the ground. The monarchy is about the only organisation who could have power over parliament and......zilch.

The queen loves and serves her country? Then why isn’t anything being done? All the lies and parties in lockdown in parliament whilst the queen sat ALONE at her husbands funeral would have been the perfect time for the monarchy to step up and there was not a word.

Don’t forget the jubilee and now the funeral and coronation—probably tax payer funded—whilst millions of households are facing a cost of living crisis the likes of which we have never seen before.

Don’t forget how Andrew the nonce was shielded from harm but Meghan Markle was apparently the worst thing that happened to the family and Harry has brought shame upon the country.

Time to rethink what being a monarch should actually mean.

It must be the indoctrination of history because part of me wants to clutch my pearls at the memes and another part of me thinks ‘no why should I? Where’s the lie?’

So please tell me, why should I be sad about the queen’s death?

#the queen #British royal family #the queen died #disillusionment #u.k. news #u.k. government #u.k. parliament

[kate-bish0p]

Replaced one idiot with another idiot

#u.k. politics #liz truss #Boris Johnson #who can I sacrifice for a Labour government

[nando161mando]

"It’s a basic human right to have a private conversation...If the U.K. uses its new powers to scan people’s data, lawmakers will damage the security people need to protect themselves from harassers, data thieves, authoritarian governments, and others."

#privacy #invasion of privacy #uk politics #uk government #uk govt #united kingdom #uk #electronic frontier foundation #eff #u.k. #corrupt politicians #corrupt police #corrupt government #government #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #neoliberal capitalism #fuck neoliberals #anthony albanese #albanese government #fuck the gop #fuck the police #fuck the supreme court #fuck the patriarchy #class war #classwar

[ausetkmt]

The New York Times: U.K. Government Goes Full Tilt on Tax Cuts and Free-Market Economics

Sept. 23, 2022

LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, gambled on Friday that a heavy dose of tax cuts, deregulation and free-market economics would reignite her country’s growth — a radical shift in policy that unnerved global investors already rattled by an energy crisis, surging inflation and the specter of widespread recessions.

The British announcement came as markets around the world have been tumbling for weeks in response to higher interest rates and recession fears. The slide continued on Friday with the S&P 500 index falling close to its lowest point of the year and markets across Europe tumbling.

The move by Ms. Truss’s government indicated a sharp break with the previous prime minister, Boris Johnson, and with a generation of more fiscally minded Conservative governments.

For Ms. Truss, the measures — which critics liken to the “trickle-down economics” of the 1980s — amounted to a breathtaking bet that Britain’s economy would return to robust growth before she faces voters in two years. But the tax cuts, on top of extensive state intervention to cap soaring household energy bills tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, are likely to require tens of billions of pounds of new government borrowing, deepening anxiety about Britain’s public finances.

British stocks and bonds and the pound all plummeted after the announcement, with the currency falling to fresh lows against the dollar, levels not seen in nearly four decades. The jitters spread to the United States and Europe, where stocks fell sharply amid fears that more aggressive increases in interest rates would be needed to quell inflation and that economies could slide into painful recessions this winter.

These fears are even more acute in Britain, where economic growth has ground to a halt, inflation is running at its fastest pace since the early 1980s, and the Bank of England has already raised rates seven times to curb surging prices.

Against that fraught backdrop, the new chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, abandoned a proposed rise in corporate taxation and, in a surprise move, also abolished the top rate of 45 percent of income tax applied to those earning more than 150,000 pounds, or about $164,000, a year. He also cut the basic rate for lower earners and cut taxes on house purchases.

“We will focus on growth, even when that means taking difficult decisions,” Mr. Kwarteng told a packed House of Commons. He acknowledged that “none of this is going to happen overnight,” but said that the focus on tax cuts “is how we will turn this vicious cycle of stagnation into a virtuous cycle of growth.”

It is hard to overstate the magnitude of the policy shift from Mr. Johnson’s government, which just one year ago had announced targeted tax increases to offset its increased public spending because of the pandemic.

