Thread 18, Big Dog Halloween Edition

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4658316-thread-17-big-dog-returns

Sunak's new Director of Communications is ITV journalist Amber deBotton

There was an talk on R4 about that centre the other day.

They have had lots of problems with violence as well and the legal duties and responsibilities of security.

They were still waiting for home office to get back to them about what they can and should be doing.

"They were still waiting for home office to get back to them about what they can and should be doing."

I guess having very different Home Sec's won't have helped.

I know I'm bombarding the thread with quite random issues - I'm just catching up on news

I don't think anyone can argue with this from Ros Atkins - I'm sick and tired of Brexit being untouchable for all the main parties, especially when local governments are being forced to close leisure centres, nurseries & transport for the disabled.

Based on available evidence, Brexit, in its current form, is one of the things constraining the growth of the UK's economy. Here's 5 mins on how we reached that conclusion. Watch the full edition of 'On the Week' on @BBCiPlayer here: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod

twitter.com/bbcrosatkins/status/1586240654426148865?s=46&t=DLcjtRrx1BYJzx58JkKN8Q

You'll note Andrew Lilico refutes the IFS and the OBR - he commented underneath the tweet.

NEW: Therese Coffey quietly announced this morning that the government is going to miss its own deadline for setting clean water, air and biodiversity targets.

Embarrassing as they were meant to be done by Oct 31 - in time to be discussed at COP27.

twitter.com/Tony_Diver/status/1585929050522284033?t=EHnpNQq-zGxABuDNjGv36A&s=19

"Sunak's new Director of Communications is ITV journalist Amber deBotton"

Revolving doors again. Wonder how long she'll last.

No wonder Sunak isn't attending COP27.

Apparently they couldn't complete the review because there were too many responses!

And advising KC not to go

It is a waste for King Charles not to attend. Obviously it would free up Sunak to concentrate on the budget and I doubt KC needs much briefing. Truss was planning to attend for a day.

As Biden & Macron are now attending I wonder if they'll u-turn.

King Charles should not attend COP27 as head of the UK if the UK government don't want him to. He should however make a point of representing the other countries he's head of state of and as head of the commonwealth. Westminster can't decide for other countries if their head of state attends.

That is absolutely appauling. Disease ridden concentration camps in the Garden of England. It shames us all.

That was the UQ meeting she didn't attend but sent Jenrick instead

The news coming out of Manston is appalling, there should be personal consequences involved in this should anyone be found to have participated in covering it up.

Rishi should be able to spare the time to fulfil the previous PM’s diary commitments at COP. He’s got a chancellor, he doesn’t need to back seat chancel. The whole point of having a cabinet is to use their expertise (ignoring the fact it’s Jezza) not to do it all yourself. I love the idea of KCII flipping them the bird and attending on the behalf of commonwealth countries.

Funny old priorities with what they’re happy to delegate and what they’re not.

Absolute shit show. This is Rishi’s ‘ukraine’. He’ll hide in the economy whenever he’s feeling out of his depth.

Fractured party. It wasn't only Sunak moving early against Johnson after all.

"And yet for months Rishi Sunak has been called all sorts of names for resigning from Boris Johnson’s cabinet, when all along Liz Truss was planning too (as we knew). Pretty amazing when it was one of the main reasons that cost him the premiership in the summer contest."

twitter.com/paulbranditv/status/1586244960999051264?s=46&t=chYrEME2JCa13j8U3Wbtcw

"He’ll hide in the economy whenever he’s feeling out of his depth."

He might try to hide in the economy but we all know the 🐘 in the room is Brexit.

I don't know how much an elephant grows in a year, but I suspect it's quite a lot.

The situation at Manston is beyond shocking. I guess the government can be proud of bringing back diphtheria?

And, as to be expected with this government, it’s not the only accommodation crisis (although it looks to be the worst). Even hotel accommodation is being used in some cases as close to a detention system with people not allowed to leave. And that includes children.

