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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/LeaveEUOfficial/status/858440406941528064

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dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://www.ft.com/content/cc7eed42-2f49-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a

quote:

The EU has raised its opening demand for Britain’s Brexit bill to an upfront gross payment of up to €100bn, according to Financial Times analysis of new stricter demands driven by France and Germany.

Following direct requests from several member states, EU negotiators have revised their initial calculations to maximise the liabilities Britain is asked to cover, including post-Brexit farm payments and EU administration fees in 2019 and 2020.

I hope this doesn't max out the national credit card.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
http://www.zdnet.com/article/leaked-document-reveals-uk-plans-for-wider-internet-surveillance/

quote:

The UK government is planning to push greater surveillance powers that would force internet providers to monitor communications in near-realtime and install backdoor equipment to break encryption, according to a leaked document.

A draft of the proposed new surveillance powers, leaked on Thursday, is part of a "targeted consultation" into the Investigatory Powers Act, brought into law last year, which critics called the "most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy".

Provisions in proposals show that the government is asking for powers to compel internet providers to turn over the realtime communications of a person "in an intelligible form," including encrypted content, within one working day.

To that end, internet providers will be forced to introduce a backdoor point on their networks to allow intelligence agencies to read anyone's communications.

This "backdoor" capability was heavily criticized last year when it was floated as part of the draft law's proposal. Apple chief executive Tim Cook last year warned of "dire consequences" if the legislation required internet providers or companies to put backdoors into their systems. The provision would effectively prohibit companies operating in the UK from introducing end-to-end encryption, a feature now commonplace in many messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple's own messaging platform iMessage.

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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Ewan posted:

I don't quite understand the leap to saying it makes end-to-end encryption by messaging apps (and e.g. VPNs) illegal.

The document says that it applies to telecommunications operators (i.e. ISPs and the phone network providers), and obliges them to provide the means to:
to remove any electronic protection applied by or on behalf of the telecommunications operator to the data.

I'm not clear whether the encryption provided by e.g. WhatsApp falls under this category - WhatsApp (which I presume doesn't count as a "telecoms operator") doesn't have a relation with the telecoms operator, and its encryption is not provided "on their behalf". Further, even if it does fall within the "on behalf of" category, I can't see how the telecoms operators could even implement the obligation unless they end up obliged to install spyware on the phones themselves that read the messages before they are encrypted? Similarly, the encryption provided by a commercial VPN company is not done "on behalf of the telecoms operator", and how do you oblige e.g. a foreign company?

The definitions are here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/section/261/enacted

A 'telecommunications operator' is defined as somebody who "offers or provides a telecommunications service to persons in the United Kingdom". And a "Telecommunications service" is defined as "any service that consists in the provision of access to, and of facilities for making use of, any telecommunication system". And a "Telecommunication system" is defined as "a system that exists for the purpose of facilitating the transmission of communications by any means involving the use of electrical or electromagnetic energy".

I guess this rules out using homing pigeons

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

ukle posted:

Nuke everything. Seriously how the gently caress can Middlesbrough, Redcar, Stockton etc vote Tory.

Brexit.

Redcar and Cleveland: 66.2% Leave
Middlesbrough: 65.5% Leave
Stockton-on-Tees: 61.7% Leave
Hartlepool: 69.6% Leave
Darlington: 56.2% Leave

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Hoops posted:

Describes himself as "a proud socialist"
Used to be in the army
Nominated Corbyn for leadership but isn't seen as one of "his guys"
Very Pro-Remain
Used to be a journalist so can work the lefty and centrist papers
Black but not too black

Seems like he's on to a winner. How tall is he?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ical-dunce.html

quote:

A former BBC boss last night demanded an apology from a Labour MP who claimed he was denied the chance to be a BBC presenter because of ‘racism’.

Tim Bishop, former head of BBC East, spoke out after Norwich Labour MP Clive Lewis said an unnamed manager at BBC East, where Lewis worked as a journalist for ten years, had kept him off screen for ‘racist’ reasons.

Mr Bishop said he believed he was the manager Mr Lewis was referring to – and insisted that the allegation was totally false. Moreover, Mr Bishop said he fired Mr Lewis as a political reporter because he failed a basic political general knowledge test – and he made no effort to get a job as a presenter.

Another BBC insider said when Mr Lewis was invited to present a weekend political programme, he overslept – missing part of the broadcast – and was not asked again.

If I remember correctly that knowledge test was something like "name the MP of the area you are supposed to be the political reporter for".

