…I dunno how many of you have seen quite as much of blackadder as I have…but…there’s a bit in the fourth season (AKA blackadder goes forth) that’s been bobbing to the surface of my mind

…maybe it’s unfair to find parallels between that & the evidence so far produced by israel that the hospital they breached (if nothing else then in the sense that they eschewed the existing doors in favor of blowing a hole in the wall to enter) is, as they have claimed to be certain of, the site of some sort of command & control deal for hamas

Israeli troops found a command centre and weapons and combat gear belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza’s biggest hospital on Wednesday, Israel’s military said, in a campaign that stoked global alarm over the fate of civilians inside.
[…]
The military simultaneously released a video it said showed some of the materials it recovered from an undisclosed building in the hospital compound, including automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets.

…&…I don’t claim to know better than them about that sort of thing…but…in terms of proving that claim of theirs…at least so far…the fact they’re talking about evidence from above ground that they seem to consider sufficient to demonstrate they were right about an underground claim…feels like some mobile goalposts

In one hospital department, “the soldiers located an operational command centre and technological assets belonging to Hamas, indicating that the terrorist organization uses the hospital for terrorist purposes,” an Israeli military statement said.

Israel has consistently said the hospital sits above a Hamas headquarters, an assertion the United States said on Tuesday was supported by its own intelligence.

Hailing the entry of his forces into the hospital, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach. There are no hideouts.”

…&…well…if there’s no place they can’t reach…then I can’t help the part of my mind that is more than a little curious why neither israel nor the US seems inclined to offer up evidence of that underground component quite yet…despite how it seems like it would significantly shore up their justification of a thing many view as lacking adequate justification…&…well…I ran across a reminder that when it comes to context…the form guide stretches back a long way

…so…anyway

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters the Israeli incursion into Al Shifa Hospital was “totally unacceptable”.

“Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” he said in Geneva.

Dr Ahmed El Mohallalati, a surgeon, told Reuters by phone that Al Shifa staff had hidden as fighting unfolded around the hospital overnight. As he spoke, the sound of what he described as “continuous shooting from the tanks” could be heard in the background.

“One of the big tanks entered within the hospital from the eastern main gate, and … they just parked in the front of the hospital emergency department,” he said.

The Israelis had told the hospital administration in advance that they planned to enter, he said. By mid-morning, he and other staff had yet to receive instructions from the troops, although the soldiers were “metres away” from them.

After five days during which he said the hospital had come under repeated Israeli attack, it was a relief at least to have reached an “end point”, with troops now inside the grounds instead of outside shooting in, Mohallalati said.

Hamas command centre, weapons found at Gaza hospital, Israeli military says [Reuters]

…elsewhere in that article there’s a passing reference to another bit of contested ground…in a somewhat more abstracted sense…to wit…”Israel has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, which it says would benefit Hamas, a position backed by Washington“…&…while I can’t help but feel like a genuine cease fire might be a boon to more people than hamas…the line between a pause & a cessation…even rhetorically…has become a hill to metaphorically die on even as men, women & children have been dying in droves for having the bad luck to have sought shelter in a hospital

Israel faced an unprecedented wave of international condemnation after its troops entered the Shifa hospital complex in Gaza, while the UN and aid agencies expressed concern about the impact of the raid on staff and patients.

The scale and virulence of the global condemnation from Arab and western governments raised questions about how much longer Israel can continue with its offensive in the face of waning international support.

The US distanced itself from the military takeover of the hospital, saying it had not authorised the Israeli decision.

The UN spoke of carnage in Gaza, and as the pressure rose during the day, Israel relented by announcing it would allow an unlimited number of aid convoys through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border. Aid convoys have been limited to as few as 30 trucks a day when the UN said it needed hundreds to relieve starvation.

The sense of crisis engendered by the hospital takeover also led to a breakthrough at the UN in New York, where the security council passed a resolution calling for urgent and extended humanitarian pauses in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip for a “sufficient number of days” to allow humanitarian aid access.

After four unsuccessful attempts to take action last month, the US lifted its threat to veto a new resolution prepared by Malta.

