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.

I used to be a literal card carrying member of Labour.

I cannot, and will not, ever vote for the party while Corbyn is in charge. I was in work during the 80s, and I remember it all far too well. A party MUST be more than a protest party if it wants to govern well. At the moment, Labour is simply a party of protest... and, I think, protests too many of the wrong things.

I would be looking for an effective opposition to not just say "We hate you/this won't work/stupid woman (people)", but to be actually capable of leading a change in the country. Actually have effective plans that they can lay out to the electorate on WHAT and HOW they will change stuff.

sadness

I will vote Lib Dem or Green - never Tory. But also never Labour while Corbyn is in charge.

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty winds made moan;
May stood hard as iron
Corbyn like a stone;
Bullshit had fallen
Bullshit on shit,
In the bleak midwinter
Can’t believe it.

@borntobequiet - very appropriate, all things being equal ....

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gatwick-drone-latest-police-say-it-is-a-possibility-there-was-never-a-drone-a4024626.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true
Gatwick drone latest: Police say it is 'a possibility there was never a drone'

An officer investigating the drone chaos at Gatwick Airport says there is no footage of the device which sparked it and it is "a possibility" there never was one.

Asked about speculation there was never such a drone flown over the airport, Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley told the BBC: "Of course, that's a possibility. We are working with human beings saying they have seen something.

Gatwick was closed due to something which might be akin to 'aliens being spotted' for over a day.

Can 2018 just be over?

Oh wait. No 2019 is already shaping up to be the apocalypse with Brexit and the grown ups leaving Donnie with the Big Red Button.

Can we all just hibernate and wake up when it's all over please?

see, what I really don't get is this thing about people nailing their bollocks (or breasts) to a particular political party "for life" and then blindly voting for them even though they blatantly don't have your interests at heart. If you "always" vote for the same party, then what incentive does that party have to lift a finger for your needs ?

What you're forgetting is that some of these people are the party. They've given up their time and energy as activists and canvassers. If no one did this, we wouldn't have political parties. It usually works because parties can usually encompass and tolerate a broad range of political opinion, because they have certain shared goals.

That tolerance has disappeared (on both sides of the aisle). I never thought I'd see Labour Party activists sneering at other Labour members and calling them Tories, as you often see Corbynites do on Twitter, or Tories calling fellow conservatives "traitors".

I have voted the for the same party in every GE I was allowed to (and would have the year I was just slightly to young to vote). That's never been a blind faith in that party though, nor in a particular person, but just that they always seem to be the party I disagree with least who are standing a candidate in whatever area I'm currently in.

Whilst I never rule out voting for any party without consideration, with notable exceptions such as ukip, I could not vote for Labour nor Conservative as they currently stand. That said unless the conservatives change the person who stands as my local MP I wouldn't vote anyway - though he is currently fairly representative of them for a change.

red I think I've had too much mulled wine. Because that is clearly booze induced insanity

Tomorrow's headlines:
'Kitten trying to catch it's own tail starts World War 3'

I’m also a Labour member having (ever more) grave doubts about voting for them while Corbyn is in charge. Our new Labour MP is very pro EU and so far has been excellent. We’re in a very marginal constituency. I could never vote Tory and the previous Tory incumbent was a waste of space and. Leaver. No idea what I’ll do.

The problem is that if all these former Labour voters support the Greens or LibDems, then we are guaranteed another 5 years of Tory rule and they'll be the ones negotiating the future relationship with the EU....
and not giving a 4x about homelessness and poverty which is blighting our country, among other things.

God alone knows what will happen if that is the case.

I did not get the vote in the UK until I was in my mid 40's
I could have been deported without notice if I ever broke the law
I used to go the polling station with DH and stand outside saying "no taxation without representation" to all of the exit pollsters.

It has made me non tribal, evidence seeking about UK political parties
When I first got the vote I admit I spoiled my ballot as I could not with any conscience vote for any party on the sheet

With my other passport, voting for Obama was easy

www.birminghamairport.co.uk/important-updates/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialSignIn#alert-1

And Birmingham Airport has now gone down cos of a problem with air traffic control...

