Westminstenders: The Brexit Apprentice

[RedToothBrush]

Theresa May is increasing looking like she is running an episode of the Apprentice with two teams trying to compete in their plan for Brexit. Complete with the obligatory reprehensible contestants.

On one side we have Team Creationists intent on hard Brexit and on the other we have Team Sensibles desperate to get a softer deal.
May herself has been held hostage by seasoned expert negotiators the DUP. Once No 10 has reported the deal was done, only for the DUP to say it wasn’t. Then it said, it would be settled today. But the DUP disagreed and said ‘the weekend’. Now its 'next week'.

Meanwhile the Queen has been messed about with a scapegoat over when her Queen’s Speech will be. It’s likely to be a week on Monday.
Meanwhile the Brexit department is also in chaos.

The Number two in the department was sacked and replaced by a Remainer, and the number three quit amongst reports that he no longer thought Brexit was achievable and that there was no way that the Great Repeal Act could pass through the Lords. He has been replaced by the Head of the infamous Arch-Brexit Whatsapp group.

Oh and Gove got hired. Nuff said on that one.

After some slight back tracking from David Davis, Hard Brexit is still on in all its glory. Negotiations are going ahead next week. Well that’s what we are saying. The EU, on the other hand, don’t won’t to go ahead until we have an officially sworn in government. Which seems pretty fair enough.

Tune in to find out which Team wins this week’ The Brexit Apprentice

Never assume anything is too outrageous for Bojo

she’ll need a pool of good faith or be honest with herself.

Anyone remember the Scottish schools which developed very dangerous cracks ( I know, PFI, labour).
www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/wall-collapse-sparks-audit-of-17-pfi-city-schools-1-4016184
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39587656 (17 schools affected)

This, as many architects and fire safety engineers have been saying, was a question of when not if, public buildings become fatally dangerous.

Scotland Yard have launched a criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire after it emerged that cladding panels similar to those likely to have been used on the 24-storey building have been widely prohibited on tall buildings in the US since 2012
No justice, no peace.

I was going to say let's do the usual trick of ignoring the person trying to derail, but sadly it's quite relevant here. Whilst reminding people that they get the services they pay for, we should also not let the focus shift from the slipping of standards at the top and not allow scapegoating to stand.

www.facebook.com/jocoxmoreincommon/
On this day, 'more in common' seems even more relevant. all.

agree, Hashi We can observe, we don't have to engage. (as a man under a tree once said )

Agree upthread LH and BCF about similarities with 1980s. I'd hoped not to see such divided times again, but lessons from then have not been forgotten by oldsters like me.

metro.co.uk/2017/06/16/rallies-for-victims-of-grenfell-tower-to-be-held-tonight-across-the-uk-6712548/
Rallies for victims of Grenfell Tower to be held tonight across the UK

BigChoc - the Times article says it all.

Futhermore May assumed that because her own obsession was immigration, that was the key driver of Brexit. For all bar the xenophobes, which I would put at 10-15%, it was always possible to argue that the Leavers really wanted that £350 million a week for the NHS. This in turn was a proxy for wanting an end to austerity.The argument that we can't afford it, and 'there is no magic money tree' wears very thin when we can all see the tax breaks for the wealthy - Amazon etc. - minimising their tax bill in this country, Cameron and co. tying up money in trusts. All legal, but these laws weren't handed down on tablets of stone to us, people made them, and they could have been made less unfairly.

The only good thing I see about the Manchester and London Bridge atrocities and now this terrible fire is that there are still communities, people still are compassionate, and we can rely on our health and emergency services. This is a welcome antidote to the poisonous atmosphere created after the Referendum, and stoked up by the Tories at their Autumn conference.

Thinking of jo Cox today.
Rip.

RIP Jo Cox.

Fight for a better world. We are all humans.

Tobias Elwood. MP who tried to help the copper attack at the Westminster bridge attack.

His heroism during that attack was commendable but doesn't counteract the delusional Tory bilge he was spouting last night.

Peregina I agree wil the above but would add that the good thing about the last 12 months is we are seeing an end to political apathy.

People from all walks of life are asking questions about equality, equity, public services. The level of anger is concerning but I think we are now 'woke'.

I'm going to Westminister tonight for Grenfell (I was bought up nearby), London, Manchester, our NHS, education, police and fire service as will many others.

I'm angry, I'm scared and I'm frustrated at the direction our leaderless country is taking. Enough already.

No idea if I count as an oldie (mid 40s) but hey, if the cap fits. I remember the Herald of Free Enterprise too.

WifeofDarth I think that's what they call a bitter irony. I donated to that one, someone advised that was a good one as it's being organised by a charity that knows the area & a unlike Just Giving etc they don't take a cut (although hopefully JG would waive any fees for this cause)

I'm joining labour today
I haven't felt this angry - or impotent - since I was a ten in the 80s under Thatcher
#toriesout
I won't dignify george Osbourne rag with a response

RIP dear lovely Jo Cox

Good for youbLazy if I could I would

Ignore last post apparently the ES fund is hosted by JG too. Do wish there was something more concrete to do than just donate though.

YY RIP Jo Cox and thank you for all you did

Futhermore May assumed that because her own obsession was immigration, that was the key driver of Brexit. For all bar the xenophobes, which I would put at 10-15%, it was always possible to argue that the Leavers really wanted that £350 million a week for the NHS.

Assume makes an an ass out of u and me, my old boss used to say. He was a cock.