The draft resolution, which emphasises the situation of children in almost every paragraph, “requires all parties to respect their obligations under international law, especially regarding the protection of civilians, particularly children”.
[…]
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said the agency’s operation in Gaza was on the verge of collapse. “By the end of today, around 70% of the population in Gaza won’t have access to clean water,” he said.
[…]
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urged Israel to end the “indiscriminate killing of Palestinians” in Gaza. “We demand an immediate ceasefire on the part of Israel in Gaza and strict compliance with international humanitarian law, which today is clearly not respected,” he said during a debate in parliament.

The first truck carrying a UN fuel shipment into Gaza since Israel imposed its siege crossed from Egypt on Wednesday, though it will do little to alleviate shortages that have hampered relief efforts.

The delivery was made possible by Israel giving its approval for 24,000 litres of diesel fuel to be allowed into Gaza for UN aid distribution trucks, though not for use at hospitals, according to a humanitarian source.

“This is only 9% of what we need daily to sustain life-saving activities,” Tom White, the director of the UN relief agency in Gaza, posted on X. He confirmed that just over 23,000 litres, or half a tanker, had been received.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/15/turkeys-erdogan-calls-israel-terror-state-as-he-condemns-gaza-hospital-raid

…even in the trenches of the “great war” medics & places & vehicles bearing the red cross symbol were deemed outside the acceptable targets…even your actual nazi doctors…though more than a few of those did some war crimes of their own…so…it’s not like there isn’t an abundance of grey areas in that kind of thing…but…people want clarity…not least people in positions of influence looking to exert a little…which is why keir starmer drew his own line in the sand & announced that any labour MP voting for an SNP amendment calling for that ceasefire business could consider themselves surplus to his requirements…which…arguably didn’t have quite the effect he was hoping for

Jess Phillips has become the most high-profile Labour MP to quit the frontbench over Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza, after voting in the Commons for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
[…]
She was one of 56 Labour MPs – including eight in the shadow cabinet – to vote for the amendment to the king’s speech brought by the Scottish National party on Wednesday night. Here is her letter in full:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/15/heavy-heart-jess-phillips-letter-of-resignation-in-full

…as that kind of letter goes…the compare/contrast between hers & suella’s is something to behold…either way the part where it didn’t go sir keir’s way

Dozens of Labour MPs defy Keir Starmer to vote for ceasefire in Gaza [Guardian]

…had a distinct air of being the cold comfort rishi must have been clinging to

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/15/who-are-the-labour-mps-that-defied-keir-starmer-over-a-gaza-ceasefire

…because…at the risk of boring you…it was a busy day of hurry up & wait over in the halls of parliament…though…plenty of sound & fury…signifying…well

It is not too late for the government to align UK immigration policy with the principles of international law. It is probably too late for Rishi Sunak to derive any political benefit from a change of direction now that the supreme court has rendered his existing scheme inoperable. He must still make that change in defiance of demands from Conservative MPs to push on faster down the wrong path.

The court’s ruling is unambiguous on the point of law that prevents implementation of the government’s proposed scheme for processing asylum claims in Rwanda. Refugees deported by that mechanism would not have sufficient guarantee against being returned to the places from which they had fled in fear of persecution, torture or death. That protection – the principle of non-refoulement – is a foundational tenet of human rights law and the refugee conventions to which the UK is bound.

The government’s policy falls foul of more than the European convention on human rights (ECHR). Non-refoulement is embedded in the whole apparatus of international law that was assembled in a spirit of determination never to repeat the horrors of the second world war.

For Mr Sunak to find himself on the wrong side of that argument is not just politically awkward. It is shameful. It is also evidence of abysmal judgment. The problems with the Rwanda plan were obvious from the start. Even if the prime minister were comfortable with a policy that made refugees unsafe, he should have been warned off this scheme by the character of its advocates. It was initiated when Boris Johnson was prime minister and Priti Patel was home secretary. It was then embraced with fanatical zeal by Suella Braverman. None of those people could be relied upon to care about the rule of law or good government. They represent a strand of post-Brexit Tory radicalism that despises the judiciary as an obstacle to the gratification of hard rightwing dogma camouflaged as “the will of the people”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/15/the-guardian-view-on-rishi-sunaks-asylum-policy-empty-slogans-are-no-substitute-for-good-government

