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.

You say Sainsburys aren't as good DGR.

Obviously, that is why Woolworths went down the pan - they hadn't continued to benefit from my expertise.

The thing is, it's entirely possible to run a business in the UK even though you're not every good at it. Anyone who's ever had to deal with a mobile phone company, or Currys or Comet (oops !) will know that. It's the tyranny of the bell-curve and most people being happy with "satisfactory". And as long as the sea is calm, and there are no rocks, you can carry on by sheer inertia for years. Right up until a disruptor hoves into view (hello !! Amazon !!). And then mediocrity inexorably starts to encounter problems. And if nothing else, Brexit is choppy seas, fog, and clashing rocks. Although the image of and enormous Farage rising up from the depths and holding the rocks apart whilst the good ship UK passes safely is probably how he gets to sleep at night, probably with some "special time" as well

Running a business doesn't require you be the best. Just better than the next down the list. As the old joke about two friends on safari, the trainers and the lion illustrates.

The Deli counter has been closed at our local Sainsburys (which is a massive one) for over 10 days now. Apparently there's a part they can't get for the refrigeration unit.

Supermarkets are presumably aware of the 'lottery' on driving permits.

Getting food this time next year will be a 'lottery' of sorts too, one supposes.

Must be why they're funding the (Gestapo) Brexit Security Police.

@faisalislam
As Cabinet meets, road hauliers increasingly frustrated at being 100 days from what they describe as “chaos” of No Deal/ no transition... eg this from @RHADuncanB at Lords last week... yesterday a partial lottery for highly limited haulage permits revealed
go

...off the scale extraordinary stuff for any Govt to be telling key logistics industry - allocating hitherto free EU law right by “element of random selection” asking hauliers if they really need permit A: “depends on whether you want to continue operating in the EU after Brexit”

News blackout on the #3m actions yesterday in britain.

WIdely reported in the EU who are watching with interest as EU citizens are harrassed, deprived of their rights and deported.

If you look at the Aldi and Lidl model of having a much reduced stock choice, it is hardly surprising that the mainstream supermarkets are edging in that direction by stealth. Given Tesco intend to try out a new no frills shop, Jacks, they are perhaps streamlining their ordinary stores. I wouldn't have thought it is directly Brexit related though it may simplify their supply chains.

Sainsburys shoppers tend to be older and still more loyal to brands.

That's a problem for them...

If the state has any intention of stopping starvation they will have to set up state brexit supermarkets.

The commercial sector cannot and will not sustain the service. Disaster capitalism usually is.

I suspect a lot of shops will suffer this Christmas. DH’s well-to-do siblings have suggested not doing family Christmas presents this year. I’m pleased, but surprised - they’re all professionals who aren’t concerned about their jobs (law, medicine type “recession-proof” careers) but it seems to be a mixture of dawning environmental awareness of the effect of excess packaging and unnecessary “stuff”, and general purse tightening because of how the country feels.
Data isn’t the plural of anecdote and all that, but I’m getting the impression OL and IRL that many others are the same way.

If the state has any intention of stopping starvation they will have to set up state brexit supermarkets.

Shame we're sending all the Eastern Europeans home. I'm sure some of them could help us build them here. (Any "The Americans" fans in ? When Martha was shopping in a Russian supermarket ....)

It really saddens me - on the one hand you do have whole swathes of people who seem to spend their whole lives seeing 'isms' everywhere, being offended by everything, and on the other there are whole swathes who can't see the damage their words can do.

To me, as a participant on those threads, they are not at all about taking offence vs free speech. They’re about MNHQ having tightened TG’s and MN becoming more heavily moderated. Perhaps partly as a general response to a more “woke” society, but at least in part because of mass campaigning/reports by TRA’s. I’ve got RL pals who’ve had their membership cancelled on here due to “3 strikes and you’re out” on feminism threads. Yet other groups are not being given the same level of protection, including Irish people.

Personally I err on free speech rather than protection from offence, and I’m on another forum much more robust than this one. But if there is a greater level of moderation and stricter rules then I want them enforced equally across the boards.
I suspect HQ didn’t fully think through the consequences of tightening TG’s in the way they did. They seemed to do it because of the amount of time they were spending moderating feminism threads... but now they’re going to have to spend more time moderating every kind of thread.