Immigration was the press scapegoat and the reason for government failings that the Fail offered readers. It aligned with petty low level prejudice and fitted with narrow life experiences. So people never went hang on a second. When challenged by experts it had power because it fitted and to confront and call it wrong was to question people's intelligence. They were not stupid but they had been manipulated and didn't ask the right questions. They just instinctively knew something wrong which middle class people were sheltered from or were not acknowledging.

It struck me in a detailed report way back when they did a thorough look at why people voted the way they did and it concluded it was for domestic reasons. Most of the reasons given were really nothing to do with the EU. Before the referendum was on the cards few people were really that bothered. It became a vehicle for injustice created by the Tories and now hijacked by Corbyn who is now setting the political agenda. Always a sure sign you are 'winning'.

The thing is the public actually like lots of the benefits the EU gives us. They just don't know it or know how it makes life easier because they take it for granted. When it's gone they will complain and they will miss it.

And the reasons why they voted to leave will largely still be there. Only in many cases, much worse. Who will we blame then?

*Flip I've decided to volunteer for the red cross...if they'll have me!

So in the future I will have an inkling of what to do and can help constructively

It was always about lack of public accountability. All our problems stem from that.

I'm feeling so angry about all this. I also remember Herald of Free Enterprise - we used to make that journey regularly to visit family. I also escaped a house fire due to faulty wiring - vivid memories of the acrid black smoke and the heat. Watching Grenfell brought it all back - those people would have been terrified. No one should be putting human lives at risk for profit. Our government should take a long, hard look at itself and ask what it actually values. If money is everything and (some) people don't matter, they should do everyone a favour and stand down until they develop decent human compassion.

It's the lies and finally as PP said everyone is waking Up to what we have been shouting for over a year. It's tragic

Morning all. On the subject of home ownership. I don't think we need to start adding more tax to those who are owning a single home and living in it. I think there are two things that could be done first that would increase housing stock, and raise money for local services.

Firstly, as I have already mentioned buildings and land left empty for over a certain period should be taken into council ownership and turned into council housing or services (such as community centres). And getting desperate people to go live in dodgy conditions in office blocks does not count as it being in use. These should not be resold once in council hands.

Secondly, second homes should have higher council tax rates then a main property. Currently you pay less council tax on your second home because it is not in full use. This ignores to serious impact of second homes on local communities. Second homes, particularly in holiday areas and London, raise house prices to the extent that local families can't afford to live their anymore. At the same time the people who own them are not contributing to the local economy. They don't use the local shops, eat at the local pub, set up businesses that provide jobs. They should therefore be paying more to compensate for this.

I think if both of these were put in place that would mean a flood of property onto the market and house prices would reduce (I am a home owner and think this would be super as I intend to live in my home not invest). In the longer term it would mean houses were there for people to live in, not to sit empty most of the year. It would increase council house stocks and also council tax revenue.

As a bonus I would add that the rental system in the UK needs completely reviewing with a greater emphasis on long term rental and stability for people renting. Many countries have a high proportion of renters, but they have very different laws around renting that provide better protection for renters and make it a better option.

All of this will, however, really piss off rich Tories who like a nice holiday home on the Cornish coast and a small flat in London, while getting a bit of extra from their buy-to-let, which is why they will never do it.

Hadley Freeman @ HadleyFreeman
Bravo to Sarah Vine for wisely spotting that "self-appointed defenders of the poor" are the real villains of Grenfell
"Labour's attempts to make political capital out of the tragedy look so crass." But I, wife of a Tory cabinet minister, am doing god's work
"Here in n Kensington, the haves rub shoulders with the have nots." Yes, the Goves had Grenfell people over for dinner parties every night

From the guardian:

Residents 'did not want sprinklers' – council leader

Sprinklers were not fitted during the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower because residents did not want the prolonged disruption it would have caused, the leader of the council responsible for the block has claimed.

Nick Paget-Brown, the Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said there was not a “collective view” among residents in favour of sprinklers.

Experts have suggested that sprinklers could have been fitted in the 24-storey building for £200,000 during the £10m refurbishment.

Asked if installing sprinklers was considered as part of the refurbishment, Mr Paget-Brown said the advice was that the best way to combat the spread of a fire was to contain it.

He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “I didn’t consider retrofitting sprinklers because we were told that what you try to do when you are refurbishing is to contain a fire within a particular flat so that the fire service can evacuate that flat, deal with the fire.

“There was not a collective view that all the flats should be fitted with sprinklers because that would have delayed and made the refurbishment of the block more disruptive.

“We are now talking retrospectively after the most enormous tragedy, but many residents felt that we needed to get on with the installation of new hot water systems, new boilers and that trying to retrofit more would delay the building and that sprinklers aren’t the answer.”

But he said: “Of course I regret anything that we might have done differently that would have avoided this tragedy.”

The British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association has put the cost of installing a sprinkler system at 200,000.

Mr Paget-Brown was unable to say how many tower blocks in his borough lacked sprinkler systems.

Amid speculation that the cladding fitted to Grenfell Tower could have been a factor in the fatal blaze, Mr Paget-Brown said no other refurbishments in the borough would use the system.

“As far as I know there are no other towers with that cladding,” he said.

Asked if the borough would use similar components on towers in the future, he said: “No.”

He added: “We have asked the London Fire Brigade to look at all our towers and give us a report on whether fire safety in all of the towers - because we are very conscious residents are worried about this - whether they can give us the assurance that we need that all of those towers are safe and that they comply with fire standards, fire regulations.”

By "rub shoulders" perhaps Sarah Vine means "occasionally employ as a cleaner or hire as a minicab driver and never learn their name."