BOYCOTT FIRST PASS THE POST

Your vote is worth more if you boycott first pass the post. Don't validate an unfair system by participating in it.

[BOYCOTT FIRST PASS THE POST @EnglishFuhrer]

The Marxist Republic of East Lancashire. Probably.

[BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine @RobLooseCannon]

The biggest submarine graveyard on Earth is just off our coast and is full of priceless Nazi materials! When Germany surrendered in May 1945, the Allies had a problem on their hands. Some 156 Kriegsmarine U-boats were sitting in ports, potentially dangerous if the wrong people got ideas about a resurgence.

The bulk of them were moored at Lisahally in Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland, and Loch Ryan in Scotland, gathered in deep, sheltered anchorages well away from major commercial shipping routes while the great powers argued over what to do with them.

At Potsdam that summer, the Big Three haggled. The Soviets wanted an equal three-way split of the fleet. The Brits and Yanks, watching the Cold War take shape in real time, had no intention of handing Stalin a crash course in submarine technology. The compromise gave each major Allied power ten boats for technical evaluation, thirty in total, with the remainder to be sunk.

Personally I doubt Stalin genuinely accepted this, he likely reckoned he'd already had what he needed from the eight advanced Type XXI boats his forces captured in the eastern Baltic.

The British codenamed the disposal operation Deadlight. The plan was to tow 116 submarines to three designated zones in the Atlantic, roughly 100 miles northwest of Ireland, codenamed XX, YY and ZZ. Zone XX was the main scuttling area. Zone ZZ was set aside for aerial target practice, with 36 boats earmarked for the RAF and Fleet Air Arm to use for attack training.

Zone YY was a reserve position where naval forces could conduct gunnery practice if conditions allowed. For the rest, demolition charges were the intended method.

Didn't exactly go to plan though. Losds of these boats were sitting in exposed harbours for months and were in bits, and the North Atlantic in winter is lethal. Tow cables snapped and hulls that survived years of war gave up the ghost on the way out.

Fifty-six submarines foundered before reaching the target zones, sinking along the approach routes off the Irish and Scottish coasts. The ones that made it were mainly dispatched by gunfire rather than the planned explosive charges, because boarding them in rough water was suicide.

So now Ireland has one of the largest concentrations of submarine wrecks on the planet, scattered across the seabed at depths of between 50 and 200 metres off the northwest coast. Their ordnance is still live, but it's the other gear that's really priceless to scientists (and time travallers).

Because they were built before the atomic age, their steel isn't contaminated with the atmospheric radionuclides that taint all post-1945 metal. This makes them invaluable for making sensitive scientific instruments, and the salvage rights have been fought over ever since.

Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book https://t.co/U7jtCrOTtb

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Some very worrying questions about someone who is certainly angling for a job with Andy Burnham. So much potential for a new kind of leadership - but this would be a step backwards.

[Sea Beggar 🪢🏴‍☠️⚓ @KnotSeaworthy]

"If all else fails, I will retreat up the valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Scotch-Irish of that region and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger." -GW

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Andy Burnham making James Purnell his chief of staff does not suggest he's interested in winning back Green voters.

[Jane Samuels @Jane_Samuels]

Has Andy Burnham become PM yet? Has due diligence been cleared before James Purnell tells all his workmates he is Burnham's new chief of staff? What about a conflict of interest with a job advising the arms industry? Burnham falls at the first hurdle choosing CEO of Flint Global

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

Keir Starmer II

[simon maginn @simonmaginn]

Burnham's honeymoon period may well have ended already as he surrounds himself with some of the most detestable figures in politics.

[Matt Kennard @kennardmatt]

Andy Burnham went on a trip to Israel in January 2004, paid for by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) and Israeli Foreign Ministry

The chair of LFI at time was James Purnell, who has just been appointed Burnham's chief of staff

The lobby has the whole political system sewn up

[Rock Photography @Photomusicrock]

Mick Jagger, 82, and fiancée Melanie Hamrick, 38, attend Dior show during Paris Fashion Week.

[Mountain @sharpeleven]

If @AndyBurnhamGM carries on down the same path as Starmer, appointing his Blairite friends, lobbyists and wealthy Establishment insiders as his team, then that’s great news for @TheGreenParty and @ZackPolanski

This is a managed transfer of power. The same people are in charge.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

We need to talk about Josh Simons - and his relationship with Andy Burnham and Labour.

[Hamza Yusuf @Hamza_a96]

This Guardian article doesn’t once mention that he supported the Iraq War or that he is the former chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Very interesting omissions.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

Journalist Paul Holden tells the astonishing story of a real-life conspiracy: how a tiny group of the super-rich secretly groomed Starmer for power through a law-breaking think tank, Labour Together.

The same actors are now cosying up to Andy Burnham: https://t.co/quFMZbR2J1

[James Schneider @schneiderhome]

New manager, same owners.

“Top Andy Burnham adviser (James Purnell) lobbied for Thames Water.” - FT

The corporate capture of British politics continues apace.

https://t.co/xdUIFJjwGz

[Will Schryver @imetatronink]

If the Iranians submit to the emerging American terms of the "Memorandum of Understanding" as Trump, Bessent et al. are aggressively redefining them, they will lose every ounce of international respect they gained over the course of the past four months.

https://t.co/ukKMgfv9aC

[Coll McCail @MccailColl]

“History will remember him as the unremarkable former human rights lawyer who offered carte blanche to the gravest crimes of our age.”

Good riddance, Sir Keir. For @ScotNational.

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

If you don't like my principles, I have others

Andy Burnham became a member of Labour Friends of Israel because he was going to run for leader of the party, and it was then almost a mandatory requirement

Follow #MOATS 562 #GeorgeGalloway #AndyBurnham #LabourParty #LabourFriendsofIsrael

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Meet James Purnell. Andy Burnham's chief of staff.

He supported Iraq invasion; ex chair of Labour Friends of Israel; said that Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes should not be sacred; supported PFI, lie-detector tests for benefit claimants.

Next?
https://t.co/8Cnj0hIu62

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

The possibility that Josh Simons could be close to Andy Burnham's government raises some very serious questions.

Should a man who waged factional warfare, spied on journalists and then resigned in disgrace really be at the centre of Government?

Feels very Starmer 2.0

[Carl Jung Archive @QuoteJung]

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