Westministers: Happy New Year?

[RedToothBrush]

And so we enter a New Year full of hope that things might just be about to recover from our national nervous breakdown... or perhaps not.

As we have Damien Green ejected from his role as Deputy PM over allegations of inappropriate conduct towards woman and use of porn at the end of last year, 2018 sees a bright new progressive dawn with the appointment to the role of universities regulator of Toby Young. A man who has deleted 20,000 tweets including many which are inappropriate and offensive to women, is a fan of eugenics and hates the working class and disabled.

Meanwhile the NHS is facing a crisis which is totally unexpected to the government and couldn't possibly have been planned for by a man who has over seen it for over five years. Which naturally bodes really well for Brexit planning.

We are apparently planning to join the TPP. Never mind geopolitics we can move the UK to the Pacific region.

We still are not ready for trade talks because the Cabinet can not agree on anything. Not that it sounds like they have actually discussed anything along these lines yet.

Rumours are that the Cabinet - including arch leavers such as Gove - are leaning towards supporting May and a softer option, despite the disgust of Johnson, who once again is the subject of malicious chatter about his sacking in a forthcoming Cabinet Reshuffle.

There is talk of further Tory Party war with the revelation that membership of the party has dropped to a core of just 70,000 hardline authoritarian men, most of whom are over 60. Tory HQ now wants to (perhaps with some good reason to prevent the loons) rewrite the constitution and limit the power of local associations to select candidates. The Tory party is now lining up to be a power struggle between internal authoritarians, who don't like democracy voices or structure.

Meanwhile the Labour Party membership now apparently overwhelmingly looks upon staying in the customs union and single market favourably and is in favour of a second referendum. In opposition to the leadership who are utterly committed to Hard Brexit. Much to the annoyance of Lord Adonis who is pitching a fit about government corruption and incompetence and being accused of being elite because he going skiing. Unlike of prominent Leavers who are in touch with the working class.

And finally Nigel Farage has got a meeting with Barnier. Farage, unlike Clegg, Clarke and Adonis, will not be accused by the Right Wing Press of undermining the government's negotiating position because...

It appears that we are in for another year of Brexit nonsense then.

We've not even heard mention of Gibraltar yet.

Germany has extensive opportunities for paid vocational training, paid internships, apprenticeships
leading to qualifications that employers want and better jobs

However, the mindset of German business is to look at the longterm and to invest in its human resources,
training up their own apprentices, also usually including annual paid training of all employees, to keep skills sharp.

This is considerably boosted by the Works Councils (in firms with above a certain number of employees) where employers and trade unions discuss all issues affecting the employees, including training / retraining in-house staff

The reshuffle rumour mill kicking in today. I expect the Sunday Papers to be full of them

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-plans-solve-nhs-crisis-11808877
Theresa May plans to solve NHS crisis by putting nurse dubbed 'Scary Spice' in charge and sacking Jeremy Hunt
Skills minister Anne Milton, 62, who worked on NHS wards for 25 years before becoming an MP in 2005, is tipped to take over from Jeremy Hunt

I bet he isn't so much sacked rather promoted...

Toby Young loved by women. And the right wing press...

PM's disgust at Student Tsar's Sordid Tweets.
May slams obsene and sexist tweets by university watchdog as female MPs call for his scalp.

Brexit Brain Drain

Brexit Brain Drain

The experts have had enough of the people ?

Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound
CONFIRMED: May will reshuffle her cabinet on Monday and lower ranks on Tuesday
RESHUFFLE: I'm told six more more cabinet ministers will not be in the same jobs, though not all will be fired
RESHUFFLE: Boris Johnson won't be demoted. Expect no change for him Rudd, Hammond, Davis
RESHUFFLE: Big push on women and ethnic minority promotions in the lower ranks
RESHUFFLE: Jobs will be found for some 2017 MPs though not necessarily as ministers. No 10 loves Kemi Badenoch. My guess is she will become May's PPS with Seema Kennedy promoted
RESHUFFLE: Top of the cabinet hit list seems to be Justine Greening
RESHUFFLE: My understanding is that there will be a new first secretary based in the cabinet office but aides tight-lipped about who. Grayling has been tipped by some officials as well as Hunt but it could be someone else

@libertyhq
MPs debate #Brexit Trade Bill next week. If it passes as it is, we might as well do away with Parliament. Clause 2 lets ministers amend a whole raft of our laws including the Equality Act and Modern Slavery Act with little or no parliamentary oversight

www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news/press-releases-and-statements/post-brexit-trade-bill-risks-“handing-our-rights-and-our

Talking and behaving like Mr Young would be without any moral or legal sanction.