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
Andy Burham's problem isn't a photo of him in a cab, it's Mid Staffs.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/andy-burnham-described-grossly-unsuitable-candidate-by-mid-staffs-scandal-whistleblower-1502786
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-published.html
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/andy-burnham-still-cant-answer-questions-on-mid-staffs/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/politics/215905/andy-burnham-is-a-coward/
etc etc

dispatch_async fucked around with this message at 17:22 on May 6, 2017

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Zalakwe posted:

Who is doing this though? The vast majority of people still arguing about this tend to focus on the economics.

Well, there is this kind of attitude:

https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/831071337850470400

Although I don't think he's calling all Leave voters racist scroungers, just all people who live outside London…

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

jabby posted:

In 2010 UKIP were nowhere and Labour got 29% of the vote. In 2015 UKIP had suddenly replaced the Lib Dems as the third party and Labour got 30% of the vote. Now in 2017 it's looking like UKIP will collapse and Labour is likely to get.. somewhere around 30% of the vote.

Regardless of whose votes are going where we've basically gone from having a significantly sized third party (either the Lib Dems or UKIP) to suddenly having just two main parties. Obviously it's a shame Corbyn hasn't managed to overcome his obstacles and hoover up some of those votes but the most truthful narrative is that Labour is the only opposition party whose vote share hasn't collapsed over the last two elections. Assuming the polls are relatively accurate of course.

YouGov have tried to break down some of the flows:

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/863306085477662720

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
Maybe she's doing a Trump "I've got the tapes" style thing and threatening Labour that GCHQ has penetrated their systems and shut up or we release everything :shrug:

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/JmeBBK/status/864143484659388417

https://www.grime4corbyn.com

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/bspeed8/status/864473408377114624

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/865119304441888768

I hope the 'Dementia Tax' name sticks.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

ronya posted:

it's like Tories getting clubbed on the head for whatever some yahoo councillor said somewhere: you did not need to say and do these things to hold middle england. you would've won anyway. but you ran your mouth and now you're going to cost us real votes.

Guess what just happened?

"She'll be too busy changing nappies": Tory says Labour candidate shouldn't be an MP because she is pregnant

quote:

A Tory councillor has sparked a sexism row by saying a pregnant Labour candidate will be "too busy changing nappies" to work as an MP.

Jon Wright made his comments on the Facebook profile of Catherine Atkinson, who is standing for the Erewash seat in Derbyshire.

He suggested she would be unable to do her job "whilst on maternity leave" and would be "too busy changing nappies to be a voice for the people."

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
"What Will Happen To Me, Mrs May?": Heart-Wrenching Call From Carer

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

HJB posted:

At least this confirms Danny DeVito and Danny Baker aren't the same person.

https://twitter.com/prodnose/status/865324197408636928

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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/jackhaines98/status/864496359231062016

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Ewan posted:

https://twitter.com/MichaelPDeacon/status/866181434003914752

I'm no fan of digging up dirt for character assassinations, but to be honest this is pretty hard to defend against. Abbott will continue to be a liability for Corbyn's Labour. She might have nice ideals, but I cannot see her competently running a Department (assuming she'd be in a Corbyn cabinet).

I assume the Times has verified it (this time), but one does have to exercise caution when looking up 'quotes' from Diane Abbott from that era:

https://thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/a-danger-to-democracy-a-press-portrait-of-diane-abbott-part-1/ posted:

The personal attacks on Abbott started in a piece that Letwin wrote in The Times in 1986, quoting a document that he claimed she had written: ‘We are not interested in reforming the prevailing institutions of the police, armed services, judiciary and monarchy … We are about dismantling them and replacing them with our own machinery of class rule.’

In fact, the truth was both more prosaic and more interesting. The document, Alan Rusbridger had revealed the previous year, was a fake, taking some passages from an early draft of a discussion paper and adding ‘one or two monster raving loony Trotskyist inserts sufficiently extreme for the Labour Party powers-that-be to employ several barge poles in any future dealings with Ms Abbott’.

Who might have done such a thing? Some suspected the camp of Ken Livingstone, trying to scupper her chances of getting the Brent East nomination, but, noted Rusbridger: ‘Mr Livingstone resolutely refuses to comment on any of this.’

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
May’s plan to end free school lunches ‘to hit 900,000 struggling families’

quote:

About 900,000 children from struggling families will lose their right to free school lunches under a cut unveiled in the Conservative manifesto.

The total includes more than 600,000 young children recently defined as coming from “ordinary working families”, according to analysis for the Observer by the Education Policy Institute.

