BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Pinno718]

I’m almost scared to ask how you know that.

Working with ex-cons in the waste management business.
(I kid you not - so you had better be good).

For a while I had complete immunity - from the dodgy one's to the police. In fact, some of them were as honest as the day is long. They hated 'dis-honest crooks'. Go figure. If they got wind of X person applying for a voluntary slot (these blokes were on parole) and they considered them dis-honest they would say to be wary. I never once got screwed over by them but the Council did.

 

[Pross]

Working with ex-cons in the waste management business.
(I kid you not - so you had better be good).

For a while I had complete immunity - from the dodgy one's to the police. In fact, some of them were as honest as the day is long. They hated 'dis-honest crooks'. Go figure. If they got wind of X person applying for a voluntary slot (these blokes were on parole) and they considered them dis-honest they would say to be wary. I never once got screwed over by them but the Council did.

Ah the "waste management" business. Did this involved the use of wood chippers and pig farms?

 

[Pinno718]

Ah the "waste management" business. Did this involved the use of wood chippers and pig farms?

No lol.

We recycled aluminium/steel cans, low density plastics (milk bottle types) and waste cooking oil.
We also ran our plant and machinery on recycled cooking oil.

 

[Beebo]

Lovely interview with the real Count bin face on TMS lunchtime slot. I’m sure it will be on I-player somewhere.
He comes across as a very nice person who has real passion for what he is doing.
I can see why the right wing don’t like him.

 

[Dorset Boy]

Tourist Tax: I've long felt we should adopt a tourist tax, which the Europeans have had for years. However, being the UK, you just know we'll balls it up and make it a rip off. Edinburgh have already done that with (IIRC) a 5% charge.
The Liverpool model of £2 per room per night is around the right rate, and in line with European tourist taxes.
The money raised should stay locally to offset the negative costs associated with tourism, whilst also promoting areas to future tourists.
BBC Tourist Tax Report

 

[Psamathe]

Has this been posted?

Tate brothers refused bail.
Commentators noted that their own testimony undermined their case that they weren't a flight risk.
That's what you get when you employ a 2 bit lawyer.

We'll laugh when they rot in jail. I hope they'll be somebody's bitch in the Scrubs or wherever. It would be apt.
The going rate is £2k to get someone inside beaten up...

I often find it amusing where the accused vehemently protests their innocence but then seek every possible (and impossible) means to avoid extradition and going to trial where they could prove their innocence.

If they are such innocent angels I'd have thought they'd be wanting to get into a UK court to be found "Not Guilty".

 

[Pinno718]

I often find it amusing where the accused vehemently protests their innocence but then seek every possible (and impossible) means to avoid extradition and going to trial where they could prove their innocence.

If they are such innocent angels I'd have thought they'd be wanting to get into a UK court to be found "Not Guilty".

Well yes. I am taking great pleasure in watching their fall*. Cannot wait to see them in a British court with all the media.

*Splat. 50 years each and watch them cry. 2 less significant actors in the manosphere.

 

[briantrumpet]

I'm starting to think we ought to have a thread for 'public-school-educated racist grifters who are being found out at last', but in the meantime, it's Yaxley Lennon's turn.

https://skywriter.blue/@hopenothate.org.uk/3mv6d4cot622c

HOPE Not Hate can conclusively prove that Stephen Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson’s business empire has been built on fraudulent means, tax evasion, and perjury. This is a long one. Strap in.

Lennon has been uniquely successful at monetising far-right activism amassing a multimillion-pound fortune by whipping up hatred and fear. He has received millions in small donations from supporters, plus hundreds of thousands more from wealthy backers in the US, Canada and Israel. For the past nine years, Lennon has operated as a shadow director effectively running various companies fronted by his ex-wife Jenna Lennon and long-term friend Adam Geary.

Given that Lennon was declared bankrupt during this period, and therefore disallowed from having control of any company, his de facto involvement in these companies was manifestly illegal. Because he lied under oath about the true ownership of his companies, he is also guilty of contempt of court. Because he lied under oath about the true ownership of his companies, he is also guilty of contempt of court. We have also seen a legal contract signed by Lennon on behalf of one of the companies - Lennon Consultancy. This document alone proves that Lennon committed perjury when he denied in court that he had any involvement with the company, and it provides irrefutable evidence of his role as a shadow director.

Jenna Lennon acted as her ex-husband’s banker, receiving numerous payments that were the direct result of his work. Last month she pleaded “not guilty” at Southwark Crown Court on three counts of failure to adhere to company accounting rules. The case will go to trial in July 2028. According to our sources, the Lennons’ divorce and Stephen Lennon’s subsequent bankruptcy declaration in 2021 were likely executed to conceal wealth and deny Syrian schoolboy Jamal Hijazi the damages he was due after winning his libel case.

In his bankruptcy interview, Lennon claimed he had been out of work since at least summer 2020 and held no assets or savings. Yet he travelled abroad regularly, wore new designer clothes, spent £20,000 on a four-week stay in a drug rehab clinic, and had been paying the mortgage on his parents’ Bedfordshire home for years. Lennon’s been getting away with it for too long. We’re calling on the Government to refer him to HMRC for a full investigation.

 

[Psamathe]

Tourist Tax: I've long felt we should adopt a tourist tax, which the Europeans have had for years. However, being the UK, you just know we'll balls it up and make it a rip off. Edinburgh have already done that with (IIRC) a 5% charge.
The Liverpool model of £2 per room per night is around the right rate, and in line with European tourist taxes.
The money raised should stay locally to offset the negative costs associated with tourism, whilst also promoting areas to future tourists.
BBC Tourist Tax Report

I agree. Something to offset the local impact of intensive tourism.