…guess you might say what it signifies depends a fair bit on who you ask…& if you ask rishi…you get to ride some topsy turvy “logic”…you see…he seems to think that he can flip that script by finagling a bit of bojo-style “emergency legislation” to…well…stipulate in legislation that actually rwanda is totally a safe place to dump refugees…while also being such a scary place to fear winding up that the mere possibility of that being their next stop would deter the droves of people risking their lives to illegally enter the UK by trusting their lives to shady people happy to turn a profit cramming entirely too many of them in floating objects that in many cases aren’t the kind of seaworthy that implies the sort of channel crossing ferries routinely make commonplace…no…I know how it sounds…but…for real…that’s his deal

Rishi Sunak has staked his political credibility on pushing through emergency legislation to resurrect his high-profile plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, after the supreme court ruled it was unlawful.

During a combative press conference on Wednesday afternoon, hastily arranged after the five judges unanimously rejected the proposal, Sunak said legislation would end the “merry-go-round” of legal challenges by setting out in law that the east African country is safe.

…see…he can’t afford to let people contradict him…even if they do get to refer to themselves as “law lords“…because he can’t afford to lose even 17 square feet of no man’s land when it comes to this stuff…&…that’s a problem stacked on a problem made of a whole cloth spun exclusively from problems…not the least of which is that pesky ECHR…which…inconveniently for your rabid brexiteers

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, better known as the European Convention on Human Rights, was opened for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950 and came into force on 3 September 1953.

https://www.echr.coe.int/european-convention-on-human-rights

…somewhat predates the EU…not to mention being bound up in other binding things…not the least of which being the protocols of the good friday agreement & the whole northern ireland business

Amid increasing pressure from the right of the Conservative party to commit to withdrawing from the European convention on human rights (ECHR), Sunak said he would “not allow a foreign court to block these flights”, but declined to say how.

“I am prepared to do what is necessary to get flights off. I will not take the easy way out,” the prime minister said

…interesting choice of words, that

A parallel plan for a new international treaty with Rwanda would provide “guarantees in law” that people deported from the UK would not be returned to their home countries, he added.

While a treaty would formalise the previous memorandum of understanding with Rwanda, Whitehall sources said this could take more than a year and then be challenged in the courts.

…those would be domestic courts…the foreign ones he mentioned will have to take a number & get in line, I suppose

The supreme court’s judgment, read out by Lord Reed, its president, said all five judges agreed with the court of appeal that there was a real risk of asylum claims being wrongly determined in Rwanda, resulting in people being wrongly returned to their country of origin and facing persecution.

…I can’t figure out how to poach the guardian’s embed at this point…& lack the time to hunt down the same clip on youtube…but you can hear it from the horse’s mouth if you track that down

He pointed to evidence from the United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR, which highlighted the failure of a similar deportation agreement between Israel and Rwanda.
[…]
While some Tory MPs railed against the decision – Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s vice-chair, said Sunak should “ignore the laws and send them straight back” – the PM said accepted and respected the ruling but would try to find a way around it.

Sunak’s desire to rapidly enact legislation could hit trouble if his plan is opposed in the Lords, which seems likely. On Wednesday night, the Liberal Democrats said Sunak had simply “doubled down on failure”.

The Bar Council also warned that passing a law to reverse such a ruling “would raise profound and important questions about the respective role of the courts and parliament”.

Sunak did not say when the legislation might be introduced, or how it would get around the supreme court’s view that the Rwanda plan contravened three existing UK laws.

It was notable that in Sunak’s press conference, while he said the government was “working extremely hard” to meet its timetable of the first flights leaving in spring, he declined three times to guarantee this would happen even before the next election.

Further delay is likely to enrage Conservative MPs on the right of the party, who are strongly pushing for ministers to enact legislative blocks on the ECHR and UN Refugee Convention in UK law – a move that would in turn alarm centrist Tories and have implications for the Northern Ireland peace process.

…uh huh

A former minister said the treaty “will be stuck in the courts while we are being voted out of office” and described the emergency legislation as “sleight of hand”, adding: “Sunak has given up on Conservatism and is instead relying on David Cameron to get us through this year. It cannot go on like this.”

