Westministenders: Reality Bytes

[RedToothBrush]

Tonight the Corbyn and McDonnell Labour Party supported the Tory Party in improving the tax allowance for higher rate tax payers.

Yes you read that right. Did you even blink?

You've been so conditioned into seeing non existant opposition which seems to go against everything the Labour Party stand for that you no longer are shocked.

That's what 2 and a half years of Brexit has done to you.

You no longer care that Boris Johnson got £14,000 from the Saudis a couple of days before the Khashoggi murder. You know longer care that the former Defence Secretary is employed for £75,000 a year to advise a major Saudi Investor.

You are just happy that Trump hasn't started a war with Iran or North Korea yet. And hasn't started a civil war. (Though he's trying hard and next week is his best opportunity to stir it all up). You aren't surprised to hear that predictions are that the Democrats will fail to make gains in the mid terms.

You've suffered the 4657 story about how Therea May is just about to be challenged for the leadership.

You've heard about the squad set up at the Home Office to clear up all the cases the media get their hands on as the latest burning injustice. You are hearing that EU nationals who have been promised they are 'safe' are being subjected to questions about their right to stay. And you just shrug and say, "Yeah well thats the Home Office for you. The Bastards". And you do mean it, but you are so jaded by it all. And you worry that another 12 months from now, you won't even be interested in another story like that, and the press will stop printing them as they no longer interest the reader. What happens to your friends, your family, or even you then? Who is going to care then?

And then you have today.

A day where you hear that Bannon is being investigated by the Senate Intel Committee, Farage has been upgraded to the FBI's Really Naughty List and Banks has (FINALLY) been refered to the NCA. (We were only speculating on the possibility, on the 26th March...)

And you go 'Ooooooooo maybe there is hope'.

Maybe we COULD remain in the EU and avoid Turnip Soup and wiping your arse with leaves because of the national bog roll shortage. Or at least get a decent deal which suits us as a nation. Maybe, just maybe!

And that lasts for about 2 minutes before you log into twitter and the very first thing you see this:

Tom Newton Dunn @tnewtondunn
Excl: David Cameron tells friends he’d like a return to frontline politics, and fancies Foreign Secretary
www.thesun.co.uk/news/7639377/david-cameron-return-to-politics/

And you let out a high pitched screech as if you are were a dying cat as you remember this is 2018, and it just wants to beat the life out of you.

On the plus side, it shows you do still care enough to think 'Don't let that fucking bastard anywhere near power ever, ever again.'.

Ho hum.

Keep on, keeping on. Don't let the bastards win.
Keep caring. It matters.

BCF i agree.
The. country is still as divided and if possible, everyone is even more entrenched in their positions.
Remainers scream at what a No Deal will entail. Who wants to find themselves in a situation where food and medicines are rationed when there isn’t even a war going on??
Leavers refuse to see the disaster looming, having been brainwashed into thinking that ‘Brexit means brexit’, ‘it’s the will of the people’ and so on. And also because telling people they are wrong like this just doesn’t help (a bit like telling non vax that vaccinations are good and they are awful for believing the opposite just makes them more entrenched in their position)

Farmer very vocal about the effects of racism leading to food rotting in fields.

#C4Brexit Remain 54% vs 46% for Leave, on the same question as in 2016.

@campbellclaret
So @BarryGardiner confirms Labour thinks we will be worse off economically after Brexit. Yet still determined to commit this economic act of self harm

@IanDunt
Channel 4 Brexit special quite remarkable, especially when poll results revealed. At certain moments you could see in Farage & Gardiner's eyes that it was all slipping away from them.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/11/05/away-from-prying-eyes-govt-stitches-up-eu-settled-status-sys

Away from prying eyes, govt stitches-up EU settled status system
The change is small, very small.
But it affects the most vulnerable in the society AND shows how the government is AGAIN going back on its word. One (very) small step at the time and wo anyone noticing.

Well, that Caroline Lucas. What a gal.
3 brexists and one Lucas. She won.

