#nick clegg

[misspeppermint2003]

Drawings of Other Nickelodeon characters as World Politicians

I made these drawings of four of my favourite Nickelodeon characters as world politicians.

1st top left: Drawing of Veronica as former British Prime Minister Liz Truss

1st top right: Picture of former British Prime Minister Liz Truss

2nd top left: Drawing of Stanley S. SquarePants as former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

2nd top right: Picture of former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

1st bottom left: Drawing of Jazz Fenton as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas

1st bottom right: Picture of Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas

2nd bottom left: Drawing of Lincoln Loud as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

2nd bottom right: Picture of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The early, motivating animus of the Tories’ Online Safety Act was envious rage at Nick Clegg’s escape to become a tanned and wealthy Facebook lobbyist. -Maria Farrell

[eaglesnick]

“A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives."  George Osborne

It was Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke in 1993 who first announced plans to raise the pension age of women from 60 to 65 years of age.  The Tories 1995 Pension Act enshrined this in law but the changes were to be phased in between 2010 and 2020. So far so good – lots of warning, giving women plenty of time to financially prepared for the fact the OAP would not be available until they were 65.

Enter David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and the Coalition Government of Austerity. In 2011 they decided to accelerate the changes and bring forward the state pension age for women to 65  by November 2018 and then to 66 by 2020.

Displaying typical Tory disregard for the detrimental financial effects this might have on ordinary working women, and displaying a total lack of common decency, some women claimed “they only received 12 months notice of the six-year delay to their pensions." (Guardian: 21/03/24), giving them no time to prepare for their unexpected loss of pension.

What is more The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found the Department of Work and Pensions “guilty of misadministration in its handling of the changes.”

Meanwhile Jeremy Hunt, in his latest budget has given millions away to the wealthy in pension tax breaks.

“Financial firms have said the changes to pension allowances could let high earners who can afford it build up pension pots worth as much as £9m while enjoying the full tax benefits.”  (Guardian: 16/03/24)

We deserve better.

[painless-innit-colourful]

hey remember 2017-2019 when people were complaining we'd had three elections in four years

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Facebook's fact-checkers will need to stop fact-checking former President Donald Trump following the announcement that he is running for president, according to a company memo obtained by CNN.

While Trump is currently banned from Facebook, the fact-check ban applies to anything Trump says and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others. Despite Trump's ban, "Team Trump," a page run by Trump's political group, is still active and has 2.3 million followers.

Tuesday's memo from Meta underscores the challenges social media platforms face in deciding how to handle another Trump presidential campaign. The former president announced Tuesday night that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, aiming to become only the second commander-in-chief ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms.

Facebook's parent company Meta pays third-party fact-checking organizations to apply fact-check labels to misinformation across Facebook and Instagram.

The carve-out is not exclusive to Trump and applies to all politicians, but given the rate fact-checkers find themselves dealing with claims made by the former president, a manager on Meta's "news integrity partnership" team emailed fact-checkers on Tuesday ahead of Trump's announcement.

"Some of you have reached out seeking guidance regarding fact-checking political speech in anticipation of a potential candidacy announcement from former President Trump," the Meta staffer wrote in the memo.

The company has long had an exception to its fact-checking policy for politicians.

"It is not our role to intervene when politicians speak," Meta executive Nick Clegg, a former politician, said in 2019, defending the exemption.

The Meta memo sent to fact-checkers made clear that if Trump announced a 2024 presidential bid Tuesday night, he could no longer be fact-checked on the platform.

The memo noted that "political speech is ineligible for fact-checking. This includes the words a politician says as well as photo, video, or other content that is clearly labeled as created by the politician or their campaign."

Meta's policy doesn't stipulate that a candidate formally register with the Federal Election Commission. "We define a 'politician' as candidates running for office, current office holders -- and, by extension, many of their cabinet appointees -- along with political parties and their leaders," the memo stated.

It concluded that "if former President Trump makes a clear, public announcement that he is running for office, he would be considered a politician under our program policies."

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, said the memo was "a reiteration of our long-standing policy should not be news to anyone."

Meta's fact-checking program has been criticized by Republicans and Democrats -- with many Republicans saying Meta goes too far, while many Democrats say the company doesn't go far enough.

Trump has not been allowed to post on his Facebook and Instagram accounts since the days following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. However, Meta plans on considering allowing Trump back on the platform as soon as January -- two years since his initial ban.

