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.

Merry Christmas
www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/brexit-advent-calendar-has-something-bad-behind-every-door-20181221180821

Brexit has used up all govt bandwidth so that it can't do much about all the other problems that need tackling

Brexit looks like preventing govts doing anything much else for years to come

Let's return to light relief 😂😂
Frankie Boyle’s review of 2018: 'Let's forget Brexit and enjoy our last Christmas with running water'

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/22/frankie-boyle-review-2018-forget-brexit
....
Looking back over the events of this year is a bit like holding a doll for a therapist and pointing to where the bad man hurt you.
Among the lowlights were:

Theresa May dancing on stage at the Conservative Party conference (choreographer Ray Harryhausen), looking like an uncloaked Dementorr on a hen weekend.^
....
there was the general impression that European leaders had agreed to end freedom of movement just to stop her from visiting them 😂
....
Raab didn’t want to be Brexit secretary, but he didn’t have the negotiating skills to decline the job. 😂
......
Surely better withdrawal terms have been negotiated during prison sex 🥇
< surely the best summary yet of what this most incompetent, disfunctional govt have achieved on Brexit >

Sad tale of a family business started after WW2 now looks like closing down, because of Brexit

They tried to diversify to new markets outside Europe, but these were too corrupt & lawless, so the company lost money

How many other businesses like this are we losing ?

https://mobile.twitter.com/batanball/status/1076230038251622400

*However that is not Brexit.

This selective post-hoc interpretation of the referendum pisses me off. It's dishonest and most of all it's astonishing ignorant. Brexit means leaving the EU; Norway is not in the EU.*

Exactly.

Still trying to catch up but going back to the conversation yesterday in the morning, my brother and I got duvets in the mid 60s, but we called them "downies" (correct Danish pronunciation was, iirc, something like "diena"). My dad got his relatives in Denmark to send them over specially, as mum and dad couldn't get hold of them in the UK.

Does that mark me as a "citizen of nowhere"?

I follow Samuel Tombs on twitter (Economist) and he has been measured and calm throughout the two years I have followed him.

However, his latest tweet says it all about the shitstorm about to happen.

mobile.twitter.com/samueltombs/status/1076079325483622401

No, not really, other comments say this happened before brexit.

Both sides during the ref were trying to get more votes, hence:

Prominent Leavers were trying to reassure Brexit would be like Norway and stay in the SM
Right after the ref, they no longer needed to reassure, so went for the hard right Torry dream

wheres Cameron was trying to scare people about Brexit be saying it meant leaving the SM

Personally, even as a Remainer, i assumed no govt would be irresponsible / suicidal enough to risk leaving the SM
Well, I've learned better

Before the ref, I was warning what the hard Tory right would attempt,
but I was 95% sure that any responsible leader,
or even pig-poker Cameron, would fight them off

I only assume the worst now- and I'm an optimist by nature!

I'm concerned that Bannon has his dirty hands in trying to turn the yellow vest movement into a Europe wide fascist uprising. Reading how the filthy thugs who tried to intimidate Soubry were gab users and Robinson supporters points to it:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/23/police-probe-far-right-yellow-vest-group-anna-soubry

Then there is also the far left to worry about. Disaster socialism v disaster capitalism. I saw this other article on another thread:

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/16/why-are-labour-party-leaders-so-quiet-on-europe---maybe-it-is-the-lure-of-disaster

Bloody hell.

Personally, even as a Remainer, i assumed no govt would be irresponsible / suicidal enough to risk leaving the SM

Thats odd, among my friends, leavers and remainers, leaving the EU meant exactly that, SM and CU, the former so the UK can deregulate and the latter for FTA's

Hannon etc wittering on about Norway/Swiss was a lie to secure wavering voters, these self serving politicians had no intention of an EFTA Brexit.