(paywall) Vote Leave donation faces fresh scrutiny

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/vote-leave-donation-faces-fresh-scrutiny-063rb3bxj

The main pro-Brexit EU referendum campaign is facing fresh allegations that it broke spending rules over a donation involving a 23-year-old fashion design student

Darren Grimes, a young Brexit supporter who ran a campaign called BeLeave, spent £625,000 on a Canadian social media company using a donation he received from Vote Leave.

The Times understands that the Vote Leave donation never entered Mr Grimes’s bank account but went direct to Aggregate IQ
Vote Leave also used the Canadian company and the campaign director Dominic Cummings said after the Brexit vote:
“We couldn’t have done it without them.”

Electoral law prohibited Mr Grimes from co-operating with Vote Leave over how the money was spent

Vote Leave could not have spent the money itself because it was coming close to its £7 million campaign spending limit.
It is not illegal for the Vote Leave donation to Mr Grimes to have gone direct to Aggregate IQ but Mr Grimes and Vote Leave must prove that the fashion designer decided independently how the money would be spent.

The Electoral Commission is already investigating donations by Mr Grimes.
The watchdog said in November that it had “reasonable grounds to suspect an offence may have been committed”

A spokesman for Vote Leave said: “Payments were made directly to Aggregate IQ because this complied with the advice that Vote Leave had received in writing from the Electoral Commission. It was also done at the explicit request of BeLeave.”

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and Remain supporter, said: “This saga gets murkier and murkier and the explanations less and less plausible.”

Torygraph out for Greening

Justine Greening was fighting for her job last night as Theresa May prepared to appoint a new education secretary in a drive to reinvigorate the Government's approach to schools, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Ms Greening's successor will be tasked with leading a major push to convince voters that the Conservatives are the party of education ahead of the local elections in May

The inclusion of a new education secretary in a blueprint for a refreshed Government comes after private polling revealed that the Tories' record in the sector was a significant factor behind the party's losses in last year's general elections.

^However, in an indication that s Greening could resist any attempt to move her the Education Secretary yesterday posted a series of messages on Twitter heralding her achievements in the role and twice declaring: "School standard are rising.".

As a part of a wider renewal, the Prime Minister will also today confirm that she is dropping plans to hold a vote on repealing the foxhunting ban.

---

It also says that Brandon Lewis, Dominic Raab and Jeremy Hunt in the line for promotion.

Why on earth would Vote Leave give a 23-yr-old fashion student £625,000 to spend without any guidance ?

and how did he come to choose a recipient that fitted so ideally with what Vite Leave wanted ?

Who exactly at Vote Leave decided to do this ?

One for you Lurking...

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/06/brexit-will-divert-70m-from-our-cancer-drug-making-capacity-glaxosmithkline?CMP=share_btn_tw
Brexit to swallow £70m meant for developing cancer drugs, says GSK
GlaxoSmithKline executive issues warning as Liberal Democrats say cost of medicine imports has already jumped by £5m

and this one for British business already hostile to Brexit

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/06/vat-upfront-after-brexit-uk-imports?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tweet
UK companies will face huge new VAT burden after Brexit
Controversial changes in bill would force importers to pay duty upfront on EU goods

More than 130,000 UK firms will be forced to pay VAT upfront for the first time on all goods imported from the European Union after Brexit, under controversial legislation to be considered by MPs on Monday.

^The VAT changes spelled out in the taxation (cross-border trade) bill – one of a string of Brexit laws passing through parliament – are causing uproar among UK business groups, which say that they will create acute cashflow problems and huge additional bureaucracy.
Labour and Tory MPs and peers said that the only way to avoid the VAT Brexit penalty would be to stay in the customs union or negotiate to remain in the EU-VAT area.^

The Treasury select committee, chaired by Nicky Morgan, is to urgently investigate the changes to VAT. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Last night the Tory chair of the all-party Treasury select committee, Nicky Morgan, said the committee would launch an urgent investigation. She also said she would be writing to the head of HM Revenue and Customs to see what contingency plans were being made to avoid hitting UK firms.

and

In a briefing sent to MPs, the British Retail Consortium, which represents 70% of the UK retail industry, said: “If the bill becomes law without any commitment to inclusion within the EU VAT area, UK businesses will become liable to pay upfront import VAT on goods being imported from the EU-27 for the first time.”

