Westministenders: Theresa's Common People

[RedToothBrush]

She came from Oxfordshire she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied geography at Saint Hugh's College
That's where politics
Caught her eye

She told them that her husband was loaded
The press barons said "In that case have a rum and coca-cola"
She said "Fine"
And in thirty seconds time she said

I want to look like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to eat like common people
I want to sleep like common people
Like you

Well what else could Fiona and Nick do
They said "We'll see what we can do"

They took her to a supermarket
I don't know why
But they had to start it somewhere
So it started there
They said pretend you've got no money
She just laughed and said
"Oh you're so funny"
They smiled "Yeah”
Well we can't see anyone else smiling in here

Are you sure you want to live like common people
You want to see whatever common people see
You want to eat like common people
You want to sleep like common people
Like me

But she didn't understand
She just smiled and held Trump’s hand

Order that benefits get the chop
Tell them all to get a job
Promise to bring back the grammar school
Pretend you don’t think them a fool
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching the news talking about building the wall
All have to do is call your mates to fake it all

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
Whilst you blame it all on the EU
Because that’s all you can do

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get Brexit through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh about leaving the EU

It’s the most stupid thing that you will do
Because you think that it is cool
You’ll call them a ‘lying foreigner’
But don’t say we didn’t warn you
You’ll regret saying we are better off out
'Cause everybody hates a benefits tourist

It doesn’t matter if you can’t do the math
With all those pockets that you grease
You’ll win the vote in Bath

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And wish they were all white
So you tell ‘The Big Lie’

Get THE flat above THE shop
Cut your hair and get THE job
Trick some mugs and hire some fool
Pretend you are not really cruel
But still you'll never get it right
Instead you're plotting late at night
About which ‘cockroach’ will take the fall
All have to do is call your mates to fake it all
Yeah

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
As we plan to leave the EU
Because there's nothing else left to do

But ‘moan’ about how we don’t want to leave the EU.

Radio 4 said the other day there was no longer any difference in the percentage of each sex that voted. I was surprised by that.

Its not what Yougov is showing.... weekly.

Just in case you were wondering if we were nicely heading for a totalitarian country

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/19/foreign-reporter-frozen-out-theresa-may-behaving-trump

All about how TM is 'managing' the press or rather avoiding any encounter she wants to avoid....
Also explaining LH suspicions. No way she will ever engage with MN when it well known that some posters will tell her like it is and will ask THE most ackward questions ever.

I have to say, any politician who is hiding from the press like TM (or continuously attacking it like DT) makes me wonder what they have to hide...
We have an idea with DT - Russia and maybe a touch of dementia too.
What is TM hiding? Some AltRight position? Totalitarian tendencies? What does she have to hide that is so awful and will make her plunge if it's known?

Corbyn did a webchat a little while ago (he was a very slow typer / didn't answer many questions)

whatwouldrondo - I see. Yes, I agree - the current disparities in care are unacceptable.

Not just in healthcare (though the issue is particularly acute there), but more generally we need to have what used to be termed a Big Conversation about the aging population. I suspect that no current government department has an overall lead on the issue, but I would love a party to put a stake in the ground and throw up some options for how we deal with an aging population in terms of the impact on pensions, housing, communities, public services, public transport, food, energy, communications etc etc etc.

As far as I can see, Brexit has always meant Brexit fewer foreigners, it's just that now people are being forced to say it. (Actually, it doesn't mean fewer of those nice French people with their lovely wine and cheese, or the Germans who are so good at making things, or the Spanish who let us go and live there when we are old; it's those ones from a bit further over, the countries that are practically Russia - those are the ones we don't like....)

I think that for people to think about Dignitas and choosing to die rather than live longer in what they know are really not nice conditions says a lot about the state of the social acre and elderly care in this country.

I've never heard anyone talking in this way in France.
care homes aren't all rosy (I've seen a few with my great grand mother and my gran) but you can find some that are nice and within some sort of affordable range.
I've never seen that in the UK, even the one that are allegedly like 5* hotels. They still smell of urine, people back in their room for the night by 7.00pm, little done to occupy them etc etc

Has anyone else had a personalised election communication this morning from Dear Treeza?

