Westministenders: The One Where We Finally Get A Leadership Challenge?

[RedToothBrush]

Tick tick tick.

What do we think?

Yes? No?

Another week of wtf-ing at British politics.

[DoctorTwo]

Spudlet, these excuses for human beings despise anybody who isn't like them. This rule that you're employed if you work one hour in a fortnight is partial evidence. IBS saying he could survive on £53 a week when we know his breakfast costs £39. Per day. JRM saying that we could, as a country, be back to where we are now in 50 years!, but it's ok, he and his hedge fund mates are shifting their assets into the EU so they can have seamless trading.

I would love to see those rapacious arseholes in court for their clear lies in the run up to the referendum.

[mathanxiety]

(((()))) to you, PCplums

[Spudlet]

My neighbours get benefits. The husband is a very unwell man with all sorts of awful conditions that all interact and leave him really quite limited - his wife is his carer. He was given a lifetime grant of DLA, and she was able to claim carer's allowance.

They were then told they had to reapply - and their forms were lost in the post. The first they heard about this was when they were informed that all of their benefits would be removed. They had to go through the whole application process again, including an interview, which sounds absolutely awful - the interviewer was appallingly rude to them. This all started in August - they are only just now sorted out. They've had virtually nothing to live on for all that time. The stress has been awful for them - and has actually made him even sicker.

This guy - he's not going to get any better. These are not curable illnesses that he has. He is going to get worse, if anything - the status quo is the best he can hope for. And it makes me so angry that the JRMs and the rest of them would dismiss them as 'scroungers' because they claim benefits, when both of them would and have worked hard - the wife lost the ends of her fingers at work, FFS! Yet the whole system is weighted against them. And it's shit, it really is.

Sorry, I know that isn't Brexity as such but I saw we were ranting generally, and it makes me so angry that people, real people, get caught up in all these little games that amuse Rees-Mogg and all his friends. I worry about the poor communities that will be losing EU funding - the Welsh seaside town that I visited last year, that had a little plaque on the sea defences to say the EU had paid for them. Who will pay up when they need renewing? It won't be the party of Mogg and Austerity, will it?

Bastards. Bastards!

[BigChocFrenzy]

Dreadful hardship when people have no close family to help them
Callous evil bastards who created this situation AND those who knowingly voted for it, not despite it

Do let your family help, PCplum
So you can complete all your counselling, get back on your feet and make a new life away from that horrid OH
💐

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

Thanks everyone. You’re not just a clever bunch, you’re kind as well. I hadn’t noticed the new thread when I posted, will pop over to catch up.
This has just made me so angry and has made me think about how people in a less fortunate position would cope.
I have posted a few times about a young woman I looked after who took her own life after having her benefits stopped and spent Christmas in a flat with no gas, electricity or food. And there are loads of people like her.
I used to regard people like JRM and Bojo as mildly amusing. Now I regard them as evil, particularly JRM who claims to be a Christian as does TM.
I wish there was somewhere to direct that anger.
My phone keeps correcting Bojo to Bono
I honestly feel like rioting right now but you can’t have a riot on your own.

[WhatWouldScoobyDoo]

PCPlums just seen your post now since I had moved on to the next thread early.

Lots of for your awful situation.

[SingingBabooshkaBadly]

Still horribly behind on these threads but wanted to jump on to send to you PCPlums. You’ve climbed a mountain, be proud of yourself. Please do ask your parents for help. If I’d been in trouble my late DM and DF would have been devastated if I hadn’t gone to them. I know not all parents are the same, but if you have a good relationship they will want to help (maybe even if you don’t). But, as you say, some people don’t have that sort of support. This is a brutal world for them.

And do all the ranting you need to. More

[Minimammoth]

Thinking of you Plums, you should rightly be proud. Hope that things work out. Day by day step by step. Hugs 🌹

[prettybird]

Good for you. Be very proud of your achievement (and ignore not so d h )

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

Thanks Hazard I am actually proud of myself because rehab is hard although DH refers to it as ‘lounging around’
I will be 5 months sober next Saturday which really is a miracle.

[Hazardswan]

PCPlum-well done for completing rehab number 1!

Website www.turn2us.org.uk check your claiming everything or if your entitled to any grants. So many grants esp for ex nurses so worth a look.

I'm so sorry your going through a hard time.

Lots and lots of love ❤

[prettybird]

UnMNy {{{{Hugs}}} PCPlums - and some virtual

UC is a bastarding system. It's been pointed out to the Government that because UC is paid to the "head of the household" which still, traditionally is the man, it facilitates financially abusive men in controlling their partners (since in the majority of cases, financial abuse is male on female - I know that there are some cases the other way around) and their response was a pathetic "Ummmm, aaaah, if you're being financially abused, you can ask the payment to be made to you" Clueless Bastards

Hopefully, CAB or WA will be able to help/advise.