On a totally different subject, I was talking to someone involved in airline regulation today. He said that of course planes will theoretically be able to fly between the UK and EU member states post Brexit (nothing after all is physically going to change with regard to planes and airports between March 29 and 30 next year) but the thing no one is sure about (to name one example among many)is the issue of maintenance compliance.

UK maintence personnel have to have the correct certification to do their job. Currently UK maintenance personnel are certified by the EU but that certification will come to an end on 29 March. The UK has to therefore set up its own certification body and have their standards approved by all the other countries flying in to the UK. This will take considerable time.

Going by that map, apart from Pembrokeshire, Wales along with , NI and Scotland want to remain. So really it is only England that no w want to leave?

Nope, England is also remain according to the survey

England is also now for Remain. I wonder if TM is watching? I suspect even if that poll showed 100% now want to remain it would make no difference to her, Brexit would still mean Brexit.

Bestiswest yes I think the future of the so called United Kingdom is under serious threat.

It's a pity that Treeza May isn't likely to be watching - the fact that the country has now almost certainly changed its mind, would give her the ideal chance of opting out of Brexit. Let her face down the ERG - but she won't.

I think the programme also showed that people believe/use polls when it suits them and their own agenda. Farage didn't believe that 63% of people were in favour of FOM and Caroline Lucas didn't believe that only 48% of young people would bother to vote if there was another referendum.

@woman11017

You are spot on.

Caroline Lucas ate them all alive, concise and eloquent, Gardiner was a complete idiot.

Comparison map with 2016

She was good jasjas. I've seen her speak IRL, she and Lammy were brilliant.

Full data. I tried to do this survey, but couldn't work out how to fill it in.
www.survation.com/what-does-the-british-public-now-think-about-brexit/

Helen De Cruz: Open letter to Church of England's leaders: Alienated by the C of E’s shortcomings over Brexit

(Belgian citizen, professor philosophy)

I agree with her: UK churches have failed abysmally in their duty

It is ok to decide against taking sides, Remain or Leave, in a bitterly divided country

However, it is outrageous to ignore the plight of the 3 million - and the 1 million UK expats -
and even to vote against safeguards for them.

The C of E used to be called the Tory Party at Prayer
- and the Tory voters are overwhelmingly anti-immigrant and pro hard Brexit
The C of E ape them in this

https://medium.com/@helenldecruz/open-letter-to-church-of-englands-leaders-alienated-by-the-c-of-es-shortcomings-over-brexit-ce10ce231235

"I speak for many when I say that +I am deeply disappointed about the lack of moral leadership exhibited by the Church with regard to Brexit, and, particularly, our rights as citizens and our dignity as human beings.

In particular, I was mortified and disgusted when the Lords Spiritual voted down an amendment to the Brexit Bill which would secure our rights in the event of no deal.

Watching the Archbishop of York’s speech in the House of Lords, where he argued that we needed to get on with it, made my stomach turn.
I should have thought that if anyone knew what it was like to feel like a foreigner, it would be he (he has talked about this on other occasions)."

I don’t watch TV much nowadays. But that C4 programme was the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in a long time.

I missed that speech by the Archbishop of York.

The huge support we keep seeing for FOM, contrasting with the continuing support for Brexit and even for No Deal

• 47% in that poll I posted -

is imo just another illustration of cherry-picking Leavers wanting to retain the benefits of the EU, e.g. their FOM, without the bits they don't like

Didn't watch the C4 show - just followed (predictable) results on Twitter. The Leave bots are angry.

Giles Fraser is a sanctimonious C&E God person. I suspect the Leave vote is heavily weighted towards C&E people.

Is that Ayreshire in Scotland wanting to leave, when they wanted to remain before?

Catholic church supported the Nazis. Welby supports Brexit Nazis.
I'm not suprised.

Tax dodging racist, sexist and corrupt enterprises all support the 'brexit'.

The CofE is a broad Church. I imagine that two particular groups will support Brexit - the evangelicals, like the ones in the USA who support Trump, and then the very High Church ones, which TM is. Your low church Anglican is probably not too keen on Brexit and probably has much more in common with Non Conformist churches.

I do wonder what the Catholic church in the UK thinks - it being very heavily Irish influenced.