I intend to post it back with some pithy comments one of which will be that I didn't know she was standing in my constituency.

As one of those foreigners, I don't feel that there is actually any distinction.
I've been a bit too much on the receiving end of comments along the lines 'well there ARE too many foreigners in this country. They are xxx' both from family members and people I meet professionally (and then expect me to look after them well!! No Irony there at all!!)
It's also always disguised under the 'oh but I don't mean YOU'.
As if... I'd itbthe same than when people say 'oh Asians are xxx but I don't mean you' or 'I am not racist BUT xxx'. We know that those ways of talking are racist. So are the above comments xenophobic.

I'm getting less and less accommodating on those TBH.

If Sky is to be believed? Her health.

Its more likely its down to her personal inadequacies. She works a certain way and that's not consistent with being public facing as PM. She could hide as Home Secretary. She simply isn't strong and stable. She's a lot more uncertain of herself. She could also only get things through by manipulation and this often led to her being in conflict with the law. This relies on micromanagement.

What does she have to hide that's so awful? Well Brexit... And that will burn through political capital for the Tory party for decades.

And yes, selling off public assets and buying up private assets as a result by a certain group of people who have the ability to do this. Transparency not required.

Regarding Norman Lamb in north Norfolk, I have family there and my understanding is that he's a very popular and respected constituency MP such that he always seems able to cut through the tendency to vote Conservative in most of Norfolk. But I don't know how successful he will be this time:-(.

I'm in Norwich south and trying to decide whether to vote for Clive Lewis or James Wright the LD candidate.

Following the discussions on this thread I think I will give my support to the LDs on the basis that I want my vote recorded as being for a pro-remain party. I imagine it should be very unlikely to go Conservative as the constituency voted remain and has a university and large hospital. It's been a safe Labour seat since the 80s, apart from going LibDem in 2010 then swinging back in 2015.

(Longtime lurker, sometimes poster but serial name changer!)

Its more likely its down to her personal inadequacies. She works a certain way and that's not consistent with being public facing as PM

Nice meme FBing its way around the intertubes asks:

If Theresa May can't debate, how can she negotiate ?

I'd vote for Clive if I still lived in Norwich, despite the general awfulness of Labour. He did at least vote against A50 (in the end).

Bigchoc that were state-funded were horrific nightmares - dirty, smelly, noisy warehouses for inconveniently surviving old people.

When I looked locally every single privately run home that were taking state funded patients not only had Care Quality Commission Reports that rated them as requiring improvement, they also when I googled had all had incidents reported in the local newspaper where patients had died as a result of failures in Care. So we ended up searching far afield.

To be fair though some of the charities are doing brilliant work in terms of delivering quality of life and dignity for Dementia patients. I am no expert on Dementia but in my experience it is not true there isn't much quality of life after a diagnosis. They can still have traces of their cognitive abilities, it can be intact in some areas of intellect, and of course their identity and memories. Having grown quite fond of the gang on the floor in one home, aside from the fact that it is permanent groundhog day and they have complex physical needs, they have fun, they laugh, they talk about politics and sport, one woman never fails to be immaculately turned out with perfectly applied make up, and they are given respect and dignity, the care is according to their wishes and they have a varied range of activities and courses. It is also interesting that they absolutely love the company of children and animals, less demanding I suppose.

Red I completely agree about death. Having been forced to looked over that cliff with friends in the same situation we discovered the reality is nowhere near as frightening as it is made by the denial of it. The rhetoric around Illness and death has a lot more to do with society's coping strategies than it does with the reality. Think of all that brave fighting crap rhetoric that attaches to Cancer. If someone dies of cancer it is because they were unlucky and dealt a shit hand not because they dod not fight hard enough. The scientific research shows that having "positive" attitude makes zero difference to your chances of survival, of course it is a happier place but society denies people the chance to cope in their own way which may well understandably involve fear, depression or anger with the tyranny of positivity.