Personally, even as a Remainer, i assumed no govt would be irresponsible / suicidal enough to risk leaving the SM

I don't know any Remainers or Leavers who thought that. DC's inability to get anything sellable out of the EU on FoM was what prompted the Referendum. Staying in the SM makes it impossible to do any better than his non-negotiation.

Westminsistenders, I need your help!

Long time follower (if I can keep up!), very occasional poster.

I've written to my MP a fair few times and have finally had a response from him and I need some ammo to respond to his letter with. He's fairly high profile, Brexiteers, ERG, etc - so think twat! He's ignored most of my questions, particularly those asking about how leaving is going benefit his constituents (safe Tory seat, Leave area but rural farming!) but has sent me a letter saying that he disagrees that No Deal is cliff edge crashing out and that the Irish border can be solved with technology. Like I said, twat.

He's also sent me two of his articles: one detailing why Project Fear is stirring up lies about WTO and one ERG article about the Irish border saying we don't even need any additional technology as it works at the moment.

So I need to reply! I now know the basics thanks to Red, BCF, etc but I need to formulate that into a proper response rather than down the pub chat. Can anybody link me any well respected research about the effects of no deal, the border etc? I want to send them to him for bedtime reading...

{ DC's inability to get anything sellable out of the EU on FoM was what prompted the Referendum.}
Well actually using the rules as were available regarding FoM for the previous 10 years might have been a start. Yes neither Labour or Tories bothered using them. I believe there is even a clause for short term 'emergencies' that could have been explored. A 7 year moratorium possibly.

I'm concerned that Bannon has his dirty hands in trying to turn the yellow vest movement into a Europe wide fascist uprising. Reading how the filthy thugs who tried to intimidate Soubry were gab users and Robinson supporters points to it:

I’ve seen them called “Jacket Potatoes” elsewhere, which seems far more apt!
I’m glad they’re investigating that particular little group and I agree the original cause has been hijacked.

On FOM, I think this summary is quite helpful to highlight how other EU members used the approved curbs to migration from new members including Poland Romania and Bulgaria:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3513889.stm

They were quite extensive tools that the UK never even bothered looking at (as has been said on these threads 000s of times...)

DC's inability to get anything sellable out of the EU on FoM was what prompted the Referendum

Rubbish, he didn't even ask for any changes on FOM for starters!
He got changes in benefits, he got opt out from ever closer union and changes in competitiveness rules/red tape.

DC got almost all he asked for, he was unambitious - that is very true!

The reality (of the referendum) is DC was worried about losing votes to UKIP and the internal division in the Tory party.... he has caused untold division within the UK instead and along with May will be poorly judged by history.

I'd like to see him charged with Misconduct in public office and sent to prison for what he has done to the UK.

Emergency Brake, that is what I was thinking of, so the UK could have halted or posed strict limitations on immigration at any time if the UK had felt that there was a problem.

We have done the history of FoM extensively before and why the rules don't work in the context of the UK welfare and immigration / lack of ID systems.

There is no point looking at a set of rules which could have applied had the UK completely reconstructed itself.

However a responsive EU could have looked at flexing the letter of the rules in the way proposed by DC to allow them to operate in the same way they do in other countries. They chose not to.

It was therefore inevitable that they would refuse to adapt SM terms post EU Ref. That is why no-one I know thought the UK would be staying in the SM if it voted for Brexit. Ditto the Norway option.

Brexit has used up all govt bandwidth so that it can't do much about all the other problems that need tackling. Brexit looks like preventing govts doing anything much else for years to come

Again, one of the warnings from project fear.

Woman who continue to face the ordeal of having their abuser confront them in court will at least have blue passports to comfort them. (One of the bills Brexit killed was one with cross party support that removed an abusers right when acting for themselves).

Plenty more where that came from. Plus all the stuff that isn't even on the radar yet.

.

.

*Teaandbiscuits
*
There's this article from the economist. You may need to do a free trial though.

Your MP sounds a complete plonker. Graphs are always good. There are some no deal graphs if you google them.
*