Westministenders: BAH HUMBUG said Mr Rees-Mogg

[RedToothBrush]

"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge Rees-Mogg, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons hostels?"

"Plenty of prisons hostels..."

"And the Union workhouses foodbanks." demanded Scrooge Jacob. "Are they still in operation?"

"Both very busy, sir..."

"Those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge ^Rees-Mogg, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

He continued "Besides I do not believe that anyone would die without them. I think Theresa is right, there are many complex reasons why nurses go to food banks. The real reason for the rise in numbers is that people know that they are there and Labour deliberately didn't tell them. To have charitable support given by people voluntarily to support their fellow citizens I think is rather uplifting and shows what a good, compassionate country we are"

------------------------

This thread is dedicated to Mrs8 and anyone else who is working to make life just a little better in the difficult circumstances that ALL politicians are currently doing their best to ignore (despite what they profess).

No Deal = even more poverty and destitution.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HERES HOPING FOR A HAPPIER NEW YEAR
especially to those of you, who might be having a tough time or facing real uncertainity.

Hear! Hear!

Thank you RTB. Well said re Mrsr8 and all others who are helping out in these times.
Will this thread make it past Christmas day?

Yes here's to Mrsr8, who keeps on making a difference.

As does RTB and others on here too.

I saw this as a card for everyone- except the toothbrushes aren't red!

Great OP, red 💐
very topical
but I don't believe this Scrooge gets redemption at the end of the story

Thanks to MrsR8 💐 & her colleagues, who seem now to be a volunteer emergency service, sadly essential now

This UC scheme will pay out £3bn less than the old one,
but the government insists this won’t affect the poor.

This is because the poor are poor because they aren’t very good with money,
so they won’t notice an insignificant sum like £3bn

If the poor made an effort to marry into a family with inherited wealth, like UC inventor Ian Duncan Smith,
then they could all be multi-millionaires and live in Tudor mansions.

I'd like the govt minister responsible to explain why they ignored the request of BALPA (pilots) last year
to increase the drone exclusion zone around airports from 1 to 5 km, as some other countries have

You mean Chris Grayling...

...the minister dubbed the most incompetent in government, amongst stiff competition.

Okay, so I've spent the evening composing a lengthy email to my MP, demolishing his latest infuriating missive line by line. I'm on the final sentence now, in which he says:

"At the same time, the UK will be able to negotiate its own international trade deals from the start of the transition or implementation period. This will allow us to take advantage of the estimated 90 per cent of world growth that will come from outside the EU in the future."

I think he's making the mistake of confusing the quantum of trade with percentage growth - i.e. lots of growth from a tiny base isn't really going to replace the trade we currently do with the EU - but need a pithier way of explaining it! Anyone?

In fact, does anyone know of a website that sets out common myths and debunks them? That would be good.

Thanks red for thread my dd who works with severe autistic adults now after doing community care for 9 years mainly with the elderly does have Xmas day off this year. The first one in 9 years. But she is doing 12 hour shifts Xmas eve boxing day the a day off then right through till 2nd of January. Her 16 yr old daughter will only see her Xmas day. The only day she gets enhanced pay is Xmas day. No breaks as they have to be continually with service users including eating with them. All this for minimum wage. All this just to survive, not really live ( she's only ever been on holiday when a child). Happy blooming Xmas TM.

chickens I assume he's talking about the WA ?
but maybe check he's not another Brexiter like Nadine Dorries, who thinks that No Deal has a transition period !

PMK. I got my disabled bus pass today. I've been putting it off because I don't like people treating me differently but sod it. Good timing, as it turns out. I've applied for my train pass as well. Need to do a benefits check.

Wherearemychickens - how about Snopes.com?

Merry Xmas Red et al

red Of course it had to be Failing Grayling who ignored the BALPA request !

This debacle should finally end his inglorious reign as the Minister for Stopping Transport,

He should be ordered by the HoC Transport Committee to explain his thought processes - if one can dignify them by this term - in coming to his decision then

I expect a truthful answer would be that it was too complicated and he wanted his lunch, so he chose that instead,
but that we will get the boring standard "it's easy in hindsight, but ... "

BigChoc - yes, at this point, he's talking about the scenario where we have agreed the withdrawal agreement and are confidently out in the world bestowing the largess of our willingness to strike trade deals on all and sundry.