It means that the surprise measure risks undermining Theresa May’s pledge to prioritise families that are “just about managing” – those who are in work, but struggling to make ends meet.

May opted to end universal free school lunches for infants, introduced under the coalition government, and replace them with free breakfasts. The money saved will be used to see off a looming Tory rebellion over school funding.

The move risks punishing exactly the kind of families the prime minister has promised to help and will cost families about £440 for every child hit by the cut. It is likely to save about £650m a year.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/866581483263336448

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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/NHS_RoadShow/status/866360358994366465

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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/chunkymark/status/866692290554863617

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

jabby posted:

Andrew Neil was on PM earlier, he said pretty much whatever he asked her she just went on about Corbyn and Brexit. Considering he's a huge Tory and unlikely to press her on anything it's probably going to be a weak, soundbite-ridden interview.

Also the News at 6 opened with May's irritated 'Nothing has changed!' and went on with a story about a kindly old dear and her nearly tearful son who will be hit by the social care changes.

The Tories staked this election on Theresa May's personal brand, and now it's wobbling. It's great.

There's a clip up on twitter:
https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/866701872219922432

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/realRealDukat/status/834580624543395840
https://twitter.com/realRealDukat/status/844748790485729285

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Irony Be My Shield posted:

I wonder what the Home Secretary from several years ago has to say on the matter.

Stop scaremongering and prepare for further cuts, Theresa May tells police

quote:

She accused the Police Federation of scaremongering and repeatedly “crying wolf” over the impact of the previous round of cuts in police funding as part of the government’s austerity programme – and rejected their claims that further cuts would force them to adopt “paramilitary styles of policing” in Britain.

dispatch_async fucked around with this message at 18:26 on May 24, 2017

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
Theresa May’s Police Cuts Exposed By Manchester Bombing Army Deployment - Police Federation

quote:

Theresa May’s dramatic deployment of troops in the wake of the Manchester bombing has laid bare Tory police cuts, the leader of the Police Federation has declared.

Hundreds of soldiers were ordered onto the streets on Wednesday and given a very visible role in defending the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.

But Steve White, who represents rank and file officers across the country, said that the Tory squeeze on resources was underlined by the Prime Minister’s decision to draft in the Army to protect the landmark sites.

White, who chairs the Police Federation of England and Wales, said that the use of the Army was a “significant step change in keeping the public safe”.

“There is no ignoring the fact that we, the police, simply do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own,” he said.

His complaint was backed up by an anonymous officer who wrote on Facebook that the use of the Army showed how the police were “desperately understaffed”.

Some 20,000 police jobs have been cut since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 and budgets slashed by around 4% every year when May was Home Secretary.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/867449988707741700

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
This post about the Tory manifesto is worth a read:

The political economy of the Conservative Manifesto: a hallucinatory celebration of the state

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
Was this posted in here yet?

'Sorted' by MI5: How UK government sent British-Libyans to fight Gaddafi

quote:

The British government operated an "open door" policy that allowed Libyan exiles and British-Libyan citizens to join the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi even though some had been subject to counter-terrorism control orders, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Several former rebel fighters now back in the UK told MEE that they had been able to travel to Libya with "no questions asked" as authorities continued to investigate the background of a British-Libyan suicide bomber who killed 22 people in Monday's attack in Manchester.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
Oborne: Corbyn's election manifesto for the Middle East is radical and morally courageous

quote:

This cross-party consensus has been smashed, thanks to Jeremy Corbyn, the current Labour leader. Whatever one thinks of Corbyn's political views (and I disagree with many of them), British democracy owes him a colossal debt of gratitude for restoring genuine political debate to Britain.

And of course his extremely brave and radical decision to break with the foreign policy analysis of Blair and his successors explains why he is viewed with such hatred and contempt across so much of the media and within the Westminster political establishment.

Let's now look at Corbyn's foreign policy in light of the publication this week of the parties' manifestos ahead of the country's 8 June general election.

Contrary to what one reads in the newspapers or hears on television, his manifesto is a well-argued and coherent critique of the foreign policy consensus which has done so much damage over the last quarter of a century.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life


I've no idea either.

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life


dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/singharj/status/868391193499119616
https://twitter.com/singharj/status/868393185273409543
https://twitter.com/singharj/status/868396128278118400
https://twitter.com/singharj/status/868396771998879744

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
For those who don't remember, Lucy Allan is the MP that faked a death threat from a constituent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-defends-faking-death-threat-over-syria-air-strikes-vote-a6764766.html

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

e:In fact I don't think I've ever seen a poll where women supported a right wing party more than men.