…meanwhile

[Rishi] stopped short of promising to quit the ECHR, saying he would instead “revisit those international relationships to remove the obstacles in our way” and highlighted the fact that other countries, including Italy, are looking to introduce similar measures to deport people to third countries.
[…]
Speaking in the Commons, James Cleverly, the new home secretary, damped down the idea of leaving the ECHR.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, suggested Cleverly had previously privately referred to the Rwanda plan as “batshit”, a jibe not explicitly denied by Cleverly.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/15/rishi-sunak-to-bring-in-emergency-law-after-courts-rwanda-ruling

…feels like a term you could apply to a lot of things, that

Trump’s lawyers are asking the New York judge Arthur Engoron for a mistrial given “bias” and “improper co-judging” on the bench.

“In this case the evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the motion. “Only the grant of a mistrial can salvage what is left of the rule of law.”

…that’d be the law that already ruled in this case, in case that bit slipped your mind or you had your cases mixed up the way it’s hard not to when there’s so damned many of the things to keep track of

Trump’s lawyers are still waiting to hear back on an appeal of Engoron’s pre-trial summary judgment, which found Trump guilty of fraud and revoked his New York business licenses, essentially ending his ability to conduct business in the state. Because this is a bench trial with no jury, Engoron is the sole presider of the case.

Given that Engoron is the one who will rule on the mistrial, which is blatantly criticizing his conduct on the court, he will likely strike down the motion.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/15/trump-fraud-case-mistrial-judge-bias

…but then the ends to which that would be the means are a far cry from the putative ends of the motion itself

This article includes the words “Trump” and “Russian” in its headline, meaning it has already filtered readers into two camps. The smaller group — vastly smaller — is here to read about the ways in which the enemy-of-the-people Washington Post is again trotting out “Russian influence” in an unfair and ridiculous effort to impugn the former president. The other, larger group is curious what is prompting a new examination of this question. And we’ll get to that in a second.

Before we do, though, we must recognize that the proportion of readers from each camp reading this article diverges wildly from the proportion of the general public. Out there in the broader world, the “Russia collusion hoax” skeptics are abundant, if not a plurality of the public. There has perhaps been no sales pitch offered by Donald Trump that has paid larger dividends than his immediate, long-standing push to cast any questions about Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 campaign as the deranged rantings of weirdo liberals. He’s inculcated an immediate, visceral reaction from members of his base as well as Americans more broadly that when they hear “Russia” in the context of “Trump,” they should dismiss what follows as false and defamatory.

This reaction has provided him an enormous amount of space to avoid very serious questions about the ways in which Russia worked to his benefit while he was in office — and may continue to do so.
[…]
Some background is useful here.

In late 2015 and early 2016, the United States and other governments engaged in a campaign to oust Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin. Shokin was broadly seen as corrupt and, in March 2016, was removed from his position by Ukraine’s parliament.

This event has become a central part of American political debate. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma at the time, raising concern within the Obama administration (for which Joe Biden served as vice president) and from media observers. But there’s no evidence that there was a connection between Joe Biden’s calls for Shokin’s ouster and Hunter Biden’s role: There’s no evidence that Shokin was investigating Burisma before his ouster; there is evidence he was actively protecting Burisma’s founder Mykola Zlochevsky from foreign investigations.

Nonetheless, by the end of 2018 or early 2019, Shokin began speaking with Giuliani — already serving as Trump’s attorney — claiming that his ouster was a function of an effort by Joe Biden to protect Burisma on behalf of his son. Again, there’s no evidence that Biden was motivated by anything other than the international consensus that Shokin was corrupt; claims otherwise have primarily been driven by that same corrupt actor.

For Giuliani, though, there was obvious appeal to the narrative. Biden was generally understood to be Trump’s most dangerous threat in the 2020 election, so a claim that he’d acted illegally would be useful. This was the trigger for Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into Biden, efforts that led to Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019.

