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This is not good 07:39 - Sep 27 with 2306 views

Not good at all.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/cr

“The former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, was given asylum and citizenship in the UK — then “plotted” huge foiled terror attack targeting Jews in Europe last year.”

“This is the story of how a known member of Hamas leader’s security team — with an apparent history of gun and gold smuggling — made his life in England before playing “essential” role in elaborate plot to murder Jews in Berlin or Vienna. And why you haven’t yet heard about it.”

“ Although it was known when he received refugee status that he had worked for the leader of the terrorist organization and that he had previously been arrested in Egypt for operating a weapons-smuggling tunnel into Gaza, he was granted asylum in the UK.”

“ Mr. X arrived in Britain in 2012, when he apparently left the Gaza Strip for the last time. In 2015, he applied for asylum, and the British Home Office granted him permanent residency while Theresa May served as UK Home Secretary. He was later granted British citizenship.”

“ In an unusual move, a judge at a London magistrate's court granted Mr. X an order barring publication of his name for 100 years. The decision was amended only last Thursday after an application by the Sunday Times, with the court ruling that his name could be published only after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against him being conducted concurrently in Britain.

German security officials have warned that the involvement of Mr. X, who was able to travel freely across Europe using his British passport, reflects a dangerous shift in Hamas's tactics as the terrorist organization seeks to expand the reach of its terrorist activity beyond the Middle East and into Europe.”

	Sometimes I think about the frothing lunatics I’ve put on ignore, who will have kept replying to me again and again, but I don’t even realise they exist.
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This is not good on 11:46 - Sep 27 with 462 views

Guthrum

This is not good on 11:28 - Sep 27 by lowhouseblue

the argument that concerns about immigration have been invented by right wing parties runs counter to all the polling and election data. the almost exact opposite is true. parties on the right have grown because of a collapse of trust in the tories. from cameron onwards, despite their promises, they ignored the number one policy priority for a majority of the electorate. the boris wave has been a political disaster in terms of collapsing trust in mainstream politics, the policy had no democratic mandate, and in terms of damaging the previously predominantly positive views about immigration across electors. boris was a chancer with little understanding of consequences and nothing illustrates that better.

The issue being, it's difficult to make more progress on immigration than they currently are. Routes of illegal entry have been significantly restricted (better security on lorries, hence why having to resort to boats). Virtually every small boat crossing is intercepted. Numbers are well down on the last few years.

Unless we are to cut out all immigration, including the legal stuff - workers, students, families of UK residents - it will continue to be painted as a problem, with it all conflated together.

The loss of confidence in our governments goes back much further than the current immigration debate. It relates more to economic issues, austerity and broken promises, while regional wealth concentration has left many parts of the country feeling deprived.

The Boris wave - combined with his stupid and unnecessary destruction of agreements with France on policing of immigration* - has largely caused a problem then picked up by those looking for leverage.

* These could have been part of Brexit agreements, but he was obsessed with performative No Deal bllox.

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This is not good on 11:54 - Sep 27 with 431 views

Guthrum

This is not good on 11:37 - Sep 27 by Ryorry
With obviously solid experts (including top brasses) regularly explaining this on mainstream media in a very concise and easily understandable way that even oldies like me can take in quickly, that's pretty scandalous neglect by that so-called "top" management.

Costs money, affects the bottom line, is not a "dynamic achievement" they can take credit for. Seemingly the myopic world-view of a lot of senior executives.

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This is not good on 11:58 - Sep 27 with 412 views

Swansea_Blue

This is not good on 11:33 - Sep 27 by J2BLUE
Completely agree. Make meaningful progress on immigration and Reform/Restore have nothing else.

That doesn't make much sense in the context of the current stats that show we're making meaningful progress. Immigration down; returns and deportations up; work, student and family visas down; short and long-term immigration down; small boat arrivals nearly halved; asylum applications down; asylum application processing times up, etc.

We're doing all this, damaging multiple sectors and leading to job cuts, yet the issue is still being flogged as much as ever by those who are using it for selfish political purposes. Reform are seeing a drop in support but it only seems to be the multi-million loans, corruption and incompetence that's cutting through.

The support for it alone shows that the driving force is tribal and not based on what is happening on the ground. You only have to look at the issues tracker data to show how peaks are concentrated around major promotion pushes by the likes of Farage - big peaks ahead of the referendum and another one growing since he came back as leader of Reform (not that it's all down to him). And the support amongst the population bears this out - it's overwhelmingly the top issue for those who were in the leave camp and much further down the priority list for those in the remain camp. https://yougov.com/en-gb/track

Plus the increasing shift towards ever more ethno-nationalist view points (see Braverman tying herself up in nots trying to say why she can't be English or Lowe's Restore Britain extreme right position) suggests that however low immigration becomes it will never be enough for these people.

[Post edited 27 Sep 11:58]

Poll:

Escaped Goat of the day. Who’s it going to be?

