Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I know that you have a reputation for, frankly, being a bit bonkers carter, but there’s usually a thread of truth in much of what people brush off as fantasy or conspiracy theory. Let’s unpack all of that because it’s actually very interesting….
“the government are representing the elite”
The Conservative Party represent their donors. Not only is that clear from their actions, but Suella Braverman admitted that in response to an interview question on camera in the entrance lobby to the Palace of Westminster.
“whether that’s Pharma Bill Gates the Banks”
Neither. Unless you have any evidence, but I’ve looked at a lot of registers of members interests and none of those have ever been mentioned. Oh, banks? Actually some potential corruption, but saying “banks” is a generalisation, there are many financial institutions with their fingers in shady places. Most evidence points to fossil fuel companies though.
https://www.desmog.com/2023/04/21/tufton-street-linked-donors-have-given-630000-to-the-conservatives-since-sunak-became-prime-minister/
“this was all planned 10-20 years ago”
Well before that. Ok, let’s qualify that…. Depends what you mean by “all this” but I’m referring to the Thatcher years when Milton Friedman influenced the UK economic model thru Reagan and Thatcher. But that of course has a preface in Chile - the Pinochet years and before. If a you’re not familiar with what happened to Chile, I strongly suggest reading up on it.
“All the large Company’s will be Stake holders, the smaller Companies will be pushed out”
Depends on what exactly you’re referring to here. It’s already a bit of a fait accomplit: Amazon, etc.
“About net zero, what a load of tosh”
Net zero is just appeasement to the public for only making small changes in response to climate change. That’s all.
“that will be food as well”
Not sure re referring to?
“and that control will also come through CBDC”
Ah, yes, this is really interesting, but in a simpler way than you seem to be inferring.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound#:~:text=to%20make%20payments.-,This%20type%20of%20money%20is%20known%20as%20a%20central%20bank,be%20stable%2C%20just%20like%20banknotes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-digital-pound-a-new-form-of-money-for-households-and-businesses
“15 minute neighborhoods will be slowly pushed around the Country”
I don’t believe a single word about these. Why? Because I already live in one. I can go around the whole town where I live, by car, in exactly 15 mins. That’s why we moved here. It’s convenient, it’s pleasant.
“As for Covid, that was a smoke screen for all that’s coming”
No it wasn’t, it was a complete surprise to all. Happy to be proven wrong, but I’m confident that ain’t going to happen.
“Sarscov2, it was doctored using G.O.F in Wuhan”
Maybe it was, but you and I will never know. Not worth
Well, funny you should mention “a bunch of jabbering baboons shout at each other and look to destroy each others reputations” because whilst the Westminster parliament is considered the mother of all modern parliaments, it has failed to evolve itself; and one of the many weaknesses of the antiquated system is the confrontational nature of the layout of the chamber, a layout that’s not generally replicated around the rest of the democratic world. And it clearly leads to confrontational behaviour, as you describe, although other attributes may contribute, and you only have to look at the behaviour of Douglas Ross in Holyrood to appreciate that an ignorant thug in any surroundings is still an ignorant thug!
As for denying the whip, I’d firstly advise you to listen to the Bercow podcasts as he describes exactly what happens when an MP defies the whip. Indeed, in the interests of appealing to their local electorate, one might speculate that a party with a very large majority (say about 80 seats for the sake of argument) might allow some degree of “organised dissent”. Just to keep the voters happy and create the illusion of an MP following his conscience.
But autocracy dressed up as democracy? Of course it is. Didn’t you notice? No, course you didn’t. None of us did, until someone points it out, as its engrained into us from birth. Who do MPs swear allegiance to upon admission to parliament? Who’s government is it? Who’s armed forces are they? Certainly not the citizens’ as we aren’t citizens any more since the UK left the EU. We were demoted to subjects of HM. And that’s why the UK is indeed an autocracy dressed up as democracy.
By all means please expand and explain your point, carter. I admit that I’m biased against what I perceive to be a distraction from the main agenda, but I’m open minded enough to consider where this takes us. I’m assuming that you’re referring to “net zero” ?
There's a lot to unpack in that response, Warthog!
The issue of "morals" and politics is a difficult circle to square, and is dependent on anyone's personal definition of "morals". What's important to you might differ from what's important to me... for example I might be concerned about the "moral position" of an illegal war on Iraq whereas you might be concerned about a former Prime Minister who once pontificated about population control fathering his eighth child. And above all of this, we're told what "morals" to have by the media - remember that Major's government was brought down by the tabloids reporting on "sleaze". The electorate are "triggered" by a bombardment of information and manipulated by the media owners.
