Slacksoft_UK

Cornishman, Electrical Engineer, Airline Captain, Data Monkey, Android App Programmer, Rouleur, Fell-Walker, G5 armrest position.

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Further to what I wrote in this piece Trevor Phillips has since made two really excellent points:

1. Starmer’s comments about George Floyd were made even BEFORE the trial had taken place. This is fascinating - by comparison JD Vance waited until after the the conviction and sentencing. Should Starmer - the lawyer and Mr Proper Process - not have known better than to risk prejudicing the George Floyd/Derek Chauvin trial?

2. Lammy used THE VERY SAME WORDS as Vance - defending “righteous anger” - in commenting on George Floyd. And yet Lammy and co have the audacity to hypocritically criticise Vance for daring to give this opinion

https://t.co/UitTRcrEzj

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Scotland Yard has been captured by a “woke mind virus”, with police no longer treating citizens equally under the law, says former chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation Rick Prior.

In the foreword to the FSU’s new briefing, Fear and Favour: Britain’s Policing Emergency, Rick Prior writes:

“It has been clear to me that for more than a decade, the Met has been pursuing equity of outcome between ethnic groups rather than equality of opportunity and equal treatment under the law. I have seen it in the forced rotation of skilled firearms officers to manufacture ‘churn’ and diversify armed policing, at great cost in lost skills.

“I saw it in 2022, when two very senior officers were found by a tribunal to have racially discriminated against a white inspector, by removing him from a promotion process and inserting a less qualified black candidate instead.”

Rick argues that the force has prioritised equalising outcomes between ethnic groups over ensuring equality of opportunity and equal treatment under the law for more than a decade. He says this has led to a loss of skills and harmed the policing of London’s streets.

Mr Prior also said that, following the death of George Floyd in the US, the ideology of pursuing equal outcomes had “shifted from policy backrooms to operational policing through the London Race Action Plan”.

Last summer, Mr Prior joined the Met’s policy unit and was asked to help produce the force’s EDI policy. The Met ignored his recommendations.

Prior has called for free speech to be protected within legal boundaries.

He has sought to ensure that his ordeal — after he was suspended for warning on a GB News interview that some officers are increasingly concerned about challenging certain ethnic minority groups for fear of vexatious complaints and being branded racist — helps the police get things right.

The High Court later ruled that his treatment had been unlawful and a breach of his right to free speech under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Forces across the country are under significant pressure to review their EDI policies and rethink race action plans following the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak in Southampton.

Henry was stabbed by Vickrum Digwa with a 21cm knife. Following a false accusation of racism by Digwa — a Sikh — Henry was arrested. The police appeared more concerned with an allegation of racism than helping a young man who had just been stabbed.

The FSU’s new briefing shows that a doctrine which openly rejects treating people equally now governs policing.

Read more in The Telegraph and check out the new FSU briefing 👇

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Join over 50,000 people in signing the FSU’s petition to SAVE JURY TRIALS!

In one of the most authoritarian moves this government has taken to date — and that is a very high bar — it is planning to slash our ancient right to trial by jury.

David Lammy claims that curbing this fundamental liberty is the only way to tackle the growing backlog of cases in the Crown Court. Yet there is no credible evidence that weakening the right to a jury trial will solve the problem.

The Government is pressing ahead despite opposition from judges, lawyers, victims of crime, opposition MPs, and even members of its own party.

Trial by jury is one of the cornerstones of our justice system. Once lost, it will be extraordinarily difficult to restore.

Send the Government a clear message: hands off our right to trial by jury.

✍️Sign the petition below 👇

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@jponeil28921657 @metoffice Now the temperature isn't playing ball, they've got to move the goalposts.

Just like covid with the rotating cases/deaths/r-numbers.

Is beyond me how short people's memories are and how anyone falls for it.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@jamiesusskind https://t.co/gro2d3UNTX

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@metoffice Given your climageddon fearmongering after a couple of hot days, why aren't you predicting an ice age now it's turned a bit cooler?

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@stevenctilley @ClareCraigPath It's a question of ethics. Nobody should ever be forced to take a medication from which they can glean NO benefit, simply because other groups MAY benefit.

That's the top of a very steep utilitarian slope.

[Dr Clare Craig @ClareCraigPath]

Why can't public health understand risk?

Their optimistic claim is that mandating folic acid in our flour might prevent 200 cases of neural tube defects in pregnancy a year.

But with 70M people in UK that is a chance of benefit of 1 in 350,000.

