Westminstenders: The New Era

[RedToothBrush]

Scotland.
The GFA.
Its not Brexit Honest.
Levelling Up Shitholes caused by Tory austerity.
Babymilk Shortages
Cronyism

But we did good with covid jabs.

[prettybird]

One relaxed cat and two of my favourite quotes from Thursday even if it will probably contribute to us staying in Level 3 for much longer while the rest of Scotland moves to L2

[DGRossetti]

Here's a cat with news of Brexit preventing people in NI being treated the same as people in England, Wales and Scotland.

Remember: this is the deal that Boris Johnson personally approved. There are no ifs, not buts, and no maybes in that as a statement of fact. Boris Johnson wanted this deal. And told us - the population of the UK - that it was that or nothing.



www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/brexit-denies-northern-ireland-access-to-life-saving-cancer-drug-269472/

Northern Ireland will miss out on a new cancer drug license for use in Britain, in the first evidence Brexit has drawn a hard border for medicines down the Irish Sea.

UK regulators last week approved osimertinib as a treatment for patients with early stage lung cancer, as part of a global effort to fast-track the most promising drugs.

But, under the terms of the Brexit deal, drugs like osimertinib – which can improve survival rates by up to 75 per cent – are excluded from use in Northern Ireland, because it has not been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

[Peregrina]

But, under the terms of the Brexit deal, drugs like osimertinib – which can improve survival rates by up to 75 per cent – are excluded from use in Northern Ireland, because it has not been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

Ah, this one is easy for the Brexshitters/Leavers to argue against. Nasty European Medicines Agency. How long will it take for the EMA to catch up, and the crowing of the Leavers to stop?

[mathanxiety]

"labour market shortages"....it wholly depends how much empoloyers are prepared to pay people to do these jobs.

@LouiseCollins
How much are employers prepared to pay people to pick vegetables?
What sort of accommodation are they prepared to put them in?
Are they prepared to provide transport? (Because people looking for work often have families - not all are young, single men, footloose and fancy free).
Can people who are seasonal employees return seamlessly to UC or whatever other welfare they need once the season is over?

How much is the average consumer able and prepared to pay to cover the increased cost of production when employers are forced to provide something other than a barebones pay and conditions packet?

[mathanxiety]

No - these supermarkets were keen to reassure their customers that they would not be selling chlorinated chicken from a potential US trade deal - the stuff that you have to eat in your home town (in the US).

No they're not .
They're trying to make themselves look less German and avoid a racist, Brexit-related consumer backlash.

Btw, I thought Brexit supporters were dancing in the streets at the prospect of a trade deal with the US?
Such a deal would of course include importation of cheaply produced chlorinated chicken.

I don't have to eat it. I can afford alternatives. Luckily the US is big enough to provide a market for fowl that are processed without resort to chlorination. But there are people on both sides of the pond who buy whatever is cheapest, and whether the UK chicken sector would survive an influx of cheaper, industrially produced American chicken remains to be seen.

[mathanxiety]

@Clavinova

...visitors without work visas may “attend meetings, conferences, seminars, interviews” and “negotiate and sign deals and contracts” - however, "visitors" have to satisfy border guards that they intend to return home after they have completed the purpose of their visit.

There is absolutely nothing in the regulations you have referred to about a time limit. Someone could conceivably have ten or twelve interviews lined up, one a week. Or they could see jobs advertised and apply for them after completing interviews over a two week period.

Immigration personnel are left to make up the regs as they go along.

[mathanxiety]

The Guardian's sub heading is very misleading;
Europeans with job interviews tell of detentions and expulsions despite rules allowing non-visa holders to attend interviews.

The only job seekers they actually spoke to were two young women without job interviews.

@Clavinova
The subheader and the interviews with only two individuals are not necessarily mutually contradictory.

Maybe two illustrative cases got the point across?

Maybe the Guardian didn't want to put out an issue with over 50 pages devoted to individual cases of suspension of habeas corpus and other human rights abuses?

[DGRossetti]

"labour market shortages"....it wholly depends how much employers are prepared to pay people to do these jobs.

Indeed.

It's very easy to offer £10,000 per annum for the vacancy of CEO of Megacorp Inc., and then whine endlessly that "there aren't enough qualified people" applying.

Anyone who has dealt with having to recruit people (as I am now) learned many moons ago to take such claims with a mine of salt.

[Clavinova]

mathanxiety
No they're not

Yes they are -

July 2020
These are the supermarkets who have refused to explicitly ban the sale of chlorinated chicken.

Aldi joined Waitrose in pledging to ban chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef from its shelves this week - regardless of any post-Brexit trade deal.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/these-are-the-supermarkets-who-have-refused-to-explicitly-ban-the-sale-of-chlorinated-chicken-194134/

Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK, has promised that his supermarket will only stock fresh chicken and beef supplied by British farmers.

'We will never compromise on the standards or specifications of our products, and that includes a commitment to never selling chlorinated chicken or hormone injected beef.'

He added: 'Britain has some of the highest food quality standards in the world, and our commitment to only source chicken and beef from this country means our customers know they are always buying high quality Aldi products at unbeatable value.' ...

