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.

Place marking

I gave up emailing last year. Despite 4 emails to my MP about Brexit (via theyworkforyou, which has noted the non-replies) not a squeak.

2 emails to the local Labour Party - nada

Meanwhile on other matters I have received prompt replies and actions. I also note my MP is (commendably) very active in the house on everything but Brexit. It's almost as if they are working on the principle if they don't mention it; it will go away ...

Don't mention Brexit. I think I mentioned it once, but got away with it

Prawn Goebbels

Goering salad.

I suspect they are falling into the dangerous trap of taking some votes for granted.

@OFOC and @Femi putting on an alternative to Glastonbury this summer in London.
LONDON — Britain’s Remainers plan to secure a second Brexit vote — with the help of a summer rock concert and a mobile app
www.politico.eu/article/britains-summer-of-eu-love/
Definitely a culture conflict as mentioned in previous threads.

and a mobile app

Oh fuck off ...

I call app Britain

Also interesting that apparently the question on the YouGov poll referred to “National Service for one month ”....

What's the point in national service for 1 month. That's not enough time to actually learn to do anything useful. It's just a bit of forced work experience and as anyone who has been dumped with the work experience kid to look after knows they are far more work to keep busy than they actually do. I can't imagine the armed forces or any fruit farm wanting a load of pissed off young people who don't want to be there hanging about making trouble and doing very little of any value. If it was me I would much rather pay people who are motivated and want to be there even if it is just to earn some cash.

order-order.com/quote/french-politicians/
Gavin Williamson overheard in Brussels…

“What’s the point of listening to French politicians?”

errr... maybe for er... defence seeing as one of our closest defence partners is france... and

theres this:

ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-france-step-defence-cooperation/
UK and France step up defence cooperation
22nd November 2017

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and his French counterpart Florence Parly have agreed to increase maritime intelligence sharing.

Johnson would be proud of a gaff link this.

The administrative costs alone for a "One Month" National Service would be prohibitive, let alone factoring in training costs before getting anything productive done

@OFOCBrexit has posted a superb new video

twitter.com/OFOCBrexit/status/964424090432946176

(Do 40-something mothers-of-three qualify for a youth movement?)

Was anyone actually suggesting a one month National Service or was it just a bizarre YouGov poll?

emily I think the outrage over national service for the young is because it is
elderly Brexiters wanting to send kids out to do hard labour to pay for damage caused by the Brexit vote

Particularly since most Brexiters didn't do National Service themselves and those who qualified for uni had fees paid plus a maintenance grant
(I'm Remain, but did Bsc, Msc , Phd - and I left uni with savings, no debt)

Quite different if National Service were a normal coming of age, that every generation has done, as on many countries on the continent.
Also, E27 countries have fees under € 2,000 for a degree, or free in some countries like Germany (may need to pay for English language courses)

In Germany, wherever I worked, National Service years count in the company pension scheme as years employed there

I have not a clue about instagram. But lalalonglegs as honorary youthful mum I bet you do. Way more youthful than me!
Another thing to encourage our lovely kids to check out and add to. Femi and that lovely young man on that ODOC film have got such a warm and truthful manner; needing to reach out now to the people that this malarkey will really affect.

@youthforeurope
Today we’ve launched our new Instagram page @ukyouthforeurope ! Follow us there as part of our return to the political scene! www.instagram.com/ukyouthforeurope …

They don't mean National Service. This is not a normal administration.

Home ownership among young adults has 'collapsed'

www.theguardian.com/money/2018/feb/16/homeownership-among-young-adults-collapsed-institute-fiscal-studies

For 25- to 34-year-olds earning between £22,200 and £30,600 per year, [middle income]
home ownership fell to just 27% in 2016 from 65% two decades ago.

ONS graphs to 2015:

visual.ons.gov.uk/uk-perspectives-2016-housing-and-home-ownership-in-the-uk/

The thing is BigChoc is that if the question was about one month’s “National Service” then how would anyone know that the responders were “elderly Brexiters sending kids out to do hard labour”? They might just as well have been from the 36% of over-65 Remainers, thinking that community service is a good thing. (FWIW I think it is a stupid idea)
We cannot possibly know what people thought from the misreporting of the survey.
I detest the fact that a majority of my age group voted for Brexit, but some of those Twitter responses smack of any excuse for an ageist rant.

I think we are deducing this from the context, seeing the same attitude that the youth must pay for it, rather than the old

and the fact that detailled analysis, like Ashcroft's huge studies, show that the key factors separating Brexiters from Remainers
is that Brexiters have far higher support for authoritarian measures, especially against the young,

e.g. support for corporal punishment inschools

(This is from poll 10 days ago, but after my accident, I was otherwise occupied)

Gina Miller@thatginamiller
YOUTH TO CORBYN : GET OFF THE FENCE ON BREXIT, OR ELSE!
New YouGov/ Youthonomics/ @OFOCBrexit poll shows shows 34% drop in support for Labour among under 40s (from 73% to 39%) if the party maintains its current stance on Brexit.

Dear Jeremy Corbyn, young people need your help to halt Brexit
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/05/jeremy-corbyn-young-people-brexit-radical-change?twitterr_impression=true

I am not sure we can deduce that tbh. I think there are huge dangers in ascribing attitudes and values to a particular group without robust evidence.

Time for Labour to listen to their own supporters instead of Tory voters in Leave seats

Even among Labour supporters age group 65, Remain / Leave are equal - all younger age groups have Remain clearly ahead

We can ascribe greater likelihood of authoritarian values to Brexit voters, because it is by far their most common characteristic, more so than age, in several surveys.
The older the population centile, the more Brexit voters and the more belief in authoritarian values

Of course, it is all population averages, like all surveys, but it allows one to say what a particular section of the population thinks, but not individuals

Authoritarianism is the handmaiden of ignorance and fear, it has no demographic predilection.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fibber.

OFOC are marellous. They've given me a real lift.

I'm reading lots of tweets, and just watched C4News, on the subject of the US indictments (for interference in the election). It leads me to wonder, again, why the utter silence in the UK about interference over here.

We know it happened. There seems to be no official investigation, though. Extraordinary. And precious little outrage. This despite an MP dying during the Referendum.

What is it that stops this? Is it the fact that the London house-price 'boom' is partially driven by money-laundering? Is it some sort of pay-off with the Trump regime (keep the lid on investigations in the UK in return for Trump considering a 'trade deal')? Or something else completely?

In other news, 7 months on, I've finally had my first appointment on the way to a diagnosis (and, hopefully, some sort of treatment). Wow. It's been quite a wait. Poor NHS.

So sorry for your long wait, cat and I hope they treat you v soon
How dreadful to be kept hanging around like this

I'm sure there must be just as many medical mistakes, but medical care in Germany is at least very prompt

• always has been and I've worked in several places here since late 1980s

Colleagues who've needed referrals from their GP have always had this within a few days, with treatment right afterwards - and GP appointments are same day (although even I do have to wait a while in the waiting room)
and I've posted of the month's rehab in a Swiss Alp clinic that my colleague was given as standard, post-chemo

More trivial, but since my stairs pratfall on 1 Feb, I've had 3 home visits from an orthopaedic dr, plus an MRI scan, a consultant discussion and all reports
Crutches arrived during the 1st home visit
and the doc today prescribed 10 lymph drainage appointments over the next 4 weeks
That's all for a torn ankle ligament !