BUT

69.5 million of us have NO POSSIBILITY OF BENEFIT.

For those people it is ALL risk.

[Nick Dixon @NickDixon]

Lammy told off JD Vance for calling for ‘righteous anger’ over Henry Nowak’s death, yet he himself used the exact same phrase about George Floyd.

As usual, he has no coherent response. It’s just anti-white hypocrisy.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@Artemisfornow Nobody would suggest Churchill wasn't a flawed individual, but whilst we erase him from banknotes, it's nice to see, strolling around Copenhagen, that other nations honour him.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

Whatever your political beliefs, this is an outrage.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Senior figures at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, under the command of Andy Burnham, have cautioned firefighters who support Reform UK over their political views.

In a further chilling assault on free speech, staff have also effectively been urged in an email to report colleagues who support Reform.

Fire brigade bosses have also said they are seeking legal advice on what to do about firefighters who decide to stand as Reform UK candidates. This is despite the fact that, unlike police officers, there is no legal bar preventing firefighters from participating in national or local politics.

In their email, fire brigade bosses Mr Petch and Ms Ahmed said: ’We are aware that some staff members have chosen to represent Reform UK in their local areas. We know this may cause concern within our network and wider.

’The individuals involved have been spoken to, to make it clear that as members of GMFRS (Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service) our core values and professional behaviours must be displayed at all times.

’The service is currently seeking formal legal guidance… to ensure we are protected from all perspectives and that our inclusive culture remains safe.

‘Our priority is and always will be ensuring that every member of this network feels supported, respected and safe at work.’

They also confirmed that they would be consulting the Fire Brigades Union on the matter.

In his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, @AndyBurnhamGM — who is also tipped by some to be a future Prime Minister if he wins the Makerfield by-election — is also Greater Manchester’s Fire Commissioner, responsible for overseeing the service.

General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, has now written to Mr Burnham to raise concerns about the chilling effect this has on free speech.

Lord Young said that the ‘clear implication’ of the email from the fire brigade bosses was that ‘representing Reform UK constitutes an inherent threat to the institution’s culture and values and is to be treated as morally suspect’. He also highlighted that no action appears to have been taken against firefighters who support other political parties.

The letter also states: ‘Staff are further invited to report colleagues who support any groups that go against the service’s values, which effectively amounts to an instruction to inform on colleagues for their political beliefs.

’The email will create a chilling effect on the free speech of GMFRS employees who support Reform.

’The practical effect is that a public fire and rescue service governed by you is treating the lawful political activity of your electoral opponents as a reputational risk to their employer.

‘Regardless of whether this reflects your instruction, it reflects your governance; and a public office-holder who permits his institution to demonise or chill the speech and political activity of those who support his principal electoral rival cannot claim to be discharging that office with the impartiality it demands.’

Read more below 👇

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@samuel1021 Although, volumetric energy density is a key requirement for aircraft, and kerosene wins hands down without needing any specialist handling or storage.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

I may not share the poster's views on the need to reduce CO₂ emissions, but the commentary about engineering in the UK is well made.

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

This past week, on a test bed in Britain, a Rolls-Royce jet engine ran at full take-off power on pure hydrogen, putting out water vapour instead of carbon.

Nobody on Earth had managed it before. It is the sort of thing that ought to stop the country in its tracks, and it will be forgotten by the weekend.

Leave aside the recent paroxysms of renewed net-zero insanity from Derelict Ed and the pervasive atmosphere of offended envy that greets much homegrown achievement nowadays in Britain. This engineering is a wonder, and it's British to the bone.

We gave the world the jet engine in the first place - Frank Whittle, a Coventry man and an RAF officer, patented it in 1930 while the Air Ministry assured him it was a curiosity. Rolls-Royce is today one of perhaps three firms anywhere that can build a large aero engine at the outer edge of the possible, and it has just done what most of the industry swore was twenty years away.

As usual, you marvel at how little the people who govern us had to do with it. The engineers in Derby are world-class; the stewardship above them is third-rate. They pulled off a global first while paying the most expensive industrial electricity in the developed world to keep the power on over the bench - a weight no German, American or Gulf rival has to carry. We produce frontier brilliance on the shop floor and fritter it away at the despatch box, and we have done for two generations.

That is the maddening shape of modern Britain: brilliance from below, sub- (or, indeed, ultra-) mediocrity from above. The people here who actually make things are still among the best in the world; the state that is meant to back them treats a firm like Rolls-Royce as a photocall today and a takeover target tomorrow, and prices its energy as though it would prefer the next plant were built in Texas.

