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.

Just listening to the world tonight. Italy's government is planning on giving parcels of land to couples on the birth of their third child, in an attempt to increase the birth rate and encourage people into rural areas

They could call it "The battle for Births"

To come back to the previous thread.
How come the UK be in 8th position for transparency but in 40th position for press freedom???

That’s an excellent article in the DM (not sure I’ve ever said that before!), that picture of Banks leaning against the statue though (not envy)). Interesting that it only has 4 reader comments - often there are hundreds attached to Brexit related pieces.

I always ask insurance companies if they have anything to do with Arron Banks - question usually met with “who?”, then I fill them in. They probably think I’m a bit batty

How come the UK be in 8th position for transparency but in 40th position for press freedom???

They are covering up the lack of press freedom, obviously!

Thanks for the new thread, red 💐

And also for informing us that Liz Truss was stuck on a train and coldn't get to QT 😂😂

But born it's the how I can’t get.
The logic would be that if the country is so transparent, then information is coming out in other ways. But what else could it bar via the press??

I think I need to have a look at what is included in the transparency evaluation (as I just dint believe that our government, let alone this current one, has ever been transparent about anything)

The most shocking thing about this is that the daily mail is behaving like a newspaper shock

At last, thanks to the DM my PIL are slowly waking up to what’s going on. Shame they did not report like this during the referendum.

Thanks for the new thread!

I'm quite a lot bored. Perhaps I can run the department for education.

Often quite bored too. I’m in!

www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-11-02/brexit-bulletin-what-no-deal-does-to-your-mortgage?__twitter_impression=true
Brexit Bulletin: What ‘No Deal’ Does to Your Mortgage

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney had a stark warning yesterday on what a no-deal Brexit could mean: a rare, once-in-a-generation supply-side shock that would push up inflation and warrant higher interest rates.

Carney said it was hard to find comparable situations in major advanced economies; he mentioned the oil shock of the 1970s, which sent wages spiraling as output shrank, Lucy Meakin and David Goodman report. The only recent examples of central banks lifting rates while the economy tanked come from emerging markets such as Turkey or Argentina.

Now why can't things like this happen here ? Who'd be European, eh ?

www.standard.co.uk/news/world/paris-bus-driver-hailed-for-kicking-all-passengers-off-after-they-refused-to-make-room-for-a3977531.html

Paris bus driver hailed a hero for kicking off ALL passengers after they refused to make room for wheelchair user

A French driver has been praised for kicking every single passenger off his bus after they failed to make room for a man in a wheelchair.

Francois Le Berre, who has multiple sclerosis, was waiting to get on a bus in a Paris suburb, but none of the passengers would move to allow him space.

The bus driver, who has not been named, noticed the problem and took the unprecedented step of asking every single passenger to leave the bus.

He then allowed Mr Le Berre to come on board and drove off with him as the sole passenger.

For those that can't read French, I'll translate it into English.

A bus driver was sacked yesterday after refusing to eject a passenger in a wheelchair who would not use the allocated space.

Despite being told there was no room on board, the passenger in a wheelchair attempted to use the reserved space which was occupied by able bodied passengers

After the driver refused to move until the passenger was safe, passengers complained and contacted the bus company on social media. The bus company suspended the driver and arranged for a replacement to continue the journey without the wheelchair passenger

Police are examining CCTV footage to see if any public order offences were committed

PMSL at this comment on the above story ....

Horseman4

16 hours ago

Any London bus driver who tried this would probably be beaten to death by entitled Mumsnet mummies with brat trolley

Place mat king. Thanks Red

.

MyBrexit I was being flippant without much thought...please ignore!

I suppose I meant to cast doubts on transparency.

@AlbertoNardelli
“The Mail understands that in early 2016 the then home secretary Theresa May declined a request by one of the security services to investigate Banks

This is a good read on Banks and his dodgy dealings over the years:

thebristolcable.org/2017/07/rise-right-wing-bristol-millionaire-arron-banks/

It’s from July 2017 but quite prescient:

Until recently most of the press have happily perpetuated the image of Banks, Farage, Wigmore et al, like a political version of Top Gear, breathing laddish vitality into the stuffy world of Westminster. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that Banks is a prominent member of a powerful global cabal with extraordinary financial, technological and political resources.

One oddity is that Banks is nowhere near the billionaire class,
so would he personally donate such a significant total portion of his estimated 100 million wealth

His donations weren't just during the campaign - which is what the criminal investigations are about -
but also in the year before

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/politicals-call-for-brexit-to-be-halted-following-arron-banks-revelations-1-5761349

Ooo.

BCF he was skint in 2014. Then not in 2015.

Pete North is at least honest, as a Leaver, that he thinks the ends justify the means

A few of the thinking Leavers articulate it, but nearly all Leavers would agree:
they won and they don't care how

They consider the EU is an evil conspiracy, illegitimate by its very existence

http://peterjnorth.blogspot.com/2018/11/remain-cheated-for-decades.html

"Put simply, we are here to save democracy, not practice it.

We Brexiteers believe that the nation state is the only construct capable of delivering meaningful democracy and societal harmony and that the EU by design is an attack on that.
I do not, therefore, accept that we should be restrained in fighting this beast which neither plays by the rules nor does it play fair."

His pa today justifies with whataboutery - much more sophisticated / less open

Thanks Red.

I really want Banks, Farage and Bannon to get what's coming to them.

And if Cameron is that bored (diddums) then why doesn't he start up a soup kitchen or something to keep his little mind occupied?

A gift idea? Drawing Europe Together "This is a passionate and heartfelt exploration of Europe and what it means to many of the people who live and work within its borders. The book brings together forty-five renowned illustrators who, through their drawings and accompanying words, share their vision of Europe in this beautiful and timely collection, with a foreword by the British Book Awards Illustrator of the Year 2018, Axel Scheffler."

Ds has applied to a local 6th form college and wants to study Politics at A level. We've just had a letter from them inviting him to a lecture from Crispin Blunt MP (describing him as 'a staunch Brexiteer') and a Q&A afterwards. We're there!

VILE populist madness around the world - and a poor woman is again - surprise - the victim

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/asia-bibi-anti-blasphemy-protests-spread-across-pakistan

[Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of the TLP] has said in speeches that
his only demand is that the mother-of-five be put to death, the punishment for blasphemy under Pakistan’s penal code 🤯

Thousands of Islamist protesters have brought Pakistan to a standstill, burning rickshaws, cars and lorries
to protest against the acquittal of a Christian womann* who spent eight years on death row
on false charges of blasphemy.
...
The landmark release of Asia Bibi, a 47-year-old farm labourer, has pitched the state into the latest of several battles with supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistann^ (TLP), a rabid, fast-growing political party that exists solely to punish blasphemers.
....
Asia was charged with insulting the prophet Muhammad after she drank from a cup of water before passing it to Muslim fruit-pickers 🤯