While Ms. Truss had run for Conservative Party leader as a tax cutter, the breadth of the cuts announced Friday surprised the markets. They will cost £45 billion, or about $49 billion, over the next five years — the largest tax cuts compared with any budget since 1972, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a London-based think tank.

The government contends that reducing taxes will encourage more investment and that the benefits will flow through the economy. But the risk is that the measures are insufficient to reverse years of lackluster productivity and business investment.

The tax cuts follow promises already made to shield households and businesses from the soaring cost of energy, which have tempered both the projected increases in inflation and the expected decline in economic growth. But together, they will mean more government borrowing, and one of the biggest dangers is that investors will be dubious that the government’s new policy will work. That could push the cost of borrowing to painful highs and make the debt levels unsustainable.

Those fears led to the steep sell-off of British assets on Friday. Some analysts said the risk that the pound and the dollar could soon reach parity had increased, reflecting both the pound’s tumble and the dollar’s role as a refuge during global economic storms.

Beyond fears of unsustainable government borrowing, critics said Britain’s fiscal and monetary policies were dangerously at cross-purposes.

The Bank of England is trying to quell inflation by using one of the few tools it has: interest rate increases that dampen economic activity. Yet the government is trying to fire up the economy, for example by stoking the housing market and by widely cutting taxes, a combination that could fuel higher inflation.

On Thursday, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, John Gieve, told the BBC that the central bank and the government were “pulling in different directions.”

The chancellor’s statement in Parliament on Friday underscored the free-market, small-state, tax-cutting instincts of Ms. Truss, who has modeled herself on Margaret Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher’s economic revolution in the 1980s turned the economy around, although at a high cost for many, with rising unemployment and labor unrest.

Some dispute the comparison to Thatcher. The plans announced on Friday mean a large increase in government borrowing at a time of rising interest rates, and so far there has been no indication of corresponding spending cuts. While Thatcher was a committed tax cutter, she believed in balancing the books first.

Ms. Truss’s tax cuts, which disproportionately favor high-wage-earners, have instead drawn comparisons to the tax policies of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. president who argued that tax benefits for companies and the wealthy would benefit those with lower incomes.

Nonetheless, Mr. Kwarteng’s plans — and the ideology behind them — will probably set the framework for the campaigning before the next general election, which must be held by January 2025.

Ms. Truss will be hoping that, during the intervening two years, policies that she says are “unashamedly pro-growth” can engineer at least the start of a solid economic recovery, allowing her to appeal to voters to stick with the Conservatives — rather than risk switching to the opposition Labour Party.

By describing his announcement as a “fiscal event” rather than a budget, Mr. Kwarteng avoided the need for a government watchdog’s in-depth assessment of the economic and fiscal impact of his plans.

On Friday, the government gave the first glimpse of how much the caps on energy bills might cost, estimating that the price tag would be £60 billion in the first six months alone. Mr. Kwarteng also gave estimates of how much the tax cuts would cost.

Even as Mr. Kwarteng took questions from his fellow lawmakers in Parliament, British assets began tumbling in financial markets. He responded to that news by saying, “The markets react as they will, but the growth plan will very soon show we are on the right course and we are steering us to a more prosperous future.”

The pound has weakened against most major currencies this year, but those losses intensified on Friday. The pound fell more than 2 percent against the euro and dropped 3.5 percent against the U.S. dollar, to below $1.09. The FTSE 100, Britain’s benchmark stock index, lost about 2 percent.

The yield on government bonds, a measure of borrowing costs, jumped higher as investors digested the tax cuts and the policies that will require £72 billion more in bond sales than previously forecast.

Ms. Truss’s government now says that igniting growth by lowering taxes and cutting regulation is its central mission, even if that means courting unpopularity; it will also, for example, lift the cap on the bonuses that can be offered to bankers.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said on Twitter that the announcement would send “the superwealthy laughing all the way to the actual bank” while increasing the number of people relying on food banks, which help those unable to pay for essentials.

Mr. Kwarteng also outlined plans to create “investment zones,” with liberalized planning rules, where targeted and time-limited tax cuts will be offered to encourage construction of shopping malls, restaurants, apartments and offices.

