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"

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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.

Ah yes, Brentford nylons vs continental quilts! Fitted sheet! Hard to believe we all used to have blankets, flat sheets, eiderdowns and hospital corners. And that candle thing bedcover. When "making the bed" was more than just shaking the duvet and turning it down and plumping the pillows. The 70s were so shit. Let's go back there.

Motheroffourdragons
I don't know of any specific sites but AA Roadwatch might include where you are travelling.
Personally I would take extra sandwiches and drink and be prepared for a bit of a hold up. The blockades I have been through were not aggressive to car drivers or even lorries and there was usually a police presence to 'keep the peace'.
Hope you have a good and peaceful journey.

Lonelyplanetmum. Yes indeed, the UK should return all the Continental Quilts and go back to brushed nylon sheets, actually no, cotton/??? to reduce plastic usage, and heavy woollen blankets which will boost the sheep industry. You see, Brexit solved!

I recently found my first continental quilt cover. A yellow nylon thing with nylon lace that I made myself. Lovingly appliquéd Snoopy on the top . I was awesome. Still am!

I bought a new warm down-filled coat. Well actually, feather and down - I’m a bit of a cheapskate - but it is lovely and warm.

The handy translation into many different languages told me that in French, feathers are plumes and down is duvet. Light bulb moment! I do keep meaning to brush up my French...

bellinisurge, you are awesome. All joking aside.

Has anyone seen this?
From Twitter:
From JRM:
No deal means no hard border so no need for the backstop
In response to
From Irish Examiner
We are not preparing for a hard border between NI and Ireland' in event of no deal Brexit - Varadkar
Full article https://amp.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/we-are-not-preparing-for-a-hard-border-between-ni-and-ireland-in-event-of-no-deal-brexit--varadkar-893399.html?twitterimpression=true

Why thank you @Apileofballyhoo

I use flat sheets and blankets. I just don't particularly like duvets. It's really not that much more effort to make the bed to honest.

And yes, I do realise that's not the point tbeing made.

JRM is a childish twat. Just to emphasise my awesomeness.

New referendum question:

1 Do you want to admit many positive things come from being a member of the EU ( and keep your duvet)?

1. Insist that we isolate ourselves from all international organisations ( and have mandatory sheets, blankets and candlewick bedspreads).

I enjoy the French translations that use English words that have fallen out of 'common' usage in England. Having to get the dictionary out to look words up and find they are perfectly correct but not used.
Maybe translation was a bit easier 70 or more years ago?
Probably explains the blank expressions I get when I speak!
Bellinisurge, I suspect you would have a lot of interesting tales to tell around a campfire.

@1tisILeClerc - I could bore everyone to sleep!

Or, seeing as the UK may be heading up the back passage to the USA, will Pizza Hut in the UK be withdrawing the cutlery? (Ref original adverts when they arrived in the UK ).

Bigly I also use cotton sheets and woollen blankets. Did try to get on with a duvet for a while but I really don't like them.

In fact I'm combining my ideas..

The new question for consideration should be:

• Do you want to admit that many positive things come from being a member of the EU ( and receive a £50 John Lewis/M and S voucher and keep your duvet)?

OR option as before.

I find it so frustrating that the balance of the vote could have been swung by what in effect is a token but tangible gesture that austerity was too harsh and not borne equally.

We need to get out of Brexit (somehow) find a way to stimulate employment in the cities outside London, stop frigging Austerity and give people hope for the future.

I agree with this 1000% or more percent. I also think that most Leavers would too, on the QT. The hard core Leavers who have been rather silent on these last two threads wouldn't and the out and out racists wouldn't, but I honestly don't think that is the majority in the UK.

What I do think is that people are easily led and go along with the crowd. A decent set of MPs dedicated to social justice would be able to carry people with them. You only need to look at the positive atmosphere generated when we held the Olympics.

I am also 100% sure that May and Co will leave politics pretty smartish in the next decade.

I really don't get this enthusiasm for the USA and those who slavishly want to do whatever they do. They grumble now about 'Sovereignty' and 'Taking back control'. They won't get that with any UK/USA deals. I suppose people see Hollywood films with people in big houses, and don't see vast areas of people who are dirt poor.

Did anyone ever answer the question about which international organisations they would be happy to leave, out of the long list that was posted?

Love this article on duvets. Apparently they took off in the UK because Mums were too lazy to make their DCs' beds. I still remember my DM buying mine for this reason complete with non-iron polycotton sheets. Every time she finds me ironing sheets and making beds she takes it as a personal criticism.

www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-the-duvet-2063283.html

Where's the list Peregrina (sorry I missed it). Genuinely interested because apart from the EU I am struggling to think of any International organisations which the UK is not a founding / architectural member of.

Totally irrelevant, but I once stayed with a friend who borrowed a duvet/continental quilt from her Polish friend because she didn't have sufficient bedding of her own. It was filled with goose feathers. It was so heavy, it nearly broke my back, but it was lovely and warm.

Don't think it was housewives being lazy which led to their introduction - my DM was proud of her bedmaking skills with their hospital corners! DB bought one after a foreign holiday somewhere.

Agree Peregrina.
Most people are generally sensible and compassionate. This is what needs to be nurtured. People can be easily-led. As I said recently, bullies are loud and people fall in with them due to a perception that they carry more weight /sway then they actually do, because of this noise. Also because of a little bit of fear? You say something assertively enough and it can sound like a fact...

Of course I’m not suggesting Leavers are gullible or unperceptive. And it’s hard to argue with huge swathes of the (irresponsible) mainstream media.

French news on Orange has very little on Brexit. Today it was the drones and a minor piece on Brexit itself.

I think it depends where you are looking. I'm a Le Monde subscriber and it has a Brexit article most days.

In the last three days there have been articles on a possible second referendum (looking at how likely it is and the arguments in its favour), on Hancock and his fridge-buying spree ("A cent jours de l’entrée en vigueur du Brexit, le Royaume-Uni en est donc à envisager très sérieusement une pénurie de médicaments." Trans: 100 days from Brexit, the UK has reached the point of seriously considering drug shortages"; the tone of this sentence is mildly derisive which gives you a sense of French Brexit coverage generally) and a piece on the no deal notices published by the EU.

Another vote for Yvette here. If only we could have a proper grown up in charge of something.

Peregrina
I think that there needs to be a management of expectations globally and for the accumulation of 'stuff' for everyone is not possible.
It is so wrong that a few command a ridiculously high 'salary' when in reality they are doing hardly any more than say a competent shop worker.
Minimum wage, while being an attempt is too crude a measure to ensure a decent living standard.
A 'baseline' of decent housing, adequate food and some means of 'paying' society/government/??? to be eligible for societal support.
Having 'stuff' is not the route to inner happiness in itself. Having a gold Rollex is useless to someone who has no roof over their head apart from enabling them to say how long they have been out in the cold.
The UK needs a radical rethink of where it wants to go. The Tories have shot the unicorns and there is probably trouble ahead.

Thanks Mistigri
My French reading is pathetic but I am getting there very slowly. You can teach an old dog new tricks, but it is not easy!