The Labour MP Dawn Butler has been ejected from the Commons after saying Boris Johnson had lied repeatedly to fellow parliamentarians and the country, and then refusing to withdraw the remark.
“The prime minister has lied to this house time and time again,” Butler told the deputy speaker, Judith Cummins. When asked to “reflect on her words”, Butler added: “It’s funny that we get in trouble in this place for calling out the lie, rather than the person lying.”
Under Commons rules about what is considered unparliamentary language, it is forbidden for MPs to accuse their fellows of deliberate deceit.
Speaking in a backbench business debate shortly before the end of the final day of Commons business before the summer recess, Butler condemned the government’s response to coronavirus.
“Poor people in this country have paid with their lives because the prime minister spent the last 18 months misleading this house and the country,” the Brent Central MP said.
Butler cited a much-shared social media video collating many of Johnson’s incorrect statements, highlighting in particular the prime minister’s comment to MPs earlier in the month that the Covid vaccination programme had “severed” the link between infections and serious illness or death.
While this appeared an error rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive – the official government line remains that the link has only been weakened, not severed – Johnson has never corrected himself, and fellow ministers have refused to accept he was wrong.
Butler told MPs: “Not only is this not true, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to lie in the pandemic. And I’m disappointed the prime minister has not come to the house to correct the record, and to correct the fact that he has lied to this house and the country over and over again.” …
Just to outline my thoughts on paid posts or whatever shitty idea tumblr is trying to suggest.
- All porn bots must pay £50 if they want to interact or follow
- Nazis, general fascists, transphobes, bigots and dickheads must all pay £5 per word when writing to me. If they then choose to respond again that’s upped to £15 per word. A third reply and it’s bumped to £50 per letter.
Here’s something I wanna say real quick, while I’m feeling salty: Amazon has totally contributed to the devaluation of literature. Those prices you see, the $13 they’re asking you to pay for a hardcover book? Those are deep, DEEP discounts that they’re able to implement because they don’t collect sales tax if they can get away with it, they don’t contribute money to the communities where they have a physical presence, they have shitty labor practices, Jeff Bezos has more money than god, etc.
They’re so omnipotent at this point that they’ve normalized the discounted prices for books as the standard. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had someone come up to me and tell me what the price on Amazon is, expecting me to match it. The number of times I’ve been told, “Oh, it’s cheaper on Amazon, I’ll just get it there.” Even at author events, where book sales DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE to whether or not that bookstore will be able to get more authors in.
So when you go into a bookstore, and you’re asked to pay $27 for a hardcover, remember: THAT IS THE COVER PRICE. Set by the publishers. The bookstore is not upcharging you. They are asking you to pay the value of the book. Amazon’s low prices come with a cost. Please, just keep that in mind.
(I made a post with options for buying books online that aren’t Amazon. Check it out!)
This is a great post, and I just want to point out: publishers aren’t upcharging you either.
The cost of the book is the advance for the author, it’s the salaries for all the people who work on it (including editors, yes, but also designers and marketers and publicists and lawyers and accountants and everyone else who makes sure publishing works). It’s the cost of printing the books and the materials to print those books on and the warehouses to store those books in.
It’s keeping the literal lights on.
No one in the book business, from the author to the publisher to the bookseller, is making themselves rich off your money. This is the cost to survive. Amazon is running at a deficit because they can make up the cost with other things they do, and because once they run everyone else out of business, they’ll be the only game in town and can charge whatever they damn well please.
And please, please do not ask a bookstore (especially an indie bookstore) if they “price match.” It’s so insulting.
Amazon routinely sells books at or *below* wholesale cost. Meaning that when you ask a bookstore to ‘price match’ Amazon, you’re literally asking them to give you the book for free, or even take a financial loss on it.
‘So how can Amazon do it?’ you ask? The answer is Amazon does not care about losing money. It sells goods at a loss continuously. (Don’t believe me? Just search “Amazon quarterly losses” and you can find article after article about this) Why? Because its goal isn’t to sell the most things, it’s goal is to be the only place where you CAN buy things. They gouge prices on goods to a point where brick and mortar retailers absolutely cannot compete and they do it with the singular goal of eliminating competition.
Things have value. They represent many people’s time and labor. For books, specifically, they represent tremendous cultural worth that extends far beyond the value of the paper they’re printed on. We have to appreciate the value of goods and be willing to pay a fair price that will support and nurture industries.
It’s ok to be upset that you can’t afford $26 for a new hardcover, but make sure that that anger is directed, not at the people whose labor makes books possible, but at the people on top (like Jeff Bezos) who have devalued your own labor such that you can’t afford it.
^^^ if anyone is wondering this is LITERALLY the exact same strategy that Walmart used to destroy any small business and fuck over local economies.
Might I suggest Indie Bound for those who still need the option of home delivery?
all jokes aside, it makes me very sad how literally the entire internet, especially social media, has just become more and more unapologetic in trying to wring as much money out of you as possible. can’t go on youtube without being bombarded by youtube red ads promising that if you just give them money, they’ll block the pesky ads who are also begging for your money. can’t stream a movie without searching for it on each of the dozens and dozens of streaming platforms. all demanding individual subscriptions for their tiny share of the world’s movies that used to just all be on netflix. every news site counting down your free three articles, all the while begging you to turn your adblock off. click off instagram’s stupid shopping tab, and the first post on your timeline is with #ad.
and of course, now, tumblr’s adding post plus.
i hate it!! hate getting advertised at everywhere i go. hate that social media’s not even supposed to be social anymore, just another thing to monetize. i’m so sick of it!!! can’t escape it ever!!! give us 9.99 per month for exclusive fucking content!! fuck!!
I click through a “prev tags” chain becoming more and more curious with each click. I get to the end & am devastated to discover I have to pay $4.99 to view the tags being prev’d. I’ve come so far. I can’t resist. I pay the toll. the tags read #this is dean and cas
no it’s so fucking funny staff is just apparently ignoring the fact that 90% of the content on this website basically becomes illegal the second you bring money into the equation sdkfjghfjdslk