Mr. Kwarteng also said that he aimed to speed up infrastructure projects, including new roads and railways, by reducing the burden of environmental assessments required before work can begin.

Rachel Reeves, who speaks for the opposition Labour Party on economic issues, described the announcement as “a budget without figures, a menu without prices” and “an admission of 12 years of economic failures” from a Conservative Party that has been in power since 2010.

#The New York Times: U.K. Government Goes Full Tilt on Tax Cuts and Free-Market Economics. #britian #english government #british economy #liz truss

[peresephoknee]

feeling hopeless is a useless emotion so kill it dead immediately. action alleviates despair.

#some kind of reminder #I hate the U.K. I hate England I hate Scotland I hate westminister I hate holyrood I hate all of my fucking governments

[mc-posts]

Thanks Joe Biden. Confidence in U.S., U.K. Governments Lowest in G7.

Thanks Joe Biden. Confidence in U.S., U.K. Governments Lowest in G7. BY BENEDICT VIGERS For decades, much has been made of the “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom. But in 2022, the national governments of both nations shared a somewhat less special accomplishment: earning the least confidence from their constituents of any G7 member country. When Gallup first…

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#Thanks Joe Biden. Confidence in U.S. #U.K. Governments Lowest in G7.

[zvaigzdelasas]

An Irish nationalist made history Saturday by becoming Northern Ireland’s first minister as the government returned to work after a two-year boycott by unionists.

Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill was named first minister in the government that under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord shares power equally between Northern Ireland’s two main communities — British unionists who want to stay in the U.K., and Irish nationalists who seek to unite with Ireland.[...]

O’Neill, 47, who was born in the Republic of Ireland but raised in the north, comes from a family with links to the militant Irish Republican Army. Her father was imprisoned as an IRA member, an uncle raised money for the group and two of her cousins were shot — one fatally — by security forces.

O’Neill has been criticized for attending events commemorating the IRA and told an interviewer there was “no alternative” to the group’s armed campaign during the Troubles, a period of about 30 years of violent conflict over the future of Northern Ireland, which ended with the Good Friday accords.

3 Feb 24

[probablyasocialecologist]

More than half of Iran’s weapons were destroyed by U.S. aircraft and missiles before they ever reached Israel. In fact, by commanding a multinational air defense operation and scrambling American fighter jets, this was a U.S. military triumph.   The extent of the U.S. military operation is unbeknownst to the American public, but the Pentagon coordinated a multination, regionwide defense extending from northern Iraq to the southern Persian Gulf on Saturday. During the operation, the U.S., U.K., France, and Jordan all shot down the majority of Iranian drones and missiles. In fact, where U.S. aircraft originated from has not been officially announced, an omission that has been repeated by the mainstream media. Additionally, the role of Saudi Arabia is unclear, both as a base for the United States and in terms of any actions by the Saudi military.

[...]

Israel’s statement that it shot down the majority of Iranian “cruise missiles” is probably an exaggeration. According to U.S. military sources and preliminary reporting, U.S. and allied aircraft shot down the majority of drones and cruise missiles. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the Royal Air Force Typhoons intercepted “a number” of Iranian weapons over Iraqi and Syrian airspace. The Jordanian government has also hinted that its aircraft downed some Iranian weapons. “We will intercept every drone or missile that violates Jordan’s airspace to avert any danger. Anything posing a threat to Jordan and the security of Jordanians, we will confront it with all our capabilities and resources,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said during an interview on the Al-Mamlaka news channel. French fighters also shot down some drones and possibly cruise missiles.

#israel #usa #palestine #iran #iron dome

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

So whenever your disability pride flag is shared on tiktok, ive noticed people asking why do disabled people need a pride flag, or saying that we dont deserve one because we are "co opting" the gay pride movement... and i am honestly at a loss at what to say to them

Okay, then: here's some Disability Pride Talking points for you, when you come upon that assumption:

First: The Disability Rights Movement gained steam in the U.S. at the same time as the Civil Rights Movement was advocating for racial equality, and the Women's Rights movement was advocating for gender equality -- all in the same decade as the Stonewall Riots.