This is after he's said he supports the withdrawal agreement, apart from the backstop, to which I've said well then he needs to decide whether he supports no deal or revoke then, since that backstop ain't going anywhere.

AwdBovril - thanks for that. It's not quite what I was looking for - which I guess is basically a fleshed out version of the 50 odd myths Steve Bullock tweeted the other day!

Those passes are worth having, Bovril and even millionaires are entitled to them - they probably use them too, in London

Varadkar admits Ireland may not be able to avoid a hard border after No Deal Brexit

@howabout: doesn't that indicate he's not planning an Ireland-E26 border ?
He surely can't need both

Sinn Fein said if there was a No Deal Brexit, then there should be a border poll with the choice of a hard border or a united Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2018/1220/1018374-brexit-border/

We didn't mention this much: are the police waiting until these nutters outside Parliament harm or even murder an MP ?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/20/anna-soubry-accosted-pro-brexit-supporters-hitler

The Conservative MP Anna Soubry has urged police to clamp down on “far-right” protesters outside parliament after a group of pro-Brexit supporters harassed her,
shouting that she was a traitor and “on the side of Adolf Hitler”.
...
“One of these people could be a proper, serious threat.
A member of parliament was murdered by somebody.
Police should have an absolute duty to intervene, to keep members of the public safe – and that includes me.”
....
In the latest incident, live-streamed by one of the protesters,
Soubry was surrounded by a group of shouting men as she walked from parliament to a TV interview on Wednesday afternoon,
one of whom could be seen calling her “a disgrace to the people of the country”.

PMK

This article on stupidgate cheered me up slightly or perhaps it was the latest YouGov poll!

"Presumably the next step will be to engage clairvoyants or perhaps insist on an MRI scanner to determine exactly what is running through any MP’s mind at any given point. Yes that may be a more boring and vacuous exercise than listening to David Beckham reading the telephone directory, but it passes the time doesn’t it? I mean it’s not as if Westminster has anything better to do. Not like there’s any sort of impending existential crisis on the horizon or anything like that.

If you get to be Prime Minister you’re hardly likely to be stupid. But I can think of many other epithets and adjectives that would have been more apposite in Theresa May’s case – reckless, incompetent, irresponsible, naive, ill-prepared, dishonest, pig-headed, blinkered, pompous, self-interested, disingenuous, uncaring, dismissive,..

A few weeks ago I was prepared to give May the benefit of the doubt, that she was trying to achieve the best result she thought possible, at least within the limitations she’d set herself and in view of her own apparent doggedness (or pig-headedness depending on your perspective) to see Brexit through. But to now flirt openly with the idea of a no-deal as part of some last ditch negotiation ploy is beyond contempt. Not only is she pushing a potential outcome that would be devastating for the country, she’s also trying to bounce MPs into supporting a deal that she herself knows is worse than the one we have now."

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/stupidgate-what-about-the-impending-existential-crisis-thats-on-the-horizon/20/12/

Thank you for the thread @RedToothBrush .
Much love to @Mrsr8 too.

Let's hope that the active parliamentary steps take by Yvette Cooper to avoid No Deal start to work. She seemed to suggest that efforts to find a step that works won't stop if the current attempt fails. In short they are trying to get an amendment to the Finance Bill to make sure that a No Deal path only works with Parliament's approval . There is apparently no parliamentary majority support for no deal.
The finance bill aka The Budget is one that has to get through Parliament. There are actually rules to force it through if all else fails.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/20/theresa-may-cabinet-collectively-focused-on-passing-brexit-deal

Pmk.

Thanks for the new thread RTB - it's not looking like the season of good cheer is it?

An industry person or similar being interviewed on the Today programme yesterday re drones kept banging on about what a lucrative market it is and so important not to have too many restrictions. Yet another jaw-dropper.
Thanks for the new thread, Red. I learn so much from you all. My own (hopeful) prediction for the NY is that polls will move massively towards PV and against No Deal, finally bringing politicians to their senses.

I don’t like sentimentalised Christmas songs but it’s hard to avoid them atm and the one in my head currently is “And so Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear...”(the next bit is too far fetched to be true!). Best wishes and love to all.