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 11:59 - Sep 27 with 397 views

balcombeblue

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 11:21 - Sep 27 by WeWereZombies

I think only the very gullible would regard Starmer's two years of right of centre socialism as a failure. There was a heck of a lot to put right and he was anything but incompetent, although I will grant you that there was more than a whiff of moral corruption about the appointment of Mandelson. The Starmer administration did a lot of good work to make the progress we now see, and desperately need, under Burnham possible.

[Post edited 27 Sep 11:53]

So competent that after just 18 months with a massive majority, the winds of change were blowing through Labour to the extent Burnham took over after two years.

I look forward to more progress under Burnham, although I suspect I will be very disappointed.

This is not good on 12:04 - Sep 27 with 370 views

J2BLUE

This is not good on 11:58 - Sep 27 by Swansea_Blue

[Post edited 27 Sep 11:58]

I never said we were not currently making progress. Reform have lost some support and the decrease in small boats may well be a factor.

This is not good on 12:04 - Sep 27 with 370 views

Swansea_Blue

This is not good on 10:59 - Sep 27 by Guthrum

A lot of the issue with cyber-security is not any lack of money we're putting into it at the governmental/defence/security services level, but middle and senior management - particularly in large businesses - not understanding the problem, how to go about tackling it and being unwilling to commit resources to prevent something which hasn't happened to them yet (and if it does, they just move on to a new job).

Until these people start taking cyber-scecurity seriously, rather than just as a drain upon budgets, an inconvenience, or as a mere technical issue which can be mechanically coded out of existence, then breaches will continue to be a common occurrence.

I'm not sure about how the private sector is handling it, but that doesn't surprise me. I can remember the challenges organisations faced tying to work out how to deal with the millennium bug. The public bodies I was util recently coming into contact with at work are taking cyber security very seriously and reaching out to University cyber centres to try and develop solutions. It is a surprisingly big issue in military circles too and they are funding research around the area (for various military purposes, not just hacking information or disrupting back office systems)..

Poll:

Escaped Goat of the day. Who’s it going to be?

This is not good on 12:08 - Sep 27 with 338 views

Swansea_Blue

This is not good on 12:04 - Sep 27 by J2BLUE
I never said we were not currently making progress. Reform have lost some support and the decrease in small boats may well be a factor.

Based on posts on here, I'm not sure Reform supporters realise there's been a drop in small boat numbers. It's not a message they're being told. The support seems to have dropped very specifically after the loans and corruption allegations. But correlation not necessarily being causation and all that, so maybe you're right and some of it is linked 🤷‍♂️

Poll:

Escaped Goat of the day. Who’s it going to be?

This is not good on 12:24 - Sep 27 with 303 views

balcombeblue

This is not good on 12:08 - Sep 27 by Swansea_Blue
Based on posts on here, I'm not sure Reform supporters realise there's been a drop in small boat numbers. It's not a message they're being told. The support seems to have dropped very specifically after the loans and corruption allegations. But correlation not necessarily being causation and all that, so maybe you're right and some of it is linked 🤷‍♂️

There will be a lot of polling twists between now and the next election, but I don't see many of them going in Reforms favour.

I suspect the economy will play a large part in that. Reform have nothing to say about the economy and economic dynamics won't play out well for Burnham. Growth will continue to be anaemic. Inflation is incredibly sticky, driven in part by our own approach to pricing energy which I don't see Labour abandoning.

The welfare bill with have to be tackled at some point, which will face yet another backlash from Labour backbenches and the unions. I don't see any economic hinterland for Labour at all.

Crucially, I think it's the Conservatives that will benefit from this. I doubt it will be to the extent of winning 250+ seats, but it will be enough to press Reform back to the margins.

I could of course be wrong!

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 12:27 - Sep 27 with 293 views

Guthrum

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 11:59 - Sep 27 by balcombeblue
So competent that after just 18 months with a massive majority, the winds of change were blowing through Labour to the extent Burnham took over after two years. I look forward to more progress under Burnham, although I suspect I will be very disappointed.

Starmer's crime was his (and his subordinates') political clumsiness. Everything seemed to go off on the wrong foot, or policies were launched and then had to be retracted. The presentation was frequently disastrous. He wasn't good at catching the public mood.

He didn't come across as being particularly charismatic - which is what the public seems to want nowadays.

Which affected perceptions of electoral risk - borne out in by-elections and local election results. Hence why they wanted someone more deft in charge.

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This is not good on 12:58 - Sep 27 with 242 views

Guthrum

This is not good on 12:24 - Sep 27 by balcombeblue

I would disagree that the welfare bill has to be tackled, in the sense that many people mean it (i.e. anything but pensions).

Welfare is merely the easiest element of govenment to bash ("lazy dole scroungers", "malingering sick notes"), despite the fact much of it goes to pensioners (who may have no other source of income) and the working poor (a private business pay/hours issue). Defence has now become a major priority again, the NHS is sacrosanct, every departmant is short of funds. There is this fixed idea that starving the unemployed (or the disabled) will somehow magically find them all productive jobs.

Raising taxes has become the biggest sin of all. This despite people wanting more and more money spent on making the country nice. If we want Scandinavian levels of service, we'd have to pay their levels of tax, too.