Second: it may seem like Disability Pride Month is "copying" Queer Pride Month, because July comes right after June. But the reason we celebrate Disability Pride Month in July is because that's when The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed: on July 26, 1990. This was the first Disabilities Rights act in the world. It was followed in 1995 by the Disabilities Discrimination Act in the U.K., and in 2019 in Canada.

Third: on April 5, 1977, the (American) Nationwide 504 Sit-in (Wikipedia article) began, to protest the fact that three presidents in a row had been stalling for four years to implement Disability Civil Rights legislation. Disability advocates staged sit-ins in Federal Buildings for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle, San Fransisco, and Washington D.C..

The sit-in in Washington D.C. lasted 28 hours. The Sit-in in San Fransisco lasted 25 Days, and remains the longest occupation of a Federal Government building in U.S. History (It was epic). The civil rights group The Black Panthers also helped with logistical support.

The police tried to force the people inside to leave by cutting phone lines, forgetting that there were people who knew American Sign Language both inside the building, and outside, in the crowd, and they relayed messages back and forth through the windows (excuse me while I take a Cackle break).

Finally: Disabled people are human beings, and deserve all the human rights as everyone else. But a lot of people in authority, look at our lives from the outside, decide that we already have a low-quality of life (without actually asking us), and deciding that it wouldn't be so bad if we died. You know, at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in this country, it was a fairly common policy that if hospitals ran low on ventilators, they'd just take them from disabled people who needed to use them every day? Remember that?

That's why we have to get loud.

#Disability Pride Month ♿ #Disability History #just a few talking points #there are many more #Covid-19 #Rationing health care #eugenics #''quality of life'' #nothing about us without us

[mintpopz]

a brief post regarding KOSA.

KOSA (also known as Kids Online Safety Act) alongside others like it (such as the Online Safety Act in the UK, RESTRICT-IT, COPPA 2.0, etc.) Are planning to censor the internet. In particular, KOSA and Online Safety Act are very close to being passed through and made law.

Now, what do I mean when I say "censor the internet"? Well...

Under the guise of "Protecting children", these bigots trying to push the bill through congress want to censor LGBTQ+/queer content (including advice for trans and gay teenagers), abortion, gun violence, gore and violence, sexual/18+ content, suicide and depression help, and many more.

This bill also plans to effectively destroy free speech online, with the removal of end-to-end encryption. Furthermore, it also wants an ID for online posting and will reveal what kids are doing to their parents regardless. This would be extremely harmful especially for queer minors in the closet, or minors with abusive parents.

but what can YOU do to stop these bills?

You can Phone your senators, sign petitions, send emails, or spread the word through social media. We CANNOT let laws like KOSA and Online Safety Act censor queer people and destroy our queer cultures online. 2 senators have already disagreed with KOSA, one of them because of the phonecalls and feedback from people like US, which is proof that it's still worth fighting. the fight is far from over, but even the smallest of actions is one step closer to shutting this bill down. Both KOSA and Online Safety are in recess until September, so make this month count.

finally, here are some links to helpful sites/petitions and more information:

#aero talks #important #us politics #uk politics #kosa #stop kosa #online safety act #stop online safety act #fight for the future #lgbtqia

[ceilingstar07]

What a week:(

Monday, July 4): US Independence Day! Fireworks and Fun!

Also another devastating mass shooting in the US: Highland Park parade shooting.

July 6: 40+ U.K. MPs resign

July 7: Boris Johnson resigns (basically the UK government collapsed)

July 8: Former PM of Japan, Shinzo Abe is assassinated

There was an internet outage across Canada

July 9: After protestors stormed the Sri Lankan president's house, the president and PM resign.

Elon Musk backs out of Twitter deal

Ex-president of Mexico dies at 100

Meanwhile the war in Ukraine is still ongoing

What a wonderful time it is to be world leader. For the first time, the BBC's homepage isn't just full of America's problems

#this week #not great #uk politics #july 4 #shinzo abe #Canada #world events #war in ukraine #sri lanka #bbc #boris johnson #members of parliament #2022