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.

What is the expression that Mutley says to Dick Dastardly? I can't possibly spell it!

Sweden educating DD:

He is / was still suggesting the UK have a "frictionless" border like Sweden/ Norway - but without even being in the SM !

The Swedish minister who tried explaining to him, made some probably exasperated comments afterwards to Sky News

https://news.sky.com/story/sweden-warns-uk-not-to-emulate-norway-border-post-brexit-11140707

Ms Linde said: "We did research with 2,000 Swedish companies to say which country is the most difficult to have export relations to and number one was Norway and after that came China."
...
"You cannot be half in the customs union," Ms Linde said. "Either you are or you're not.

"They say they want a bespoke arrangement. Well it's not possible.
I think they hope for a solution that no other country has been able to negotiate at all."

What, you mean that not only was this a UK law, but one we persuaded the rest of the EU to go along with?

I suspect the fact that landfill in the UK as a percentage of available land made it very expensive, compared to (say) France or Germany who have much more land (and therefore an "unfair" advantage when it comes to commerce). What better way to ensure a level playing field than devising a pan-European tax on landfill. With an escalator intended to discourage landfill. Who could argue with that ?

From my memory of those regs, they also allowed local authorities to charge residents extra if they disposed of more than a certain amount of waste in a year. I know that, because I worked on the back end database for the refuse lorries which weighed wheelie bins as it lifted them, and read the RFID tag in them to allocate it to an address. If you threw away more than kg in a year, you had to pay extra per kilo.

It was never enacted (for obvious political reasons) but I believe the law is still there in place.

I know Dublin council were very interested.

I know our wheelie bin has an RFID tag. Shortly after they were issued, a guy came around to read them and allocate them on the database. Bin thieves beware !

DD isn't even consistent in his idiocy - he probably forgets what he said before, when in the Cabinet

or just maybe, he says whatever is convenient at the time - that'll be why May chose him

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/nov/08/brexit-cabinet-david-davis-urges-mps-to-vote-down-mays-brexit-deal-so-eu-makes-better-offer-politics-live?page=with:block-5be4109ee4b0b627bf3cbff2#block-5be4109ee4b0b627bf3cbff2

Today David Davis argued that MPs should vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal because, in those circumstances, the EU would improve its offer to the EU. (See 9.03am.)

But when Davis was Brexit secretary, and MPs argued that they should have the power to amend the motion approving the Brexit deal (the “meaningful vote”) so that they could send ministers back to Brussels to renegotiate,
Davis insisted this was not realistic.
This is what he told the Commons Brexit committee in April when this idea was put to him.

"I’m not going to give advice on how to create circumstances which may undermine the government’s negotiating position.
I’m not entirely sure how much force a government sent back with its tail between its legs by parliament would have in such a negotiation."

It feels like we are watching "Downfall: the musical" in English.

{ said Mr Andrew Davies.

"When you think of all these powers at the moment, they're held in Brussels anyway, they're managed by a bureaucracy that isn't elected by anyone. And ultimately they will be returning to a sovereign parliament in Westminster who want to pass these powers on to the devolved governments and parliaments of the United Kingdom", he added.}
A Welsh Tory minister telling 'porkies' again on SKY News website over concerns that following Brexit Westminster will grab powers currently held in Brussels.

I'm not a constitutional expert, but generally, the message from history to Wales is: You lost. Get over it.

However, Scotland is a different entity, and I find myself curious as to how the political union works. It was entered into by two sovereign parliaments - can one unilaterally leave it ?

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/wetherspoons-shares-slide-as-chairman-tim-martin-concentrates-on-championing-brexit-1-5768218

JD Wetherspoon's share price was down 9.5% as investors absorbed a first-quarter trading update in which the chain said like-for-like sales increased by 5.5% and total sales were up 6.2%.

The pub group hinted at weaker annual performance and chairman Tim Martin revealed he would be temporarily working part-time after a health scare.

But leading industry analyst Mark Brumby, of Langton Capital pointed to the trading statement, in which Mr Martin reiterated his belief in the trading statement that the UK should adopt free trade after Brexit, and suggested his attention was elsewhere.

MrsR and any food bank helpers. This seems a useful wee film about things to donate.
twitter.com/RubiesB4Swine/status/1060531521889681408

The more it goes, the more i think people should pass a test before been able to become MPs.
So many of them show a total lack of intelligence and a total lack of basic knowledge of how their own country is working, incl the differences in Scotland and NI.
And not only that but they seem to have mastered to ‘not listening to their experts/government advisers/top civil servant’ to an art.