But you describe a country "run from the top downwards". This extremely concerning. You're describing a dictatorship, not a democracy. And therein lies the problem. A country *should* be run from the grass roots upwards - that's why we elect councillors and MPs to work for us. But that contract is broken before the election is started. Selection processes are run by the party, for the benefit of the party, and once elected MPs work for the party, not the people. There are notable exceptions, of course (I could go on at length with examples but I'm trying to avoid being overly partisan), and this is where your comment about back-benchers playing by the rules is relevant. I would recommend a series of podcasts to you - "Absolute Power" by John Bercow is an excellent insight into the workings (and dysfunction) of our parliament.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/john-bercows-absolute-power/id1596942660
https://open.spotify.com/show/1rBSMVgLtaAYlk9ix2tBTa
You continue by making a point that contradicts your previous "top down" assertation by giving the media a mention, and you're absolutely right about the "pap" that they peddle. There are alternatives, it just that like many, you probably haven't discovered them yet:
Bylines Network
Novara Media
DoubleDown News
Open Democracy
Interestingly, none of these were allowed entrance to the recent US think tank organised NatC conference in Westminster. One journalist for Open Democracy managed to sneak in though and report on it.
Your last point is complex and unfortunately has driven UK politics for over a decade. The government wants to fail at all matters immigration. It wants to spend a lot of money on the "problem" because it wants a problem. Its exactly the same strategy as Hitler blaming Jews and other for the failures of the Weimar Republic / German Reich. Blame a group that doesn't have a voice and trigger the electorate to hate them. Then offer a solution. But continue to fail so that the "problem" doesn't go away. It's worked very well on the British electorate since 2010 and continues to do so.
It was broken before Covid, cobalt.
2016 and 2019 were key dates. Covid was just a sideshow, although much exploited to the tune of £billions that went to Serco, Mone and many others through the corrupt “VIP Lanes” which never should have existed.
Oh, completely. The British constitution relies upon key people behaving in a decent and honourable manner. Hence the Prime Minister is responsible for the Ministerial Code. So when you have a PM who breaks that code, the constitution is proven ineffective.
And when the Bar Council raises a complaint against the behaviour of the Home Secretary on the basis that she is a Kings Counsel, yet she wasn’t awarded the KC but assumed the title upon being a previous Attorney General, the Bar Council fails to hold jurisdiction and there’s another failure in the constitution.
These are just two examples,, there are many more which are being exploited - there are many failure of checks and balances of those who hold power.
Ahfam, no, just an act of parliament:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Parks_and_Access_to_the_Countryside_Act_1949
My hobby is political research and the UK has a very weak constitution which is being exploited.
Sorry, too late blastoid. The freeport boundaries will gradually change rules over the coming years. Teesside is the one to watch at the moment, bit of a row kicking off, but there’s too many resources up for grabs for the national parks to survive.
It’s a one-liner in the 2019 Conservative Party 2019 manifesto - hidden away on page 48 with all the other bad stuff. Literally hidden at the back, where nobody reads it.
Anyway, have a Google for “Dartmoor pony cull” and you’ll find out all about it. All started from the withdrawal of £140,000 funding. As I said earlier, defund it, break it and then re-create it the way you want it. That’s the way of working.
I like your comment about hiking, Blastoid.
However, the current government have plans to abolish national parks - they hate them. And they’re well on the way to abolishing at least two that I’m aware of: Dartmoor and the New Forest. Both of these fall inside, (at least partly) Freeport boundaries. Hence they will see a gradual erosion of the protections that they currently benefit from. I’m the case of Dart or, it’s happening very quickly - there’s been a court case to remove the right that the public used to hold to wild camp freely anywhere on Dartmoor. And the commoners are about to lose some of their grazing rights by way of a pony cull. Yep, you heard that right - there’s going to be an enforced Dartmoor pony cull.
Broken government department. It will get worse.
If you understand the concept of “small government” you’ll know that this is part of a wider plan based around the Freeports which were recently established.
Defund it, break it, then abolish it and replace it with something else, most likely a privatised entity. Or even nothing at all - complete deregulation.
- with the falsely inflated bid-offer spread.
I can buy at 122p so all of those 123p red trades aren’t sells!
So don’t be downhearted if you see a “sea of red” because it isn’t real.
Have a good weekend and good luck all.
Well, that proves it doesn’t it bailiff?
And…. whilst all those trades around the 130p were reported as “sells” you can now buy at 128p.
Nah, don’t believe it. They didn’t buy this morning to sell cheaper this afternoon!
It’s one of those days again isn’t it?
Ahfam - some regions/countries are less regulated than what we’re accustomed to.
There are parallels in banking and telephony where you can do some rather surprising activities in other countries, should you wish to do so!