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.

Misti I've been trying to reassure myself for several months that there won't be No Deal, because:

1. No UK govt could be so irresponsible as to deliberately crash the economy into probably a Depression

2. They didn't start serious prepping until recently and they have only invested maybe 10% of the resources that would be needed for that

Unfortunately, combine Maybot stubbornness with the stupidity & ignorance of DD & Raab, mix in with the ERG disaster capitalists .....
and I give it a 50% chance

It would be a damn sight lower if Labour didn't have Corbyn as a roadblock for any rescue attempts from the PLP and Tory rebels.

Tonsils Even worst case, I would be astonished if trains aren't running after Brexit

According to my sources Labour (at least John McDonnell and Keir Starmer…) are really committed to preventing no deal and will work with the other parties as necessary to do so. I'm hoping my sources are right!!

This is interesting, an anonymous civil servant on "no deal scaremongering" by the government.

twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1078766254821990400?s=19

EXCLUSIVE

Civil servant accuses Remain ministers of embarking on 'Project Fear Mark III' over no-deal Brexit to shore up PM’s 'disastrous' deal

Writing in The Telegraph, official says claims UK will 'crash out' under no deal are 'absolutely untrue'

t.co/D43A3Rwm1Y

The op-ed from a civil servant working on no-deal contingencies is pretty incendiary:

'If Government was to be frank with Parliament and the country, what justification would be left for its disastrous Withdrawal Agreement? What would Remainers do without a Project Fear?'

Official says civil service will not allow disorderly Brexit:

'That bias towards certainty & horror of disorder makes civil servants highly conscious of duty to keep both their school run and the country operating smoothly

'They would not sit back & allow economic paralysis'

Not sure what to make of that, looks nonsense tbh.

I can believe that Starmer wants to prevent no deal
not sure about McDonnell - as he is the brains behind JC's Venezuela plans for the UK

17 million people will be a bit more than slightly upset frumpety

But you are right in a way frumpety when you are poor like me it matters not whether we are in or out of EU. And yes it might be worse for the poor out of the EU, but as the poor have nothing worth having anyway they might just say, in for a penny, in for a pound and go all out to full anarchy if their vote is then trashed. If you have nothing anyway you become more risque. Seems the ones really fretting are those with lots to lose. Sometimes it pays to have nothing. Its a lot less worry!

Unless you're literally destitute and on the streets there is always more you can lose - especially if you receive benefits or use the NHS.

I couldn't read the second half of that Telegraph article because of the paywall - is the 'anonymous civil servant' claiming that no deal would be fine because the civil service would sort everything in advance? If so then

{But you are right in a way frumpety when you are poor like me it matters not whether we are in or out of EU.}
But this isn't necessarily true. The EU wouldn't fund you directly but it does assist spending in deprived areas with 'regeneration' funds, either directly or in partnership with the UK government which puts money and opportunity in 'your' area. I find it disappointing that some areas of the UK that have had quite large sums spent to regenerate dilapidated town centres have been area that have voted to leave the EU.

Isn't the civil service supposed to be neutral and carry out the orders of the Government?

As to stopping an economic catastrophe, the CS didn't do so well in 74 or 79 did they?

We don't live in a RL Yes Minister! the CS will do whatever they are told/paid to do.

I don't receive any benefits except pip now as I am severely disabled and after waiting an extra 5 years I'm now a pensioner. But I still have to wait another year for my winter heating allowance because I was born after 5 th November 1953. The pension, which is less than someone born in 2948 because of this and previous Tory governments can't be took away from me unless the government goes bankrupt ( I worked over 40 years, 30 years doing palliative care, last 5 years when I was registered disabled) so earned that by gum! Being as I pay for dgd to get to school by train £300+ a term, buy her books, take her to open days, ferry her to volunteer jobs, ferry her mum to and fro to work, you can say I'm definitely on the brink of destitution. Are you irenethequaint?

I live in one of the most deprived areas in the country and there's no sign of EU money here. But we do have an inordinate amount of carwashes in our town.

And a whacking great harbour that used to cater for over a 100 trawlers. But that all went finally with the last trawler over 5 years ago.......that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the EU could it?

Sostenueto, what worries many of us is that if i.e. food becomes more expensive, it will affect people like you disproportionately more as you are already living on the margin. If there is less money for the NHS due to a shrinking post-Brexit economy, will you not be worse off? If there aren't enough nurses and doctors, will that affect you?

No matter how it pans out, Jacob Rees-Mogg will not lie awake at night wondering how he will be able to afford how to feed the kids.

sos I'm living off benefits with DP. It sounds like you can afford to gamble because you feel your pension is secure.

The issue of fishing is far more complicated than saying 'foreign' fishermen stole the UK industry. Like so many of the older UK industries, putting proper investment in to make it competitive just didn't happen.
With mining and steelworking for example, unions would stamp their feet wanting more money and better conditions while competition overseas was investing in better machinery and undercutting the UK.
Post WW2 Germany and France etc HAD to rebuild from scratch because so much was destroyed. The UK put a sticking plaster on things and continued with outdated technology.

WTF - John Redwood has been given a knighthood in the New Years Honours list

Yes I will be a little worse off smallandfaraway. Yes, my meds are important, I would have to manage more pain if they are unavailable, my life expectancy is on borrowed time anyway, so you could say I'm expendable. Not being able to get my dgd to school is a worry, but I can do without a bit more, after all not being g that active I don't need that much to eat. I donate about £40-50 a month to food banks via food for those a lot worse off. And, come April half my garden with the help of my family is going to be turned into an allotment to grow enough food to feed all my family fruit and veg wise. Might invest in a few chickens too. Now I'm preparing for the worst, and like everyone on here, I don't want a no deal. I have no money saved so have no insulation but I'm not panicked at all. My family and I will pull together, we won't panic buy, and we will try to help others worse off than ourselves if we can at every opportunity. I've lived frugally for a long time, you get used to it. And it will be a while before the better off gave to resort to these measures so no point panicking. Everyone must take one step at a time, sort the real priorities out if worst comes to the worse. You must remember the poor have been poor for a long time under the Tories and they are more resilient than you think. Its the ones who have not known what it is to do without who will have a much harder time when their comforts disappear. That's only my opinion mind...

Unless you are destitute and living on the street, you have something to lose:

pension cuts, disability benefit cuts,
redundancy / wage cuts for any adult kids you have
cuts in their bursaries or courses
working tax credits, child benefit, housing benefit
cuts in free nursery hours, free school meals
price rises, including VAT increases

....that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the EU could it?

There is only so much fish in the sea, UK catches were falling from the 1950s and quotas had to be introduced or we'd have seen similar to what the Newfoundland fishermen experienced, it is hardly the EUs fault that UK Government incompetence gave away the limited quota we should have ended up with.
All euro fisheries have seen cuts too, you need to realise fish do not respect international boundaries, fish move about and we need co-op or they'll be none left.

sos I am sorry for the position you are in but Brexit will make you poorer, perhaps destitute? Leave or Remain all agree on that there will be an economic shock & it doesn't sound like a 5 or10 year recession will help you, falling tax take means more benefit freezes and more means testing!

Ah, Dunkirk. It really did poison the British ability to plan ahead, hasn't it?

Its the ones who have not known what it is to do without who will have a much harder time when their comforts disappear

no forget that, i don't feel sorry for you at all.

The mobile professionals are leaving already
The brain drain will accelerate massively if things get really bad, so it won't be "all in it together"