[tomorrowusa]

Social media barons once again kowtow to authoritarians.

Ethno-nationalist authoritarian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has been the subject of a series of critical documentaries on the BBC. The rightwing control freak contacted numerous platforms to suppress the docs. He got a favorable reception from them.

Elon Musk Caves to Pressure From India to Remove BBC Doc Critical of Modi

Twitter and YouTube censored a report critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coordination with the government of India, according to a top Indian official. Officials called for the Big Tech companies to take action against a BBC documentary exploring Modi’s role in a genocidal 2002 massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat, which the officials deemed a “propaganda piece.”

In a series of posts, Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, denounced the BBC documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.” He said that both Twitter and YouTube had been ordered to block links to the film, before adding that the platforms “have complied with the directions.”

[ ... ]

This act of censorship — wiping away allegations of crimes against humanity committed by a foreign leader — sets a worrying tone for Twitter, especially in light of its new management.

Elon Musk’s self-identification as a “free-speech absolutist” has been a primary talking point for the billionaire as he has sought to explain why he took ownership of the platform last year.

It looks like Elon is willing to put aside his “free-speech absolutist” approach if it might threaten Tesla sales in India.

And a familiar (ugly) face is returning to Facebook/Instagram.

Meta allows Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram

Former President Donald Trump will be allowed to return to Facebook and Instagram more than two years after he was banned for inciting violence when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump's accounts will be reinstated "in the coming weeks" with new guardrails "to deter repeat offenses," Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook's parent company Meta, said on Wednesday.

[ ... ]

Meta's announcement drew immediate blowback from civil rights and advocacy groups.

"[Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg's decision to reinstate Trump's accounts is a prime example of putting profits above people's safety," said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. "It's quite astonishing that one can spew hatred, fuel conspiracies, and incite a violent insurrection at our nation's Capitol building, and Mark Zuckerberg still believes that is not enough to remove someone from his platforms."

On Fb it’s fine to spew hate speech, encourage a coup, and spread pandemic disinformation as long as you’re a billionaire with lots of brainwashed followers.

I’d add that Nick Clegg, the Meta mouthpiece, is a former UK deputy prime minister. As leader of the Lib Dems in 2010 he got into an ill-fated coalition with Conservative David Cameron which proved disastrous for his party. He is an idiot whose only true skill is making it look like he’s more talented than he actually is. He is a hood ornament for Facebook the way Gerhard Schröder was for Gazprom.

Moth Meta and Twitter have been hurting financially with massive layoffs of workers. The decisions to censor on behalf of Modi and curry favor with Trump’s MAGA zombies have more to do with authoritarian money than anything else.

[shelleyyyyy]

[msscribe-stan]

i genuinely think the 2012 Nick Clegg university apology is one of the best apologies of all time. he seems truly apologetic and doesn’t make excuses for it, and makes a clear commitment to not repeat the mistake again, stating that they will not make promises that they aren’t certain they can stick to. 10/10

[lazlo-vampire-author]

What would a Politics lesson from Aristotle for Cameron, Miliband, Farage and Clegg be like?

What would a Politics lesson from Aristotle for Cameron, Miliband, Farage and Clegg be like?

This week: my new book, Lotus, published this Friday and; What would a Politics lesson from Aristotle for Cameron, Miliband, Farage and Clegg be like? Lotus eBook cover Lotus published this Friday Just a reminder that my new book, Lotus, will go on sale on FRIDAY but is already available for preview on Smashwords http://bit.ly/lotusswds and Amazon http://bit.ly/amlotus What would a Politics…

[changing-my-username]

Keir Starmer is Labour's Nick Clegg

[richdadpoor]

Instagram's Adding a Chronological Feed for Stories and Reels in Europe

Meta announced it is implementing new “transparency measures” on Instagram and Facebook on Tuesday in response to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires Meta to comply by August 25. The measures will reportedly include archiving all targeted ads for users in the EU in its existing Ad Library and providing additional information on both Facebook and Instagram explaining how…

[misspeppermint2003]

Picrew Animated Portraits of World Politicians 12

After the first part of the eleventh part of Picrew Animated Portraits of World Politicians collection, I made the second part of it with a same student image maker on Picrew.