Wtf, red 🤯

Was Gatwick closed down because of over-active imaginations ?
Or are they covering up something more alarming ?

And what about the "faults" at Bhm and maybe LHR ?
Just a chain of coincidences, hack attacks, or what ?

and yes, the US has sometimes not been the sharpest tool in the box,
but their being run by a psychopathic toddler just didn't enter my potential threat list until 3 years ago.

RTB / BigChoc
I am honestly not surprised
see the big thread about LGW

Yes Big Choc. It's starting to look... Odd.

Oh and apparently public support for no deal is rising.

"The problem is that if all these former Labour voters support the Greens or LibDems, then we are guaranteed another 5 years of Tory rule and they'll be the ones negotiating the future relationship with the EU.... "
Dump Corbyn for Cooper or similar and I would vote Labour in a heartbeat.
If Labour can't choose a decent leader, I won't support them. And that's the kindest thing I can say about that twat.

Jo Maugham QC@JolyonMaugham

Corbyn won't listen to the membership on Brexit and won't allow the electorate to speak.

He turned a convenient blind eye to cheating in the Referendum.
Like the corrupt union ballots of old, he's all about the backroom stitch up.

Laughable to pretend an interest in democracy.
....
Corbyn campaigns for democracy with all the sincerity of a bar-room lothario assuring a would-be conquest that his love is true.
....
Now really is the moment for those in the PLP who see the reality of Brexit to stand up and be counted.
Say you'll resign the whip.

DGR - you are of course correct pedant

We used to joke about monkeys In red rosettes getting in in Scottish constituencies. I suppose I was originally part of that mindset - although my support for Labour was based on a core belief in the NHS, free at the point of need and comprehensive state education (no doubt due to a large extent to my dad being an NHS only doctor and my mum being a teacher ) and that the state has a responsibility to look after the poor and vulnerable: things that even in the 80s, I didn't see that Conservatives as truly believing in and supporting And that suspicion of the Tories has only deepened and been proven correct in the years that followed

I suppose I could have supported the Lib Dems - especially when they were honest about the fact that if we want more/better public services, then we need to pay more taxes. Indeed, I voted for them a couple of times when I lived in England, where (in both places), our FPTP system meant a Liberal/LibDem/SDP vote had a better chance of ousting the in with the woodwork Tory

I also don't believe in trickle down economics , nor the economics behind the justification for austerity.

But at least where I live, I have a viable alternative that isn't Labour .

Insurers’ Brexit alert over food suppliers:
Credit cover slashed as fears of no-deal insolvencies mount

The "boring" financial services prepping, that we rarely hear about, may matter as much as the screeching headline stuff:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/insurers-brexit-alert-over-food-suppliers-d2pps8mjb

Struggling meat and vegetable processors are facing a cash squeeze
after credit insurers refused to cover their suppliers
amid fears that the chaos of a no-deal Brexit would push more into insolvency.

Atradius, one of the biggest credit insurers, has warned that a no-deal scenario “would pose a material threat” to Britain’s meat industry.

It is also understood to have removed cover for a range of food businesses, including a bakery and a dairy company, in recent weeks.
Euler Hermes, another leading insurer, is reducing cover and tightening terms to the food industry.

This showed up on my news feed today (I don't normally read the Sun but I thought it a chilling potential connection with the multiple airport faults we were talking about)

www.thesun.co.uk/news/8048803/al-qaeda-terrorists-technology-blow-up-passenger-planes/amp/

But yes of course, sensationalized tabloid news have to be taken with a pinch of salt...

Credit cover slashed as fears of no-deal insolvencies mount

Which will - ironically - send some businesses insolvent. It was what did for Maplin, ultimately.

I know the former head of maplin ... the insurers followed, not led

Good news is that Bhm has resumed operations

Probably bad news that Gatwick wasn't just imagination:

news.sky.com/story/gatwick-drones-50000-reward-offered-as-man-and-woman-from-crawley-released-11589961

Sussex Police Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley told Sky News officers had recovered a damaged droneon the north perimeter of the airport in Horley.