There was already an investigation to that end, however. Shokin was replaced by Yuri Lutsenko, who very quickly demonstrated that he was also not a reliable anti-corruption fighter. U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch began putting pressure on Lutsenko, including by supporting an independent anti-corruption body referred to as NABU. Lutsenko began speaking with Giuliani in early 2019 and, in March, opened investigations that were, as the New York Times reported that year, “seen in some quarters as an effort … to curry favor from the Trump administration for [Giuliani’s] boss and ally, the incumbent president.”

In March 2019, the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III concluded, with new Attorney General William P. Barr’s encouragement. April was a busy month, with Mueller offering testimony about his probe before Congress. In response, Giuliani pointed to the real investigation: the one underway from Lutsenko. Giuliani ally and writer John Solomon began writing about the Biden-Burisma allegation for The Hill.

…you don’t say

It was also during this month that Hunter Biden left the board of Burisma — and that a computer repairman in Delaware says that Hunter Biden dropped off laptops for repair.

What’s important by this point is that Giuliani was, by all appearances, an energetic customer for derogatory information about Joe Biden. In early May, he planned to travel to Ukraine to dig up more dirt, a trip that was canceled after it became public and questions arose about his interest in using foreign intelligence to aid Trump politically — the heart of the questions Mueller had just finished investigating.

But in December 2019 — even as Trump was facing impeachment for his efforts to pressure Ukraine — Giuliani went anyway. While there, accompanied by the sycophantic media outlet One America News (OAN), Giuliani sat down for on-air interviews with Shokin, Lutsenko — and Derkach.

Derkach came to Giuliani’s attention (according to OAN’s Chanel Rion) when he and Dubinsky held news conferences in October 2019 attempting to lend credence to the Biden-Burisma story. By that point, the value to Trump in doing so was obvious; the president was facing an impeachment investigation for attempting to leverage his power to aid his 2020 campaign by boosting that story. If you were a foreign government looking to aid Trump politically and had assets in Ukraine who might speak on that nation’s behalf, it would seem like a good moment to do so.

Trump was warned that Giuliani was being targeted by Russian misinformation, but there’s no evidence that this served as a deterrent. “Do what you want to do,” one person familiar with the warnings said in summarizing them for The Post, “but your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine.” Derkach would be sanctioned for his role in promoting misinformation less than a year later.

In fact, not only did Trump not wave Giuliani away from the misinformation, he hyped it. He pledged that Giuliani’s trip — the one where he spoke with Shokin, Derkach and Dubinsky — provided his attorney with “a lot of good information.” There would be a report to Congress, Trump said, and to the attorney general, Barr.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/14/trump-russia-guiliani-biden-ukraine/

…now the post goes on to namecheck one marcy wheeler…even throws in a link to this one

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/11/14/the-two-impeachment-treason-trip-ukraine-charges-rudy-giulianis-sources/

…might quibble with the part where her PhD somehow doesn’t get so much as a nod…& I might go on…except I’ve gone on too long as it is so this is late already & I’m not done…so…here’s a few of the things I clearly won’t be getting around to

Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, have issued subpoena requests against Donald Trump in an effort to show the former US president applied political pressure to high-ranking officials to push for a criminal investigation into his affairs.

Court papers also reveal subpoena request against William Barr in bid to show investigation subject to undue political interference [Guardian]

…see…one of those things seems like it might overlap the other…& then there’s…you know

Meta allows Facebook and Instagram ads saying 2020 election was rigged [Guardian]

…you got your clear & present dangers

Russia and Israel lead global surge in attacks on civilian water supplies [Guardian]

Record increase in water-related violence shows how urgently we need to reduce these tensions between countries [Guardian]

…something something…picture

…something something…a thousand words

https://pacinst.org/water-conflict-chronology

…sound & fury

A Georgia judge said Wednesday he will issue a protective order barring the public release of sensitive evidence exchanged between prosecutors and lawyers representing former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference criminal cases in that state.
[…]
The order was sought by prosecutors, and agreed to by most of the defense teams on Wednesday, after the leak this week to media outlets of videos containing confidential interviews that four co-defendants, among them attorneys Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, gave prosecutors as part of their agreements to plead guilty.

At Wednesday’s hearing, attorney Jonathan Miller, who is representing defendant Misty Hampton, told McAfee that he gave the videos to “one media outlet.” He did not say which one.