Tony Blair (left), Nick Clegg (middle) & David Cameron (right)

Ulf Kristersson (left), Isaac "Bougie" Herzog (middle) & Benjamin Netanyahu (right)

Pedro Sánchez (left), Andrzej Duda (middle) & Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right)

Rishi Sunak (left), Jesse Klaver (middle) & Rob Jetten (right)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

[weaversweek]

Ah, “I really really like you” on the BBC Muddy Field Festival coverage.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s version is awesome, but we’re still waiting to see Nick Clegg’s cover version.

[eaglesnick]

Keir Starmer: The New Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, made a pledge to university students before the 2012 election promising he would not raise tuition fees. As soon as he was in power with the Tories, tuition fees went up from £3200 per year to £9000 a year. Clegg’s duplicity was understandably greeted by "scorn” and cries of “liar liar".  The Liberal Democrats have done badly in national elections ever since.

Now we are witnessing a repeat of history, only this time it is much worse. Sir Keir Starmer, self-proclaimed champion of the people, also made a pledge to students, going further than Clegg, promising he would abolish tuition fees altogether.  He has now “abandoned" that pledge.

The definition of a pledge is “a solemn binding promise to do, give, or refrain from doing something". The key word here Sir Keir is “binding". A pledge is a promise that MUST be carried out. . No one forced you to make a pledge to the students; you did so in 2020 when you were campaigning to become leader of the Labour Party because you thought it would win you votes.

We know what happened to the popularity of Clegg and the Liberal Democrats after that one broken pledge. But Starmer has gone much further, and is reneging on a whole plethora of pledges he made during his bid for the Labour leadership. 

During the leadership campaign he pledged that:

“Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system."

When interviewed on the Today programme this morning (02/05/23) he backtracked on his pledge to have public services in public hands. There is to be no nationalisation of either energy generation or its distribution. Ownership is to remain in largely foreign hands with profits going abroad. Nationalization of the water companies has been scrapped. That is also to remain in majority foreign ownership with profits going abroad.

Increasing taxes on the rich has also been ruled out by Starmer. When asked “Is it not right the wealthy should pay more?" Starmer waffled and waffled. When asked why he could not reform capital gains tax so the rich paid the standard rate of tax on their wealth, he said,

“We’ve got the highest tax burden for, well, since the Second World War…high tax-low growth economies don’t work."

When pressed further, and told that some people (the wealthy) were doing very well financially because what they own has dramatically risen in value over the last few years, Starmer was adamant that the rich should not be taxed further.

“ I am not ideological" he said during the interview, “ my central focus is on growing the economy”.

So there we have it. Starmer has no set of ideas or believes that instruct his policies. Is it any wonder no one knows what Starmer stands for – he doesn’t know himself! He will do and say anything to get into power. Once in power, as he has acutely demonstrated, he will abandon those pledges that no longer serve his purpose.

So, should Starmer win the next general election, don’t expect any change to what we are experiencing now. Tuition fees will remain astronomically high; the water companies will continue to pump raw sewage into our waterways; energy production and distribution will remain in foreign hands; the rich will become richer still while the poor become poorer; the NHS will continue to be under-funded and more and more of it will become privatised.

VOTE KEIR STARMER: VOTE CONSERVATIVE

[gameofthrones2020]

Why Populations Not Being at Replacement Levels is Leading to Inflation

In 2022 and 2023, global economies are experiencing inflation due to many factors; in the case of the UK, it is England and the United Kingdom as a whole leaving the European Union and since the United Kingdom leaving the European Union

In 2022 and 2023, global economies are experiencing inflation due to many factors; in the case of the UK, it is England and the United Kingdom as a whole leaving the European Union and since the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in the Brexit referendum in 2016. The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31 2020, and the transition lasted until December 31,…

[marko-dwight]

Le métaverse est déjà rempli de mauvais comportements Internet

Le métaverse est déjà rempli de mauvais comportements Internet

Dans Meta’s Horizon Worlds, l’avatar d’un joueur est gavé d’une bouteille de « vodka ». Les rédacteurs du rapport ont noté que cela ne le rendait pratiquement pas moins invasif.Capture d’écran: Vidéo SumOfUs Il a fallu moins d’une heure à un chercheur étudiant le métaverse titulaire de Meta pour être “pratiquement violée” après avoir mis le casque VR pour la première fois. Après des jours de…