I heard a representative of etc King's Fund on the radio earlier. He highlighted that this is a major shift in social care policy towards making people responsible for the funding of their care with no cap on costs if they are unlucky enough to require it for an extended period of time and away from the welfare state model that provides everyone with a safety net. He also implied that this has been done with no reference to the evidence or expert advice. He made the point that there is and cannot be any insurance to cover care costs because it is impossible to assess a persons risk and the costs attached. I also heard on another programme that there are 40000 people in the UK with dementia who are under 65, this is not just an issue for the elderly.

This is the King's Fund response to the Conservative Manifesto

Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said: ‘Having raised expectations of major changes to social care funding, the Conservative Party’s manifesto is deeply disappointing. Instead of fundamental reform, these proposals involve tinkering with a broken system and do not provide the sustainable solution that is desperately needed.

‘Raising the means-test threshold to £100,000 will provide some protection for people with modest assets. However, including the value of people’s properties in the means test for social care provided in their homes is likely to mean more people end up paying for these services. Abandoning the cap on care costs – a manifesto commitment just two years ago – will fail to help most of those unfortunate enough to face catastrophic costs.

‘Means testing the winter fuel allowance and diverting the money saved to health and social care will provide some additional funding but the Conservatives are the only one of the three main parties not to have made a major commitment to increase public funding for social care.

‘Failure to tackle the growing gap in local authority-funded care, which will reach £2.1 billion by 2019/20, will leave more of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens without access to the services they need. It will also further undermine a social care system that, in the words of the Care Quality Commission, is already at a tipping point.

‘We welcome the commitment to back the NHS five year forward view and sustainability and transformation plans and to legislate, if necessary, to speed up implementation of essential changes to NHS services. The pledge to review the internal market is a significant acknowledgement that collaboration rather than competition offers the best way of sustaining and transforming services. This pledge needs to be acted on urgently if the Conservative Party forms the next government.

‘Plans to increase capital spending are also welcome given the cuts in the capital budget in recent years, but we need to see more detail on this.

‘The £8 billion in additional funding for the NHS over the next five years does little more than extend the squeeze on finances for another two years and will not be enough to meet rising demand for services and maintain current standards of care. The Conservatives need to be honest with the public about the consequences for patients and their care.’

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/theresa-may-internet-conservatives-government-a7744176.html

THERESA MAY TO CREATE NEW INTERNET THAT WOULD BE CONTROLLED AND REGULATED BY GOVERNMENT

The Conservatives will also seek to regulate the kind of news that is posted online and how companies are paid for it. If elected, Theresa May will "take steps to protect the reliability and objectivity of information that is essential to our democracy" – and crack down on Facebook and Google to ensure that news companies get enough advertising money.

If internet companies refuse to comply with the rulings – a suggestion that some have already made about the powers in the Investigatory Powers Act – then there will be a strict and strong set of ways to punish them.

"We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law," the manifesto reads.

Is this why China is impressed, whatwouldrondo, as you described earlier. Isn't there similar state censorship there?

And more importantly, how much longer will we be allowed to discuss on this thread?

Has anyone else had a personalised election communication this morning from Dear Treeza?

Not a personalised one. Just a general one with my local MP named and with a photo of Treeza.
Interestingly it has a link to my MP's website and not the Conservative one.

I've just amused myself by looking at the volunteering page. It has a bit where it says "who is volunteering" and a form underneath. It looks like you enter your details and your name appears on the list.

One problem... as these 'names' added to the volunteer list seem to testify. All you have to do is fill in the form with any old shit and your 'name' appears on the volunteer list. Its just waiting for a serious trolling in Bart Simpson Fashion.
simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Bart%27s_prank_calls

I'm not in Clive Lewis' constituency, but if I was I would not hesitate to vote for him.

Nigel Farage abruptly ended an interview with a German newspaper because the reporter asked him about his relationships with Russia and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Mr Farage described interviewer Steffen Dobbert from Zeit Online as “a nutcase”, “mad” and “away with the fairies”, when Mr Dobbert suggested Ukip and Russia shared an agenda, asked why Mr Farage met with Mr Assange, and said after Brexit it might be harder for British people to travel to the European Union

Follow the money.