Miller said the public had the right to know what the four co-defendants had told the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, arguing that the statements they made “help my client.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/trump-georgia-election-case-judge-will-issue-protective-order-for-evidence-after-testimony-leak.html

…signifying

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/15/us-china-climate-plan-analysis

…not forgetting the tale told by an idiot part

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Democrats failed to defend House from Capitol rioters

…so…before I head off in search of tunes & attempt to un-derail my morning…let’s hear it for the awesome power of…well…I don’t have a fully operational mothership to hand…so let’s go with a john crace column

This was about as bad as it could have got. No wriggle room. No nothing. Just a stark verdict on the judgment of the government and the Home Office. Sunak and his then home secretary, Suella Braverman, had bet the bank on a divisive culture war. You never upset a rightwing gobshite by being unpleasant to foreigners.

Now, though, they were high and dry. All vestiges of competence and credibility shredded. Just aimless husks orbiting around their depleted egos. Of no relevance to the country. Or even their friends. Not that David Pannick, the main government lawyer, will have been that bothered one way or the other. It was all just a game to him. He just trousered the best part of £1,000 an hour for spinning Sunak’s bullshit. You win some, you lose some.

Two hours later, Rish! was to be found in the Commons for prime minister’s questions. The cheers that greeted his arrival were almost audible. His backbenchers are now openly plotting against him. Making no effort to keep their assignations secret.

The ironically named Common Sense brigade, led by Esther McVey, Andrea Jenkyns and Desperate Danny Kruger, were coming up with ever more idiotic suggestions. Burn the statute books! Send the planes to Kigali regardless! Not a connecting synapse to be found anywhere. They’ve all basically given up. Like maggots stranded at the bottom of a rubbish bin. One of seven, presumably. If Sunak really cared about the country, or indeed his party, he’d call an election. To put everyone out of their misery.
[…]
He also tried to explain away the Rwanda verdict. Basically, everything was going completely to plan. The court had approved the idea of deporting refugees to a third country. Shame France wasn’t interested in a deal. All that was required to get the plan up and running was for Rwanda to overhaul its courts and judiciary and to hold free and fair elections. And to stop shooting refugees. And possibly to stop sending death squads into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Apart from that, everything was good to go.

This was going to be one of Keir Starmer’s easier sessions. Like shooting fish in a barrel. He started with Lord Big Dave. Why not? The man’s a buffoon. An insult to the country. We’re meant to think Cameron’s a safe, experienced pair of hands. Instead of the man who imposed austerity and accidentally took the UK out of the EU to a settle a civil war in the Tory party. Thanks for that, Lord Big Dave.

The man who then walked away from the country, unwilling to clear up his own mess. The man who then became Lord Big Dodgy Dave through his lobbying for Greensill. The Tories hope this smell is going to dissipate. It won’t. The man who despite all this was thought better than any Tory MP for the job of foreign secretary.

Could Sunak list Lord Big Dave’s finest achievement on an international stage? He couldn’t. There was an awkward silence. Then something about holding a G8 summit. One that was already in the diary. Literally anyone could have done that. The reality is that Lord Big Dave’s legacy is largely fantasy. The belief is that he must somehow be an improvement on the current bunch of halfwits. Despite the evidence.

We then moved on to Rwanda. What was the plan now there was no plan? The plan was to double down on having no plan. The Rwanda plan was already working even though no refugees had been deported. Wasting a year and £140m on a ruse to lure refugees into a false sense of security. We would both break any international laws we wanted – people got so squeamish about torture – and not break any. Schrödinger goes to Rwanda. Complete nonsense. A prime minister and a government in a death vortex.
[…]
After all this, he – the Diminutive Rish! – would just ignore any foreign courts. And the planes would take off in the spring. Except they won’t. As if the courts will back off because Sunak has said so. It was the work of an entitled child. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/15/desperate-delusional-defeated-the-tory-right-are-coming-for-rish-after-rwanda

…funny how that quote keeps cropping up…well…in the you-gotta-laugh-or-you’ll-cry sense of funny, any road…but on the upside I’ve come to the end of this one?