Westministenders: Groundhog Day

[RedToothBrush]

Groundhog day is 2nd Feb.

Its also today. And yesterday. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before. And the day before.

We have all turned into Bill Murray.

That's Brexit in the UK.

The only progress seems to be linguistic gymnastics not policy.

No action has been implemented, we are still on words going nowhere.

Tick tock, tick tock.

We don’t care for foreigners any more so what does it matter

Home Office contractors 'cuffed detained migrants' inside coach on fire

Immigration detainees disclose to Guardian that staff refused to to let panicking people out

amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/21/home-office-contractors-cuffed-detained-migrants-inside-coach-on-fire?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

We'd really miss UK farmed meat if The ERG get their dream Brexit - and the plebs get US meat

'Dirty meat': Shocking hygiene failings discovered in US pig and chicken plants

Just our negative Remainer bleating of course

https://www.theguardian.com/animals-farmed/2018/feb/21/dirty-meat-shocking-hygiene-failings-discovered-in-us-pig-and-chicken-plants

Shocking hygiene failings have been discovered in some of the US’s biggest meat plants, as a new analysis reveals that as many as 15% (one in seven) of the US population suffers from foodborne illnesses annually.
…
unpublished US- government records highlight numerous specific incidents including:

+Diseased poultry meat that had been condemned found in containers used to hold edible food products;
+Pig carcasses piling up on the factory floor after an equipment breakdown, leading to contamination with grease, blood and other filth;
+Meat destined for the human food chain found riddled with faecal matter and abscesses filled with pus;
+High-power hoses being used to clean dirty floors next to working production lines containing food products;
+Factory floors flooded with dirty water after drains became blocked by meat parts and other debris;
+Dirty chicken, soiled with faeces or having been dropped on the floor, being put back on to the production line after being rinsed with dilute chlorine.
…
Prof Erik Millstone, a food safety expert at Sussex University:

“because of the risks of spreading infectious pathogens from carcass to carcass, and between portions of meat.
The rates at which outbreaks of infectious food poisoning occur in the US are significantly higher than in the UK, or the EU,
and poor hygiene in the meat supply chain is [a] leading cause of food poisoning in the US.”

How can the Tories be so ahead of Labour in how the public think they'd manage Brexit? Some other interesting data too:

eww
that why they need to treat meat with chlorine baths...

prettybird you may have had dealings with my Dad then, he was fairly heavily involved with the embryonic stages of UHI

Brown It's generally acknowledged that the US has to use chlorine because of its worse food hygiene than is allowed in the EU

Their high rate of food poisoning shows that even chlorine can't compensate for such dreadful insanitary conditions
There is always a cost / safety balance, but the US prioritise cost-cutting /safety-cutting more than the EU

We'd import not just their food, but their food poisoning outbreaks too

Talking of meat: the panic at one of our fast good chains not being able to get its supply of chicken due to delivery logistics cock ups teething problems does not augur well for the public's reaction to systemic problems across the entire food supply chain if we crash out without a deal (or even with a deal but not in the Customs Uniom and without having sorted out the infrastructure)

Hester Even as a general labour and not absolute hater of Corbyn it is hard to argue that they would do any better than the Tories when they seem just as clueless as to what they actually want and how they would go about it. Both parties seem as hopeless as each other when it comes to Brexit and that really is saying something depressing when you consider what a complete cluster fuck the Tories are making of it.

Immigrant is not surprising when the Tories make such a big deal of it and considering so many of our fellow countrymen and woman seem to believe management immigration is the same as trying to stop immigration.

The others just demonstrate how ingrained the irrational belief that the Tories are good at the economy is. It has been this way for ever as far as I am aware and I have no idea where people get it from other than maybe the assumption that really rich people must be good at managing money due to more experience at having it or something.

That should have said 'general labour supporter'

Hester It's not surprising Labour scores worse on Brexit policies when JC & co keep avoiding actually stating what those policies are.