From the Independent:
”The Humans for Rights Network (HFRN) said it had received pleas for help from seven “distressed” young people at the Hounslow hotel, whom it believed were minors but whose ages were disputed by the Home Office. Three of them claimed to have been stuck inside the hotel for two weeks.

Three adults also claimed to have been restricted, while an NGO worker who visited a third hotel in Slough claimed to have witnessed guards “push” an adult asylum seeker back through the front entrance as he attempted to leave.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-seekers-detained-home-office-hotels-b2192136.html

and this twitter thread has more info:
mobile.twitter.com/sdetsup/status/1585188882513293313?s=20&t=1iNSQsGckKLUsKIpj_1h3A

And speaking of asylum seeker children, there’s a massive ongoing safeguarding scandal - over 200 children have gone missing from hotel accommodation, following a new (unlawful) policy to house unaccompanied asylum seeking children in hotels with adults, with no safeguarding, preventing them accessing local authority care, housing and education.

“Ministers have admitted that the Home Office has no idea of the whereabouts of 222 vulnerable children it was meant to be protecting.”

“An unbelievable scandal which wd lead to mass sackings & an all-channels outcry if the children weren’t asylum seekers.”
mobile.twitter.com/AlasdairMack66/status/1584106987620806656?s=20&t=3AY0hH4YfFWY_DyRzlvBLQ

Parts of this article are shocking.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/22/uk-asylum-seekers-home-office-accused-of-catastrophic-child-protection-failure?CMP=share_btn_tw

“Children should have been found loving homes with foster carers or been able to recover from their traumatic experiences in children’s homes registered and inspected by Ofsted. Instead, they were grouped together on the basis of not being born in this country and hidden away in hotels, when the government’s own statutory guidance confirms similar bed and breakfast accommodation is unsuitable for vulnerable children, even in an emergency,” she said.

Patricia Durr, chief executive of ECPAT UK, said: “We remain significantly concerned that what was meant to be an emergency solution has now been kept in place for over 14 months with no end in sight.”

Durr added: “The home secretary must immediately take steps to cease this unlawful accommodation of unaccompanied children.”

It’s all an absolutely sickening clusterfuck 😡 Where are those children? They’re so at risk from exploitation and trafficking it’s just unthinkable. And the Home Office doesn’t care. Much more important to score points about “wokery” ffs.

Sorry that’s so long and a bit all over the place. There are so many clusterfucks, even with the asylum system alone that it’s hard to know what to focus on. I’d imagine that’s their goal though. Create so many crises that no one can focus effectively on fighting back against any one thing.

They've lost over 200 children? How is that possible?

I hadn't really taken in that unaccompanied children might end up in Rwanda. I'd assumed there were processes in place to protect them.

"Create so many crises that no one can focus effectively on fighting back against any one thing."

This method would work for a number of policy areas - NHS & education spring to mind.

It's true what Jess Phillips said on QT the other day, nothing works anymore. Nothing. Whether it's from simply renewing your passport to needing an ambulance, the tories have broken everything. There isn't a single element of state provision that works.

@Notonthestairs If you remember the Rwanda flight that nearly took off - asylum seekers were transported onto the plane, but all the legal challenges were successful, preventing it from taking off - at least one was wrongly age assessed as an adult, despite being a minor. They have, unsurprisingly, no system in place to prevent underage children being sent to Rwanda.

@Fladdermus It’s crept up on us, hasn’t it, but that really does feel true :(

This is when my Tory-voting ex-in-laws will finally notice that the state is broken - when they can't buy a private provision for something. So ExFiL needs a passport renewal. Their grandson needs to book and pass a driving test, or he can't get the job he wants. This sort of stuff that directly affects their family and the ridiculous waiting times may finally open their eyes.

@AutumnsCrow that is how it has to be to get it across to some I’m afraid. They don’t have any ability to see outside their bubble and connect it to their own well-being until it ripples out to them.

I think there is a significant and unanswerable conflict between the desire for high quality public services and low taxation. I don't understand how the two can ever coexist.

Many people simply believe they can opt out of public services and therefore they don't matter.