Somerville it'd be interesting to have a thread about whether people are having a big christmas, more laid back/restained, or just can't afford christmas this year. Without it having any leading comment on it.

DGRossetti, I watched the first series then got distracted. Martha was just about the only one, I wanted to be bumped off with a passion.

We’re also holding off big purchases to see what happens with Brexit. In particular, a house purchase. It might be better for us to stay in our small 2-bed house with relatively small mortgage if it all goes tits-up. We can put money towards improving the house we’ve got rather than buying bigger and ‘better’. If we stay where we are, we can also survive on one wage for quite a while if one of us is made redundant.

Yet other groups are not being given the same level of protection, including Irish people

Absolutely. Irish people are also our nearest anglophone neighbours
getting accurate reporting and preparation for what's to come.

And with living memory knowledge of how this could play out.

I value the Irish press and TV and Irish posters here more than ever, personally.

The sooner identity politics as a concept dies a death the better for the country and the world.

I'm spending less on Christmas this year. But I have a lot of decorating to do, I need two new carpets and I want to buy a tumble dryer in the next few weeks. I will then have all nearly new white goods before brexit in case of price rises. I also need some new or new to me pieces of furniture and would like to get a few in soon, again partly in case of price rises and partly so my house will look nice.

Paging Corbyn .... (not sure how this got missed from Friday ?)

www.itv.com/news/2018-11-02/voters-in-every-labour-held-constituency-support-a-peoples-vote-on-brexit/

Voters in every seat held by a Labour MP support the idea of a so-called 'people's vote' on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, according to a large-scale new poll released on Friday.

The YouGov survey, conducted as part of the People's Vote campaign, asked just under 26,000 people their thoughts.

(contd)

So Theresa May is still completely out of touch with the Will of the People and now Labour are also still out of touch with the Will of the People. When are we going to get rid of these idiots?

Mind you, who do we replace them with?

The sooner identity politics as a concept dies a death the better for the country and the world

I doubt that will happen, as instead of allowing the subject to identify themselves, it allows others to make that call. And we should know from history what that leads to .

Maybe we should boil all the myriad (and growing) things people can "identify" as into one category. We could call it "human". I'd be curious to know who'd argue with that definition ? On this thread, on this board, and on this site.

(Sits back and awaits to be told how wrong he is ....)

I'm buying stuff that the house "needs" now, because I suspect it will be more difficult and expensive to do so in the future. So spending more rather than less. I'm also stockpiling, so spending more on supermarket shopping.

There are objective tests for deciding on sex. Should be uncontroversial. The replacement of sex by gender is a political decision, fuelled by a very small minority of very politically active individuals. That is then forced on the majority by the politicians.

I am getting work done in the house too. Preferably by small traders who might well feel the pinch.

I've read that proposed email to send to MPs. Not happy with it at all. For one thing, it states that Theresa May is not to blame for what is happening on Brexit, but is doing her best in a difficult situation. I can't send it, and have sent a harder hitting email instead.
I see that Kent are still in favour of Brexit. Do they really not get what the effect on that part of the country is going to be?

The 'how to get out of this mess' is ENTIRELY Mrs May's fault.
She didn't start it but has have every opportunity to say 'This won't work, how do I resolve it' and actually listen to 'experts' and senior members of the civil service who actually know how the country runs (even if there are some differing views).
Before triggering A50 she could very reasonably have held a vote/discussion/tea party and said 'leaving the EU is going to cost shitloads of money and problems, do we really want this?'
Vanity/stupidity/visitation by aliens stopped her.

Lewes bonfire night effigy. Enjoy.

For one thing, it states that Theresa May is not to blame for what is happening on Brexit, but is doing her best in a difficult situation.

Theresa May is not responsible for the Referendum being called, but to rule out the CU, FoM, Single Market, wanting nothing to do with the ECJ and pulling out of Euratom is 100% her policy. Played by her unelected advisors and the ERG, no doubt, but the buck stops with her.

That Tesco thread is scary.