Voters - and maybe MPs too - don't know what Labour will do on Brexit, or if Labour will just continue to ignore it as much as possible - the most crucial issue that will determine the economy and govt budgets for at least the next decade.

pretty I remember reading that MI5 estimate the UK is always just 4 meals away from anarchy
I presume that means 4 meals after the supermarket shelves are empty of key staples

Not just food - imagine even running out of loo paper or sanpro

Nocrying - I was really just involved on the telecoms side (worked for the telecoms company that was putting in the infrastructure) rather than directly with UHI.

Senior civil servant JJ on RNorth's blog posted that printing ration books was the first thing they did (as an emergency fallback) late 2016 when Brexit planning started

That's all very well, but Uk society has moved on from WW2 acceptance of rationing (which was OK after being the hungry 1920s & 1930s)
and even very different from the 1970s when ration books were last printed

People for decades have had consumerism with masses of choice, so even if the basics were covered for everyone, there would soon be social unrest

printing ration books

This is just one of those urban myth things, yes? If it were true an example/ prototype would have been leaked surely.

Yes, I think the ration books claim is total nonsense and explained why at some length in an earlier thread.

Unilever- Another to add to the lengthening list...

www.ft.com/content/cc7d001a-16e6-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640

(Reuters) - The British government is bracing for Unilever (ULVR.L) (UNc.AS), one of the country's biggest companies, to shift its headquarters to the Netherlands after months of political pressure from both sides, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

British officials have held talks with the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group amid fears it will pick Rotterdam as its main base rather than London, the FT said.

and even very different from the 1970s when ration books were last printed

Wasn't that just petrol rationing which was going to be introduced? I remember the coupons well - I am pretty sure that they were leftovers from Suez - the style of printing was very 1950s.

Bigly and Bigchoc, it's not surprising Labour scored so low on potential handling of Brexit. I'm just surprised the Tories managed to score quite a bit higher when they're badly cocking it up in actuality.

Alastair Campbell was good on Channel 4 News tonight talking about the MPs' autumn vote on the deal, and getting a dozen or two Tories to vote against it to defeat it. Jon Snow said something like... But you'd be asking them to vote for the good of the country, against their party...

Aren't MPs supposed to put country first? Wonder if Snow was trying to make a point?

Rather more than an urban myth.
North knows JDD as a senior civil servant (seems about 2nd secretary level) and thus far he hasn't posted facts which have been proved wrong.

The Official Secrets Act and fear of prosecution or losing pensions has kept many secrets from being published for years.
My late mum, as wife of a serving RAF officer in the 1950s and 1960s later told of contingency plans wrt nuclear attack which were horrifying.
They were kept secret for decades, must have been known to thousands of people and required masses of documents, but they didn't leak out at the time.

What is worrying about North's blog is that both he and JDD, along with Booker and a few others who have studied the EU for decades
keep stating that serious problems with food imports and exports aren't just something that would happen if there is no deal:

They state that it would happen if there is any deal other than staying in the Single Market, as an inevitable result of being a 3rd country

North is characterised with quite obsessive fact-checking and referencing, so it's always possible his friend JDD has fooled him, but I've read North's blog daily since the ref and he has never yet got a fact wrong.

I can actually see people not minding chlorine chicken. I mean look at the outcry over KFC. Perhaps a few food shortages will be handy for softening us all up for lower standard food.

I'm considering vegetarianism if American meat comes here. I will miss bacon and fried egg sandwiches, roast beef and chicken casserole the most. But having read the article above, its the pus filled accesses that are putting me off.

Surely they won't print ration books. They'll assess us all on whether we seem hungry enough for good via atos.

this person has gained 1lb, no rations for them this week

Food not good. Thanks autocorrect

I have read reports that the US objected to labelling with country of origin, where it thinks consumers may avoid US meat
The EU insisted, even when allowing in US premium-grade beef (grass-fed, no added hormones) I see this occasionally in Germany, but don't buy it.

The Uk, with natural poodle tendencies, especially if desperate, might allow unclear labelling of US meat & poultry, which might have lower standards.

Of course, premium British meat and dairy would still be identifiable by proclaiming its origin - NI / Scotland / Hereford etc - but UK consumers would have to read the small print to be sure of all the contents
and would have to be prepared to ignore the cheaper US options.