Taking it back to the theme of this thread: and some of those that voted Leave think, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the Government has their best interests at heart? Clueless Misguided bastards

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

The thing is that I do have family that I can borrow money from, even though it sticks in my throat a bit.
What happens to the people who don’t have any family? They’re just left to starve.
I was a CPN for 20 years before going off sick.
When I started, most service users were I settled social housing. Now at least a third of people I saw are in temporary accommodation- and ‘temporary’ can be up to 5 years.
In the end, seeing families of 5 living in one room babies crawling round in mice droppings was just too much.
And all the people with chronic paranoid schizophrenia found fit for work and getting their benefits stopped

[BigChocFrenzy]

PCplums So sorry to hear what you are going through 💐
and well done for completing your alcohol rehab 💐

Yes, the govt are bastards
So is the current benefits system / lack of system
So is your bloody evil DH 😡
If he has your money, especially back payments, can you ask at CAB how to get it back from him ?

Also, if you haven't already, open a new account that he doesn't know about and can't access, to receive all your future wages and benefits.

Get back your nursing registration if you can and make sure everything is sorted out with that, or the future,
so you can return to work after this counselling, if you feel able again

Don't be too proud to ask parents or other family for help:

^"family is where when you've got to go there, they've got to take you in"

I supported my late mum for much of my working life;^
she supported me throughout childhood and young adulthood.
it evens out

They may need your help when they are older and I'm sure you'd help then if you could

[RedToothBrush]

I hope you are doing ok. But feel free to rant if you need.

[RedToothBrush]

PCPlumsTruncheon, this thread is for ranting about the incompetence of government on all levels as far as I'm concerned. So anything relating to UC and how it is inhame is fair game.

[OhLookHeKickedTheBall]

pcplums I have no practical advice but can I offer you a very unmumsnetty hug? And an agreement that they're bastards.

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

Thanks lonely It’s been a real eye opener living here. A lot of people are street homeless before they come here.
I didn’t think it was possible to hate this government any more than I already did.

[GaspodeWonderCat]

PCPlums - rant away. They are indeed fucking cunts. Citizens advice are generally worth a call/visit if you can. &

[lonelyplanetmum]

PCPlums didn't want to fail to comment. So Sorry you have all that to deal with. As far as parents are concerned, in a way it's part of being a parent- even when you are 75+ your children are still your children.

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

Sorry. At least it’s taken my mind off Brexit

[PCPlumsTruncheon]

Sorry to derail but I just need to rant.
I have completed an alcohol rehab but couldn’t return home because of issues with DH.
The organisation I did the rehab with have another project which is more low key but still staffed 24/7 with therapy groups and 1-1 counselling. Because it isn’t technically classed as rehab, they take HB whereas rehab proper requires funding.
I was supposed to be on half pay from Feb -August but it wasn’t paid because of issues around my nursing registration so I had no income for 7 months until I claimed UC.
Last month they paid my backdated half pay to cover the 6 month period when I had no income.
This is now being classed as me being in receipt of a wage so they have stopped. I’m terrified they’re going to stop my HB as well.
DH is financially abusive and I haven’t seen a penny of that money.
I’m 50 and I cannot face grovelling to my parents.
I’ve paid tax all my life, I’ve done voluntary work.
Right now I’m a really low point and I can’t cope with this.
Fucking cunts.

[1tisILeClerc]

{1tisILeClerc Nobody is taking the piss, it’s in everybody’s interest to keep airplanes flying, it wouldn’t take long for a lot of airlines to go out of business inc European ones}
While I agree that it is in everyone's interest to keep planes flying, the UK government has shown no real 'leadership' and come up with a coordinated plan. Even now no one has a bloody clue and we are just over 4 months away from leaving. Flying a plane from the UK to anywhere is rather more involved than having a pilot jump into the cockpit and starting the engines. The bolts that hold the doors on, have they been checked and certified allowing the whole plane to be insured? And in which jurisdiction? Currently it is through the EU, No deal means that stops.

[BigChocFrenzy]

Hesta The EU majority-owned airlines could continue flying to everywhere else n the wolrd except the UK
Permission to overfly airspace is a separate treaty, which is not affected by Brexit

It is UK majority owned airlines that lose their certifications for planes & crew and can't fly
Also ship and ferry owners

It is only UK airports which lose their certifications

After a No Deal Breit, the EU are likely to agree permissions for only an essential bare-bones deal, for the things they regard as important,

• that's not always the same as what the UK needs

[BigChocFrenzy]

Jas Labour under Corbyn DO have a problem with FOM
He is against it and so are many MPs from Leave-voting areas

It's a big problem that both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition are against FOM