The commitment comes as more than 110,000 UK supermarket customers signed an online petition calling on retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda to refuse to stock chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8487393/Aldi-not-sell-chlorinated-chicken-hormone-treated-beef-UK-strikes-trade-deal-US.html

[mathanxiety]

Our Government is not a facist government terrorising and gassing people.

The Nazis didn't start out terrorising and gassing people. That came later, with several important steps between Points A and B. The steps have been well documented and analysed.

[mathanxiety]

@yellowspanner

The strange thing about the British descent into fascism via economic crisis is that the government itself created the crisis by insisting on austerity policies, when even the US (under Obama) was questioning the wisdom of that.

[Clavinova]

Maybe the Guardian didn't want to put out an issue with over 50 pages devoted to individual cases of suspension of habeas corpus and other human rights abuses?

By chance I've brought up this Guardian article from Australia (2018) - another case of Italian exceptionalism.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/30/dutton-intervened-au-pair-visa-case-former-police-colleague

[Clavinova]

AuldAlliance
Clavinova
Hysterical nonsense?
Please show me where.

Here:

Making voter ID mandatory without making it possible to obtain any form of free ID...Especially in a country where a passport costs £75-85, and a driving test alone (theory & practical) is £85.

And here:

Case B
The current gvmt has proposed that photo ID should be mandatory when voting, despite the fact that all forms of photo ID are subject to a high fee. ...

Can you see the difference, Clavinova?

And especially here:

Head. Brick wall. Bang. Bang. Bang.

29 April 2021 UK Parliament - Answer from Cabinet Office:

The list of approved photo ID will not be limited to UK passports or driving licences. A broad range of documents already in use will be accepted, including, for example, various concessionary travel passes, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards, and photocard parking permits issued as part of the Blue Badge scheme. In addition, expired photographic ID will be accepted as long as the photograph is of a good enough likeness to allow polling station staff to confirm the identity of the holder.

For any voter who does not have one of the required forms of photographic ID, a free, local Voter Card will be available from their local authority.

We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and a wide range of charities and civil society organisations, to make sure that Voter ID is rolled out in a way that is inclusive for all eligible voters.

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-04-27/188127

[Peregrina]

I fail to see the relevance of Australian immigration rules - although we know that the Brexiters are desperate to copy Australia in this respect.

[AuldAlliance]

I learnt today that bus passes and blue badges are freely available to UK citizens, so they can be used as voter ID, and that any concerns about potential disenfranchisement are pure hysteria.

Phew.

[Clavinova]

AuldAlliance
The PM is on the record (though we know what the record is worth in his case) as saying ID cards are only fit to be eaten.

Channel 4 -
Wasn’t Boris Johnson against ID cards?
Lots of commentators have found footage of Boris Johnson railing against Labour’s plans to bring in ID cards.

Back in 2004, Mr Johnson said in print and in person that he would eat an ID card rather than being forced to carry one. Now the Prime Minister is asking people to show ID before they vote.

In fairness to him, Labour’s 2004 scheme for a universal, compulsory ID card was fundamentally different to the current government’s plans.

The Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett wanted a new biometric ID card that would eventually be mandatory, with personal data from the cards stored on a government database.

Mr Johnson’s bill is not based on a new kind of photocard and a government spokesman told us: “This is not a move towards compulsory ID cards.”

www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-what-is-the-voter-id-row-all-about

[Peregrina]

But it effectively becomes a compulsory card. Johnson's word is not his bond, so take whatever he says with a pinch of salt.

[Clavinova]

AuldAlliance
Do you think, irrespective of what Starmer or anyone else says, does or votes, that preventing people from demonstrating peacefully is A Good Thing?

Preventing groups such as Extinction Rebellion causing complete havoc in London I would say is a good thing - and that shouty man outside parliament was incredibly annoying after a few weeks. Let's see how it goes.

[Peregrina]

He was shouting about the wrong thing though. If he'd shouted his head of about Get On With Brexit, it would have been the most wonderful thing - he didn't give up, what a hero, blah de blah....

You won, you have got your Brexit, it really is time you got on with making it work now.

[borntobequiet]

Placemarking discreetly in a non-annoying manner lest I fall foul of the law and get locked up.

[yellowspanner]

Mathanxiety,
We do not have an economic crisis and we are not descending into fascism. We will have a system of immigration that meets the needs of our country rather than a free for all from mainly white,Christian EU countries. We will be more able to deport people who are here illegally without the lawyers finding endless, spurious reasons for holding them up.
Neither of these are facist.

[mrslaughan]

You mean like the husbands of two separate friends of mine? Wives British - within the letter if the law - they had a right to settle here, but not the money to fight the home office who made rulings against them.

If I know two people - how many does this actually happen too? A lot, I can tell you they tried to do it to me - but we are wealthy enough to afford the legal representation.

Yeah right....... with every post you display your ignorance

[DGRossetti]

So here's an area the UK could steal a march. Bet it doesn't though, as I can't see Yellowhammer et al cheering this on

www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/farmers-explore-potential-of-hemp-and-cannabis-crops-7947686

[DGRossetti]

@borntobequiet

Placemarking discreetly in a non-annoying manner lest I fall foul of the law and get locked up.

[DrBlackbird]

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