It added: “Liability for upfront import VAT will create additional cashflow burdens for companies, as well as additional processing time at ports and border entry points attached to the customs process. Mitigation measures could include companies instituting a revolving credit facility, or utilising import VAT deferment reliefs.

“Both measures require companies having to take out costly bank or insurance-backed guarantees, so would increase the costs of importing goods from the EU.”

Why is Hammond refusing to rule out staying in the Customs Union?

I should add that the Mirror also has Rudd to Chancellor, Hunt to the Home Office and Hammond to Deputy PM.

I am not convinced.

Several reports say May plans Hunt as new defacto deputy PM,
but was forced to delay the announcement after the stick he's been getting over worsening NHS winter crisis

Could the fallout even cause May to change her mind - again ! - and appoint someone else ?

https://article.wn.com/view/2018/01/06/TheresaMayycouldDELAYYpromotingHealthhSecretaryJeremyyHu/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5241341/Theresa-DELAY-promoting-Jeremy-Hunt.html

Jeremy Hunt's promotion could be delayed during next week's cabinet reshuffle over the worsening crisis in the NHS.
Theresa May wants the Health Secretary to take on the role of de facto deputy prime minister following Damian Green's resignation last month < hello, Green's SACKING >

I logged onto Boots International and have just found they have stopped deliveries to all EU countries
This was for my fav cosmetics - I don't need any meds.

Brexit ?

Boots online say they no longer deliver anything, not just cosmetics.
A lot of disappointed expats

• but maybe new business opportunities for a few enterprising folk ?

The inclusion of a new education secretary in a blueprint for a refreshed Government comes after private polling revealed that the Tories' record in the sector was a significant factor behind the party's losses in last year's general elections.

I'm pretty sure that's still the hangover of Gove, though, and nothing to do with Greening. No one thought much of Nicky Morgan when it was her, but that was it - they didn't like her but they didn't think about her. The same with Greening and whoever comes next (teachers don't tend to be tories, there is no one that will be 'liked'). Gove, however, was hated -it will be a long time before the government are forgiven for him.

The main pro-Brexit EU referendum campaign is facing fresh allegations that it broke spending rules over a donation involving a 23-year-old fashion design student

So leave won, but now it turns out that the leave campaign definitely told lies (on the side of a bus, no less) almost certainly broke the law by spending too much and possibly were infiltrated by the Russians. How can the govt claim that Brexit was the will of the people with a straight face?
They must realise that eventually all this will be thoroughly investigated and they will be made to answer for what they did to the country?
Brexiteers support bringing back the death penalty - I've got to say that when it comes to committing high treason whilst holding public office I agree with them. I will accept eternal imprisonment for the lot of them, but I'd rather they hang. In public. from a lamp post. Whilst we pelt them with rotting vegetation.

Jeremy Hunt is loathed by most NHS workers and much of the public = candidate for promotion

Justine Greening is unusually popular with the education profession given that she's a Tory = top of the sacking list

Tory Fibs‏ @ToryFibs
If Jeremy Hunt’s replacement as Health Secretary is who the media say it is going to be, then the Tories are in for a backlash like nothing that has gone before. That is all.

Is that Anne Milton or this fella?:

Sam Coates Times @SamCoatesTimes Jan 3
Theresa May reveals Phillip Lee MP is a good friend who she knew before he was an MP.
More eyecatching is his statement on the Express story that he could be made health secretary."As ever, I am here to serve," he says !!

www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/15804722.Prime_Minister_Theresa_May_discusses_relationship_with_Bracknell_MP_after_reports_he_could_be_made_health_secretary_arise/
Prime Minister Theresa May discusses relationship with Bracknell MP after reports he could be made health secretary arise

He's still a part time GP.

Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
Night of the blunt knives: @ShippersUnbound reporting that Patrick McLoughlin, Justine Greening, Greg Clark and Andrea Leadsom are for the chop in a Monday reshuffle. But the big Cabinet beasts are staying put.

Jim Pickard @PickardJE
am told Number 10 hates the visible discomfort from Greening when sent out to defend education reforms

education was.....
.a significant factor behind the party's losses in last year's general elections.

Because academies are crap, going bust, have no playgrounds, are dangerous, don't employ teachers, are policed like prison camps?

Because eugenically inclined ers like Young are appointed to policing roles in HE and get schools to run?

Because exams are being gamed like never before:
There's this:
www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/05/students-cheating-mobile-phones-gcse-exams-a-levels-2017
But it was almost impossible for boards to get exam markers 10 years ago, I suspect they might not have operated at full capacity this year: as in a few 'nod throughs'.

In HE there's this poster asking for advice here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/academics_corner/3124256-marking-essays-embarrassed-to-ask
I have no doubt that this is through absolutely no fault of the poster at a all.

But these HE courses cost a mortgage, which children are groomed into signing up to and as many were pointing out up thread, are for what used to be vocational training, for trades that sorely need the staff

It will take more that another education minister to fix that.

What grosses me out is that school kids have now heard a head teacher and potential university controller saying/ writing what has been said.

How does one mitigate that?

Have they any desire to mitigate, or is promotion of this malarkey part of the game?

Epsilons need no education or healthcare.

Female epsilons require much less.

Greening and Hunt are of course, the patsies for the big boys who are owning the NHS and Academy and university chains.
It was never going to be a very pretty sight, however May is told to perform it.

Jeantte @ jcelt
Gather Ann’s husband, Dr Graham Henderson, is Medical Director of Virgin Care Ltd (Surrey). Well I never😏!

This needs to be fact checked.

Would not be surprised though.

Sellers slash prices after family home market stalls

The only Brexit effect that would worry the Tory heartland ?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/sellers-slash-prices-after-family-home-market-stalls-qxn5gs7f6

Brexit and taxes force average drop of £142,000

Prices of upmarket family homes are collapsing as hefty property taxes and uncertainty over the economy force sellers to make “eye-watering” reductions,
according to research for The Times.

Almost half of the homes on sale for between £1 million and £2 million in London have had their prices cut,
with average reductions of £142,000, rising to nearly £900,000 in extreme cases.

Across Britain one in three sellers reduced their asking price last year,
the highest proportion since the double-dip recession of 2012.

However, sellers with homes in the “marzipan layer” - those worth less than the super-prime stock of central London (the icing)
but more than most of the rest of the country (the cake) -
are making the biggest price cuts.

www.sustainablefoodnews.com/printstory.php?news_id=2466

I don't think the chlorinated stuff is having a mass deleterious effect on health in the US, and I don't think that is what is feared in Brussels.

Far more significant wrt US mortality rates, rates of obesity and rates of chronic illness like type 2 diabetes and chronic pulmonary disease is unequal access to healthcare, and unequal access to all kinds of groceries - there are food deserts in urban and rural areas where residents only have access to poor quality foods, and very little fresh fruit and vegetables. It's not industrialised meat products on their own that account for poor health outcomes. Lots of other factors are at play. Middle class children who come home to a meal of chlorinated chicken, mashed potatoes and a fresh green salad, with yogurt and fruit for dessert, who get a good packed lunch daily with a variety of nutrients, who get exercise, wear decent clothing and footwear, who are not exposed to second hand smoke, whose parents make them buckle up in the car, who get annual checkups at the doctor's office, who get glasses and dental care when they need them are not going to suffer the health outcomes that inner city children eating the same chlorinated chicken will suffer.

The market share for organic, natural and other non-generic categories is small, with growth inhibited by price. About 6% of households can afford consistent purchases of premium meat products.

The danger for the UK is that a similar panoply of issues will arise after Brexit - most notably the demise of the NHS, the rise of for-prifit healthcare, and the elimination of local supermarket chains, with the likes of Walmart and its supply chain regime setting up shop instead. Walmart is famous for paying the lowest price possible to producers, and in order to make money, costs will be cut. There will be a rise in industrial farming, feed lots, GMO produce, and antibiotic use.