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This is not good on 13:04 - Sep 27 with 228 views

FoghornGleghorn

This is not good on 12:08 - Sep 27 by Swansea_Blue
Based on posts on here, I'm not sure Reform supporters realise there's been a drop in small boat numbers. It's not a message they're being told. The support seems to have dropped very specifically after the loans and corruption allegations. But correlation not necessarily being causation and all that, so maybe you're right and some of it is linked 🤷‍♂️

Based on posts on here, they do and they are, but it doesn't make a blind bit of difference.

Starmer & political instability by Zx1988 11 May 20:50
If Starmer does end up either resigning or being pushed, I presume Novgorod Nigel's handlers will be rubbing their hands with glee, at having caused even more political instability in the UK, no?

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 13:08 - Sep 27 with 224 views

balcombeblue

Was this a good idea at the time ? on 12:27 - Sep 27 by Guthrum

That is in part true, but there are other factors I would throw in:

From very early on, he broke electoral promises/legislated on things that didn't appear in Labour's manifesto.

His cabinet came across as aloof and lacking in ability. The fake solicitor and Rachel Reeves BS on her CV being good examples.

The Winter fuel cut was appallingly managed and the sort of thing the Conservatives would have been hammered on.

The gifts and freebies, although trivial in some ways was indicative of an detached culture.

Despite campaigning on the vacuous statements of growth being the number one priority, I can't point to any specific policy that supported this claim. In fact, quite the opposite with the Employee's NI and the continued freezing of income tax thresholds.

That list was off the top of my head and only covered the first year. The fact that then over 400 Labour MPs didn't seemingly have the talent in their midst to replace him is even more concerning. All of which leads us to Burnham, the career politician that has a similar demeanour to a youth club leader. He has had his high water mark. I suspect the budget will be the start of his downfall.

This is not good on 13:11 - Sep 27 with 209 views

lowhouseblue

This is not good on 11:46 - Sep 27 by Guthrum

i'd agree that the current government has made great strides on both legal and illegal immigration. i don't have criticisms of what they have done and both sets of numbers are coming down. net legal immigration will never be zero and shouldn't be. in the past there was public consensus that a moderate level of net immigration was beneficial and sustainable. that consensus needs to be rebuilt.

loss of confidence certainly goes back to at least 2009 and the credit crunch. public trust in government, particularly over tax, spending, and public services has fallen ever since. but immigration has, prior to the current government, been something over which successive governments ignored, dismissed and belittled the electorate. there was a clear majority against a huge rise in net immigration and the policies that pushed it through had no democratic mandate. at a time when trust was all ready in decline ignoring the electorate over immigration then just caused it to collapse.

And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show

Was this a good idea / on 13:24 - Sep 27 with 164 views

WeWereZombies

This is not good on 12:58 - Sep 27 by Guthrum

I travelled in Scandinavia last month and found it really sad to see elderly people like me bin dipping for food, I think that they are at an austerity stage that we reached fifteen years ago, there are still high levels of welfare provision I guess but i suspect they are focused on families are are leaving significant gaps that those who don't quite fit into a demographic or who don't fully follow the rules fall into. People don't smile much either.

It actually felt good to get to Denmark and then onto Germany for a bit of joviality to surface (although I noticed a bit of bin dipping there too.)

[Post edited 27 Sep 13:25]

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This is not good on 13:26 - Sep 27 with 151 views

reusersfreekicks

This is not good on 10:45 - Sep 27 by Guthrum

Tho there are a number of aspects which make this perhaps a bit more explicable.

Hamas was not a proscribed organisation in the UK until 2021, so mere membership was not an issue. Hamas was, at that point, not a 'terrorist organisation' (in legal terms, at least). The Egyptian charges fairly explicitly relate to smuggling weapons into Gaza, which would have been part of his "official" duties and to that specific situation, not a wider terrorist threat. In 2012-15, everyone was concentrating upon al-Qaeda and the rise of Islamic State, which had no connection with his background in Hamas (different origins, theology and international backers). At that point there was mild sympathy for the idea of a two-state solution incorporating Hamas in some form. Put simply, there was no glaring reason to consider this man a notable threat.

Once granted UK citizenship, it is not an easy thing to remove (c.f. Shamima Begum). If he had not committed any offence, there was no reason to detain him.

Now, with the changed situation - particularly the attack on Israel and subsequent invasion of Gaza - he had become a potential threat. The security services were evidently keeping an eye out, hence his activities were picked up at the planning stage.

The article is written to make the circumstances sound as dodgy as possible, but don't really reflect the change in environment and assumptions over nearly a decade and a half.

Thanks for your measured response adding much needed context

This is not good on 13:27 - Sep 27 with 136 views

reusersfreekicks

This is not good on 11:33 - Sep 27 by BelsteadCav
The Home office is corrupt It’s scary to think who else they’ve let in and are walking around

FFS

This is not good on 13:29 - Sep 27 with 124 views

reusersfreekicks

This is not good on 11:33 - Sep 27 by J2BLUE
Completely agree. Make meaningful progress on immigration and Reform/Restore have nothing else.

Nope they will look for other minorities to pick on.
See history

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