But then (as invariably happens) we get sector declaring how heavily they are already taxed, how it will destroy millions of jobs, force vast numbers of companies into bankruptcy and all before they have any idea if any specific locality will even implement one or at what level.

Hospitality spokesperson today declaring it was "vindictive" (maybe he should buy a dictionary?)

 

[First Aspect]

Tourist Tax: I've long felt we should adopt a tourist tax, which the Europeans have had for years. However, being the UK, you just know we'll balls it up and make it a rip off. Edinburgh have already done that with (IIRC) a 5% charge.
The Liverpool model of £2 per room per night is around the right rate, and in line with European tourist taxes.
The money raised should stay locally to offset the negative costs associated with tourism, whilst also promoting areas to future tourists.
BBC Tourist Tax Report

Edinburgh is facing quite specific "honey pot" issues - very, very high per capita visitor numbers and huge numbers of air b&bs making tenements almost uninhabitable for the permanent residents. The high rate is an attempt to suppress the demand slightly. I can see similar arguments for places like Oxford, Bath, the lakes etc.

Aberdeen's is higher, and Glasgow's is the same as Edinburgh's. These I don't really understand, because most visitors already can't wait to leave.

Cornwall (and probably also parts of Devon) needs to do something, because it's the poorest part of the UK pretty much, hospitality pays peanuts and the year round population doesn't benefit much from the seasonal tourism because a lot of the facilities shut. Tourism is in decline already because the reality is a preponderance of quite tacky overcrowded places that are hard to get to, with limited and expensive parking and frequented by pasty stuffing visitors driving Nissan Qashqai's with roof boxes and no reverse gear. The status quo isn't worth maintaining in a lot of places, from what I can see, so lets have a 20% Brummie levy, I say.

 

[briantrumpet]

I agree. Something to offset the local impact of intensive tourism.

But then (as invariably happens) we get sector declaring how heavily they are already taxed, how it will destroy millions of jobs, force vast numbers of companies into bankruptcy and all before they have any idea if any specific locality will even implement one or at what level.

Hospitality spokesperson today declaring it was "vindictive" (maybe he should buy a dictionary?)

The thing about the tourist taxes I've paid in France is that they are small enough that no-one complains, and if anything there's a bit of a chortle about "Oh there's 1.27€ to pay, sorry!" as you get a few coins out of your pocket. So I think that DB is quite right about their magnitude.

 

[briantrumpet]

Edinburgh is facing quite specific "honey pot" issues - very, very high per capita visitor numbers and huge numbers of air b&bs making tenements almost uninhabitable for the permanent residents. The high rate is an attempt to suppress the demand slightly. I can see similar arguments for places like Oxford, Bath, the lakes etc.

Aberdeen's is higher, and Glasgow's is the same as Edinburgh's. These I don't really understand, because most visitors already can't wait to leave.

Cornwall (and probably also parts of Devon) needs to do something, because it's the poorest part of the UK pretty much, hospitality pays peanuts and the year round population doesn't benefit much from the seasonal tourism because a lot of the facilities shut. Tourism is in decline already because the reality is a preponderance of quite tacky overcrowded places that are hard to get to, with limited and expensive parking and frequented by pasty stuffing visitors driving Nissan Qashqai's with roof boxes and no reverse gear. The status quo isn't worth maintaining in a lot of places, from what I can see, so lets have a 20% Brummie levy, I say.

I'd happily be a bit vindictive about Air BnB owners, so I'm hoping the tide is turning on that business model with the likes of Barcelona et al singling them out.

 

[Psamathe]

The thing about the tourist taxes I've paid in France is that they are small enough that no-one complains, and if anything there's a bit of a chortle about "Oh there's 1.27€ to pay, sorry!" as you get a few coins out of your pocket. So I think that DB is quite right about their magnitude.

I think a locally set rate is very appropriate as different areas suffer very different levels and impacts from excessive tourism.

And there a local Council costs eg cleaning public areas and no justification for local residents to be enduring the crowds as well as the costs.

I suspect those setting the local rates will do so wanting to keep local companies and jobs (in hospitality) as well as offsetting their costs and impacts (eg additional parking). Hence rates are unlikely to be punitive, vindictive, damaging, etc.

 

[Pinno718]

Edinburgh is facing quite specific "honey pot" issues - very, very high per capita visitor numbers and huge numbers of air b&bs making tenements almost uninhabitable for the permanent residents. The high rate is an attempt to suppress the demand slightly. I can see similar arguments for places like Oxford, Bath, the lakes etc.

Aberdeen's is higher, and Glasgow's is the same as Edinburgh's. These I don't really understand, because most visitors already can't wait to leave.

Cornwall (and probably also parts of Devon) needs to do something, because it's the poorest part of the UK pretty much, hospitality pays peanuts and the year round population doesn't benefit much from the seasonal tourism because a lot of the facilities shut. Tourism is in decline already because the reality is a preponderance of quite tacky overcrowded places that are hard to get to, with limited and expensive parking and frequented by pasty stuffing visitors driving Nissan Qashqai's with roof boxes and no reverse gear. The status quo isn't worth maintaining in a lot of places, from what I can see, so lets have a 20% Brummie levy, I say.

Barcelona 'balconing'?

Dear Tourist
Did you know Balconing...?
Prevents gentrification
Improves neighbours quality of life
Reduces the risk of hearts disease
It's LOTS of fun

Balconing is fun

 

[farfromtheland]

We recycled aluminium/steel cans, low density plastics (milk bottle types) and waste cooking oil.
We also ran our plant and machinery on recycled cooking oil.

Good.