Progress starts from the other end. Give these people what every rival government gives its champions and we beg ours to do without: the cheap, abundant power their competitors already enjoy, a supply chain built around them, and a state that guards a national asset rather than auctioning it. The hard part of a British revival - the talent, the nerve, the engineering - is already done, and was done again this week, by people who deserve a far better country than the one currently sitting above them.

We just taught an engine to breathe fire and exhale water. The least we owe the men and women who managed it is a government and a state as brilliant as they are.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@nomad_dissident @SwipeWright I think for many, it's classic cognitive dissonance. The finger in the dyke analogy applies.

Their subconscious is protecting them, because once you realise that one thing you believe is based on nothing, or lies, there's the potential for your whole belief system to collapse.

[Slacksoft_UK @Slacksoft_uk]

@MhehedZherting @AllForProgress_ I agree that the whole CO₂ aspect is a red herring, but the general commentary about engineering in the UK is well made.

[Dr Clare Craig @ClareCraigPath]

There needs to be a debate on folic acid.
Government are mandating this DRUG be added to our BREAD.

It is a massive issue for the health of millions.

Please sign so that parliament can challenge the decision.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Senior figures at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, under the command of Andy Burnham, have cautioned firefighters who support Reform UK over their political views.

In a further chilling assault on free speech, staff have also effectively been urged in an email to report colleagues who support Reform.

Fire brigade bosses have also said they are seeking legal advice on what to do about firefighters who decide to stand as Reform UK candidates. This is despite the fact that, unlike police officers, there is no legal bar preventing firefighters from participating in national or local politics.

In their email, fire brigade bosses Mr Petch and Ms Ahmed said: ’We are aware that some staff members have chosen to represent Reform UK in their local areas. We know this may cause concern within our network and wider.

’The individuals involved have been spoken to, to make it clear that as members of GMFRS (Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service) our core values and professional behaviours must be displayed at all times.

’The service is currently seeking formal legal guidance… to ensure we are protected from all perspectives and that our inclusive culture remains safe.

‘Our priority is and always will be ensuring that every member of this network feels supported, respected and safe at work.’

They also confirmed that they would be consulting the Fire Brigades Union on the matter.

In his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, @AndyBurnhamGM — who is also tipped by some to be a future Prime Minister if he wins the Makerfield by-election — is also Greater Manchester’s Fire Commissioner, responsible for overseeing the service.

General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, has now written to Mr Burnham to raise concerns about the chilling effect this has on free speech.

Lord Young said that the ‘clear implication’ of the email from the fire brigade bosses was that ‘representing Reform UK constitutes an inherent threat to the institution’s culture and values and is to be treated as morally suspect’. He also highlighted that no action appears to have been taken against firefighters who support other political parties.

The letter also states: ‘Staff are further invited to report colleagues who support any groups that go against the service’s values, which effectively amounts to an instruction to inform on colleagues for their political beliefs.

’The email will create a chilling effect on the free speech of GMFRS employees who support Reform.

’The practical effect is that a public fire and rescue service governed by you is treating the lawful political activity of your electoral opponents as a reputational risk to their employer.

‘Regardless of whether this reflects your instruction, it reflects your governance; and a public office-holder who permits his institution to demonise or chill the speech and political activity of those who support his principal electoral rival cannot claim to be discharging that office with the impartiality it demands.’

Read more below 👇

[Adam Smith Institute @ASI]

Today is Tax Freedom Day!

Up until June 5th, every penny the average Brit earned went straight to the taxman. From today (June 6th), you are finally earning for yourself!

Under our improved methodology, this is the latest Tax Freedom Day ever recorded. 👇

[Alan @A1an_M]

Buy a diesel car.
Take statins for your cholesterol.
Fill a third of your plate with carbohydrates.
Get a SMART meter.
Vote Remain.
Wear a mask.
Stay home to protect the NHS.
Get a COVID vaccine.
Get two COVID vaccines a year, for ever. And a flu vaccine.
Buy an electric car.
Get a heat pump.
Drink milk from cows that don't burp.
Eat bread and cereals with folic acid to protect the child you're carrying from spina bifida, even if you're a man.

I wonder what the next piece of terrible government advice will be.

Looking on the bright side, at least they are a good guide for what not to do.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

The Bank of England says British heros are too “divisive” and “elitist” for Britain’s banknotes?

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
George Orwell

Reject this 💣