
Refugee Blues by W H Auden
Comments & analysis: Say this city has ten million souls, / Some are living in mansions, some are living in hol

It was, and the murders started almost immediately, but the organisation and systematic nature of them was a few years later (once the Nazis had a firm grip of power).Earlier than that Dachau was the first concentration camp and was opened in 1933.
Luckily I have the worst of them on ignore, it seems. I don't see their posts, just the occasional withering and mocking replies that some intrepid stalwarts occasionally post in order to point out that what they have posted is utter drivel. Wokewanka and trumpboy, for example. God, the quality of my life has improved so much since I put these tory propagandists on ignore.What we learn from history, is that it was people not realising what was happening in front of their very eyes, who contributed to the rise of Nazism. People who were told what to think and who accepted it blindly. People who didn’t look below the headlines of a subservient press. People who became brainwashed and brain dead to the realities happening around them.
Until it was too late.
There seem to be quite a lot of those people on this thread unfortunately…..
It certainly does feel over the last ten years or so, that we are all on a rather slippery slope, and it's getting steeper all the time.Luckily I have the worst of them on ignore, it seems. I don't see their posts, just the occasional withering and mocking replies that some intrepid stalwarts occasionally post in order to point out that what they have posted is utter drivel. Wokewanka and trumpboy, for example. God, the quality of my life has improved so much since I put these tory propagandists on ignore.
I have some sympathies for lifelong conservatives who are clinging on to the notion that it was right to vote for Johnson to save the nation from Corbyn, even though they had no strong feelings about leaving the EU, and found Johnson a bit of a worry. It must be hard for them to contemplate that their party has now been taken over by ruthless charlatans willing to resurrect any stinking trope to agitate people. A party that has decided that 'me and mine' versus 'foreigners' is the only game in town. A party whose leadership includes many whose ancestors came to the UK as refugees. I am hoping that decent tory supporters may soon wake up and smell the coffee. It isn't coffee, it is a drink disgusting and dangerous - lies, scapegoating and bile, with a union-jack shaped swirl in the scum floating on the top.
But those murders were the sort of one ls Russians are doing against their political opponents. They waited a few years before declaring open season on Jewish people I think. They slowly ramped the rhetoric up starting with stuff like ‘stop the boats’.It was, and the murders started almost immediately, but the organisation and systematic nature of them was a few years later (once the Nazis had a firm grip of power).
Careful, you’ll be in trouble for comparing things to 1930s Germany in such a blasé way.But those murders were the sort of one ls Russians are doing against their political opponents. They waited a few years before declaring open season on Jewish people I think. They slowly ramped the rhetoric up starting with stuff like ‘stop the boats’.
I fear it’s going to be 22 long months of divisive language directly from Braverman et al, with catchy slogans such as “stop the boats” “but, what about Corbyn he was Labour once”. Just to gain votes. Hopefully enough people see through it and vote for change in whatever form that may be. Unfortunately my faith in the British electorate to see through lies, corruption and general incompetence has been somewhat eroded over recent years.The sooner we are rid of this despicable Government the better.
22 months to go.
22 monthsI fear it’s going to be 22 long months of divisive language directly from Braverman et al, with catchy slogans such as “stop the boats” “but, what about Corbyn he was Labour once”. Just to gain votes. Hopefully enough people see through it and vote for change in whatever form that may be. Unfortunately my faith in the British electorate to see through lies, corruption and general incompetence has been somewhat eroded over recent years.
Yet more despicable tomfoolery from this disgrace of a government. Who* knew?Two 16-year-old Afghan refugee girls will not be able to sit their GCSEs because the Home Office is moving them out of London weeks before their exams without guaranteed school places, their “heartbroken” headteacher has told the Observer.
Fulham Cross Girls School, an academy in London, enrolled 15 Afghan girls who were evacuated to the UK when the Taliban took power in 2021. They have been living in bridging accommodation in a hotel for a year and a half, but all the families were notified last week that they would be moved out of London at the end of March.
is that a different thing to leveling up? it's hard to keep up with it allYet more despicable tomfoolery from this disgrace of a government. Who* knew?
(*Everybody. It's what they do now. It's called 'rebalancing')
It's true it was only a council by-election, albeit one with a much greater turnout than usual (42%), but the Lib Dems held the ward of Corstophine/Murrayfield (yes, where the rugby stadium is) in Edinburgh with a considerably increased majority on Thursday. The electorate in the ward is huge, at around 20,000, as Scottish councillors are elected by PR, in multi-member wards. Corstorphine is solidly suburban, while Murrayfield is just about the most prosperous area in the whole of Edinburgh, with large villas. It used to be a Tory stronghold when councillors were elected under FPTP. The Tories won the first preference vote in 2017 quite comfortably, but their vote was slashed in half last year, with the Lib Dems winning 50% (their percentage on Thursday was 56, with the Tories falling back by about the same percentage).Where are the decent Conservatives now? Have they joined the Liberals? Or just given up completely? I take a look occasionally at the list of Tory MP's.
our local guy, who replaced a "decent" Tory, Alistair Burt in 2019.
And also - he may have paid for it out of his own pocket; but the electricity company staff were organising all this work, and then carrying it out - so, they were spending time doing something to benefit a wealthy individual instead of sorting other issues that would benefit the wider public on the network. It's the opportunity cost that's important here. And, as you imply - 'I've got loads of money and so can get what I want - sod the rest of you plebs'.Nurses and teachers are using food banks. Pensioners are choosing between heating, eating or neither.
Just read this a couple of times and take it in.
“Rishi Sunak’s new private heated swimming pool uses so much energy that the local electricity network had to be upgraded to meet its power demands, the Guardian has been told.
While many Britons are facing increased electricity bills – and are trying to limit their energy usage – extra equipment was recently installed in a remote part of North Yorkshire to provide extra capacity from the National Grid to the prime minister’s constituency home.
This followed Sunak’s construction of a new heated swimming pool, gym and tennis court in the grounds of the manor house he occupies at weekends. Engineers had to install a substantial amount of equipment and a new connection to the National Grid that runs across open fields”.
Just the manor house he “occupies at the weekends” .
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Rishi Sunak has electricity grid upgraded to heat his private pool
PM will pick up cost of upgrade work in North Yorkshire, and no suggestion he received preferential treatmentwww.theguardian.com
Yes he’s paying for it “out of his own pocket”. Ahem, cough. But my point is, while the masses struggle, this little piggy has all the luxury he could imagine .
As post above - how many other electricity faults/issues that benefit the wider public could have been sorted in the time the engineers and so on spent upgrading the grid for a rich man's second home vanity project?Unusually for this current cabal, here is a report of something completely legal and above board
Rishi Sunak ‘pays to upgrade electricity grid to heat his private pool’
The construction of the prime minister’s pool at his home in Richmond, north Yorkshire, involved extra equipment to boost capacity from the national grid, according to The Guardian. Reports of the upgrade come as MPs raised concerns that soaring energy bills have led to the closure or reduction in opening hours at an estimated 350 public swimming pools.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...y-grid-to-heat-his-private-pool-b2299169.html
His judgement and timing could be a little better however![]()