That was actually pretty much always the case in the UK until quite recently:

source: https://www.ncpolitics.uk/2015/03/history-voting-patterns-gender.html/

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
https://twitter.com/pestononsunday/status/868767555258785792

Who thought it was a good idea to let Fallon back on TV?

dispatch_async
Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4546934/PETER-OBORNE-MI6-share-blame-jihadis.html

quote:

I believe that MI6 has failed to learn the lessons from [the Iraq] debacle. Above all, it has made very serious mistakes that have endangered this country’s security.

Often with the connivance of MI6, during the early years of the Syrian War, hundreds of British citizens were allowed to travel abroad to join jihadist organisations.

The reason MI6 certainly approved such involvement was because spy chiefs had taken it upon themselves to meddle in the internal affairs of Middle East countries.

In the case of Syria, they wanted to get as much help as possible in their mission to topple the Syrian president Bashir al-Assad.

There was a similar policy towards Libya. British citizens — it has been reported this week that among them was the father of the Manchester suicide-bomber — were undoubtedly encouraged to travel to the north African country to fight in the civil war there to get rid of Gaddafi.

Indeed, research by the Middle East Eye website has revealed the extent to which the British authorities, I believe with the encouragement of MI6, released terror suspects in this country from control orders which had previously been imposed on them in order to restrain their movements and stop them from using the internet.

Duly, these people were free to join terror groups in the Middle East and North Africa — organisations with links to Al Qaeda and other terror outfits.

Of course, as well as being enemies of al-Assad and Gaddafi, these groups were also enemies of the West.

So, while MI5 officers were working day and night to prevent Islamist terrorists inflicting carnage on British streets, MI6 officers were complicit in creating a generation of British-born jihadis who are prepared to do anything, and kill anyone — even young children — in their efforts to destroy this country.

This brings us directly to the Manchester suicide-bomber.

Along with his father and brother, Salman Abedi fought as a 16-year-old in the Libyan civil war. There have been reports, too, that he received military training in Syria.

There is every reason to speculate that his evil handiwork at the Manchester Arena on Monday night was in part a direct consequence of MI6’s meddling.

The organisation is open to the charge that it placed what it perceived to be British foreign policy objectives ahead of the safety of British citizens.

Meanwhile, others in government have serious questions to answer. For example, on whose advice was it that the Home Office lifted the control orders on suspected jihadists?

And why were repeated warnings about Abedi to the police via an anti-terrorist hotline ignored?

The official reason is that MI5 has been woefully overstretched, having to deal with managing 500 investigations into suspected terrorists, involving as many as 23,000 ‘subjects of interest’.

What is certainly true is that the police and MI5 have not been helped by the rogue activities of some of their foreign intelligence partners in MI6.

It is worth pointing out that I’m not the only one perturbed by such behaviour within MI6, which has traditionally been licensed by the government to break the law and carry out illicit acts, on the assumption that it always acts in the British national interest.

Former MI6 officer Alastair Crooke, who worked for the service for 30 years and who has vast experience in the Middle East and Afghanistan, is concerned that some of its operators are not working in the national interest.

He told me: ‘It is not right that, on one hand, domestic police services are straining every sinew to protect our societies by fighting terrorism, while, on the other hand, elements in our and America’s security services have been arming and training jihadists and colluding in terrorism.’

The worry — and it is a profound one — is that if Britain’s two intelligence agencies are working at cross purposes, we will never be able to make our streets safe from terrorists.

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Nov 28, 2014

Imagine having the time to have played through 20 generations of one family in The Sims 2. Imagine making the original two members of that family Neil Buchanan and Cat Deeley. Imagine complaining to Maxis there was no technological progression. You've successfully imagined my life

Hoops posted:

That's hyperbole, she's not really floundering that much. The lead is narrowing but it's still averaging about 10 points, where is that swing going to come from in 10 days? If she shows up to the televised debates without being visibly drunk then there's not much left before she hits the level of guaranteed Tory vote.

She's also just had a bunch of photos of her doing big serious work with the G7 come out, being important and strong with cool sexy guys Macron and Trudeau.

Her two closest advisors are briefing against each other on the front page of the Times today. Now Lynton Crosby is in charge, after his notable successes running the campaigns of Stephen Harper and Zac Goldsmith. Boris Johnson is going to be much more visible from now onwards. She'll almost certainly still win, but none of this points to it being smooth sailing.

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