Russian links to Brexit ref and the Brexit kerchink on June 9th.

Who bought Brexit?

Who pays ( we know that one)

Who gets the cash?

We have our own Russian links investigation to get rolling.

Its just waiting for a serious trolling in Bart Simpson Fashion.

Or helping out in local constituencies?

Could be interesting.

That already happened on the CLP website near me - it did have some genuine entries but also lots of "Labour MP X is full of shit wants to volunteer" style ones.

TMay is adequate at set speeches, but terrible at thinking on her feet, so:

. no good at answering questions that aren't prearranged
. a very poor debater
. may not be able to react quickly - or in a strong and stable way - to a sudden emergency e.g. Major nuclear power station leak, or hijacked Jet heading for Westminster

She looks poor whenever there is not a set script

Hence, with a huge Tory lead, it is good election strategy to hide her inadequacies.
She has nothing to gain, only to lose, by a poor public appearance.

"Even with a later retirement age, Britain faces a demographic time bomb"
(why Brexit will be even worse longterm than you think)

Study by employer-backed thinktank:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/19/uk-needs-more-immigrants-to-avoid-brexit-catastrophe

"The British economy needs a net inward migration flow of 200,000 people a year, double the Conservative target, if it is to avoid the “catastrophic economic consequences” linked to Brexit"

“The dependency ratio – the number of people of working age (16-64) versus those over 65 – is worsening.

Between 1950 and 2015 this fell from 5.5 to 3.5.
Only the recent increase in net migration has prevented it from falling even more precipitously,”

“Between 2000 and 2050, the number of people over 65 will double, whilst the number of over-85s will quadruple."

BigChoc its ironic that the aging population alone is a very good justification for shouting about Christmas Turkeys.

Its also why Germany doesn't see there being a problem with immigration but sees it as a necessary part of a sustainable demography.

Interesting comment from Charmaggedon regarding the appeal of Dignitas It was mostly people who had witnessed how dementia/Parkinson's etc cause you to lose who you are & your families witnessing that.

Is life only worth living if people who know you recognise you? It seems a bit impoverished to say that a person's worth is in the eyes of the beholder. There is a hefty seam of philosophy on identity and dementia which is very interesting, but which doesn't offer any easy solutions or consensus.

I feel the need to defend the care that my mum got in the dementia wing of a BUPA care home. It was exemplary The only thing "wrong" with it was that she didn't have Alzheimer's and was "only" 70 - so must of the activities didn't mean much to her (but there again, her fronto-temporal dementia means that she didn't care much anyway) but the staff were great with her: playing cards & scrabble with her (until she started losing her speech). The home was bright and clean and the staff seemed happy (quite a few even came to her funeral).

They're not all dire.

EU attitudes to Brexit Negotiation

May and DD seem to think / are telling the public that German industrialists will push for a Special UK Cake Deal.
The German CBI again said that is not going to happen.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/19/german-business-leaders-conservatives-tories-rethink-plan-leave-single-market-trade-eu

German industrialists have warned that British hopes of their support in Brexit negotiations are misplaced and could backfire with dangerous consequences for international trade.

“some leading Brexit advocates’ hopes of Angela Merkel forcing the EU to agree a free-trade deal before Britain officially dropped out of the EU in 2019 was
based on a misunderstanding of the relationship between German politics and industry.”

The EU Parliament commissioned a ^recent poll in Germany and several EU countries about how Brexit should be handled:

www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/umfrage-zu-brexit-eu-buerger-fuer-harte-linie-gegenueber-grossbritannien/19793528.html

80% of people said interests of the EU should be more important during negotiations than keeping intact economic ties to the UK.

92 % prioritised the economies of the E27
88% supported the principle that the UK should pay all its bills
86% said the rights of E27 expats in the UK are a priority
55% said it was important that the UK economy should do well after Brexit.