Anyone else with a job where they wouod show such a basic lack of knowledge wouod be sacked for gross misconduct.

The more it goes, the more i think people should pass a test before been able to become MPs.

or vote ...

_ Brexit: Coveney cautions against assumption of imminent deal>

and is quite biting about the UK Cabinet !

www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/brexit-coveney-cautions-against-assumption-of-imminent-deal-1.3690729

Addressing speculation that a possible deal was close, Mr Coveney said it should not be assumed that just because the UK cabinet agrees on something that an overall deal has been agreed with the EU.

“’I would urge caution that an imminent breakthrough is not necessarily to be taken for granted, not by a long shot,” he told a Ireland Canada Business Association conference in Dublin.

“Repeatedly, as people seem to make the same mistake over and over again: assuming that if the British cabinet agree something, well then that’s it then, then everything is agreed.” 😂

I think it's become blindingly obvious that the Great British Public has lost interest in Brexit entirely. Which may - or may not - be part of a cunning plan. The less overall interest, the less the power of the ERGs and UKIPs of this world. Which makes BINO much easier to sign up to. After all, no matter what deal, or no deal we end up with, I can't see 700,000 Brexiteers managing to march on Westminster - there aren't enough slip-on shoes in the UK for a start.

Woman

Thanks for that film clip. It's important for foodbanks to let people know what types of food/consumables they need. We've got baked beans and dried pasta coming out of our ears, but struggling with nappies, toiletries, cleaning products and similar stuff.

We have a collection bin at a couple of local supermarkets and display a list of scarce items. We also send a list to local donating churches who can print it in their magazines.

Incidentally, we've just finished the statistics for this year and found that demand for 3-day packages had gone up by 28% from last year (which was itself higher than the previous year). And low income/insufficient wages appears to have overtaken the usual benefits delays as a cause for referral.

Yes Hasenstein thought it was interesting/ shameful that people need food that requires little power to heat like tinned ravioli and meat spread. Will do an 'advent calendar' food donation, using what local food bank needs.

Oh look how ready we are
Brexit: Crucial legislation will be put before MPs just days before Britain leaves EU, ministers admit

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-parliament-vote-law-changes-ministers-theresa-may-parliament-a8624336.html

Of course this means that there will be gaping holes of the MP or the Lords dont agree to pass some legislation.
It also means no time to properly review legislation properly or pressure to just pass things wo much scrutiny because there is no time.
It makes me wonder what there is in those SInthatbthe government might not want us to know

Just a little vent... my friend's Mum (a very vocal Leaver who recruited friends to vote her way too) just asked if when we leave the E.U. goods and clothes can have instructions and care labels only in English, instead of the selection of different languages.

To be fair she admitted it was not the most important issue but clearly it's a factor.

When these are the issues that play on people's minds, how can a referendum on complex economics have been
an option. Still 

Brexiteers were - and (irony alert ) remain - thick as pigshit. Like them it is that simple.

Any intelligent Leavers have simply given up by now. I haven't read anything in the past few weeks suggesting they haven't given up all hope of getting what they thought they were voting for.

David Allen Green @davidallengreen

The story of UK's policy failures on Brexit is the direct line from Gove's "I think that the people of this country have had enough of experts" to Raab's "I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this".

The utterances of Mr Hunt in France today:
www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-and-france-past-present-and-future?utm_source=fb279e60-357c-470e-b3d1-38b5e62e5cc7&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Not convinced he wrote it himself though.

The thing about the "Right to Revoke A50" case going to the ECJ is that if it rules that the government could revoke A50 right up until 10.59 on 29 March, then the government no longer has the excuse of saying "It's not possible"

....which then leaves the responsibility for a No Deal Brexit solely and squarely on their heads.

Which is where it is anyway - but it would have meant that they ignored a ready-made "out".

In the Independent how this chappie wants to identify as 20 yrs younger than his birth age. Birth Certs used to be sacrosanct. If you can change some facts, it makes sense that the others are moveable feasts too. I wonder if you could 'adopt' new parentage. Say rich ones: to inherit. I always felt like Bill Gates' heir, ya know. And I definitely want my pension early enough to enjoy it. And free travel. This is like when they introduced the old age pension. People aged quite a bit more than a decade between the 1901 and the 1911 census.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-change-age-netherlands-emile-ratelband-court-arnhmen-gelderland-a8623421.html