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.

I know about the cuts to benefits scenario hence turning my garden into an allotment!

Unless you live in a property with a very large garden and you can afford to invest in machinery your dreams of feeding a family from a vegetable patch are going to be dashed.

I also find it very odd that someone who boasts about their good deeds with one breath, celebrates the idea that others will experience hardship with the next.

While you can't feed yourself from your garden (I'm a prepper and a veg gardener), you can certainly grow some stuff even in containers on a balcony or a window ledge.
Spuds, spinach - the young leaves for salad - and cherry tomatoes all grow in containers. I know because I did it for years. It won't feed your family obviously but it's better than nothing and kids enjoy it.

And I read about the no Deal ferries. I fear that we will still need more news like this before numpties twig that it isn't Project Fear.

I am not sure what plans if any the UK would have for fuel distribution in case of a national emergency.

Something that @BigChocFrenzy said earlier about trains running made me wonder about that. The UK does have fuel stocks (as it is required to do as an EU member) but about half of these stocks are physically located outside the UK (eg held by suppliers in Europe).

I think that a no deal Brexit would likely require fuel rationing, which is another reason why it won't happen. It won't have escaped anyone's notice that the sort of people who are attracted to yellow jacket type protests are also the same people that get really touchy about their right to unlimited use of a personal vehicle.

It won't feed your family obviously but it's better than nothing and kids enjoy it.

Yes, nothing wrong with it, but without a big investment of land, time and energy it won't make much difference to your diet. I did the self-sufficiency thing in France for a number of years - we had about 100sqm of land given over to veggies and soft fruit but were only self sufficient for a small proportion of the year. And we were young and fit and knew what we were doing.

I agree @Mistigri - absolutely pointless even considering you can be self sufficient. I always make sure I have at least half a tank of fuel in the car.
I had a sick parent 60 miles away during the fuel strike problems a while ago. It was not jolly.

I can't imagine John Redwood either working to help children or tackle discrimination. It's hard to imagine what he could have done to get a knighthood.

The thing about the No Deal ferries situation is that they didn't even go out to tender. That shows how ill-prepared they are. 10% extra capacity won't cut it either. It's not going to be a magic panacea - it's just going to spread the queuing misery further.

I imagine that TM hopes that Redwood will be so overcome with his elevation that he will STFU.
I worked in the fishing industry in the late 1970s and even then boats were being sold to other European concerns because UK operators would or could not make the investment required to develop their businesses.
Yes, the poor have always been with us. Generally living in miserable conditions and dying young. Any reduction in living standards will inevitably hit the poor hardest and should be avoided. Everyone has something to lose.
Living off the land requires a lot of it and good physical health to do the work, plus the means to survive the lean times. I expect the past year, with its extremes of weather, would have been rough for self sufficiency.
Anyone with children or grandchildren - particularly those who have invested love, time and money towards their future success - should be very concerned for their futures and should be lobbying like crazy to stop this present madness. Giving up is giving up on them.

Does May think that preparing (half-heartedly) for no deal, that she will bring the extreme right of her party on board? I think she's wasting her time; their attitude is bring it on - they will have enough money to ride out the storm.

Yes, the poor are always with us, but after WW2 there was at least a will to try to make things better for society.

Seems no-deal is being normalised

Do you think it is normalising or maybe project reality?
I’m going to up my prepping in the new Year but in my heart of hearts I don’t believe we will get a no deal Brexit.

sos
I’m not sure I agree with you about the poor being resilient. I come from and still live near a very deprived area. The average age of death for a man is 66, drug use and alcoholism is rife. There is a huge problem with lack of aspiration. It doesn’t seem like a very resilient place to me.

Sos is just like the soldier in Monty Plthon who has their arm chopped off : “ it’s only a scratch!”

Reading these threads for a while, I have learnt who to ignore and whose to read.

Pithon? Python !

All this talk of growing food, the "resiliency" of the poor....

It makes me want to cry

WHY are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we having to plan to grow our own veg? WHY is all this money being spent on prepping for Brexit, when we were told we would MAKE money on it (all that money going to the NHS, remember)?

Talk about shifting the goal post... we are in a new fucking game now

WHY are we doing this to ourselves?

Why indeed? It's not as though another country has declared war on us.
Why aren't the Leavers on this thread, screaming blue murder against Johnson, Gove, Farage and Co about how they have betrayed them?

WhatdoImean yep the Government and media are treating all this as some sort of external, uncontrollable threat, stuck on a conveyor belt.... no one is questioning why we are doing this and how easily May could stop it all, even her deal is little more than a can kicking exercise.

But when you listen to MPs or the Home Sec who seem to think that more patrol boats will stop the flow of migrants crossing the channel, that the french will help us or we can somehow return them to france, its all very easy to see why we are in this self inflicted mess.

I like to keep an eye on the Vile and the Torygraph to see how their readerships are being influenced. I noticed that these are the only two newspapers that chose to put an ‘ increasing’ migrant 'crisis' on their front pages. What is the agenda here?

I have loads of questions -as it seems odd.The press are now reporting this differently. Blaming the Home Secretary after years of blaming the EU. Why?

It can't be be some purported retrospective justification for Brexit can it as it's not linked? ? Does illegal immigration of these poor men and women by boat really justify a hostile environment towards legal EU arrivals? Why are the boats headlines now, when it was lorries before? Why is there a new focus on the Home sec and the U.K. lack of resources? Why is this? Is it a half baked press attempt to acknowledge we always had control of our borders?( Because we always bloody did.) The EU and the French are not being criticised now after decades of criticising them.

We have been told the main reason we are trashing our economy is because of immigration ( or in fact persistent lack of understanding about the benefits of immigration including EU legal migration).

Can any lurking or posting leavers who acknowledge they were at least partially motivated by immigration explain their feelings now? Will Brexit prevent or increase incidents like this or will they be the same ? Why is it being reported differently?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/28/sajid-javid-declares-major-incident-number-migrants-trying-cross/

Sorry jasjas I cross posted. There's basically some kind of change of press emphasis about illegal immigration attempts and I don't get what the agenda is.

The press are now reporting this differently. Blaming the Home Secretary after years of blaming the EU. Why?

Two possible reasons - the kindest one is that the editor of the Heil has changed. The unkind one is that the Home Secretary is a Muslim, so of course, it's his fault.

That's really interesting Peregrina I thought of your first reason for the Daily Vile change of tack, but hadn't thought of your second reason.

Well the press will have a hard task painting Sajid Javid as a soft touch.

We have been told the main reason we are trashing our economy is because of immigration

I strongly believe this was what motivated our older relatives that voted to leave. I won’t deign to post the racist term obe of them used over Christmas.

As an anti-immigration tactic, crashing the economy so we can’t afford a social safety net and public services and are returned to Victorian times might be successful long term strategy to deter migrants but a tad nihilistic for most of the population.

Brexit hasn't happened yet, so I am going to continue to put all my energy into stopping it. What else would I do? I'm certainly not going to support any part of the Brexit clusterfuck process

And if it does happen, I will put my energy back into pushing for Scottish independence - so that we are not pulled down by the fuck up that will be FUKD

So there is something I am doing.

I've already offered space in my garden for English refugees not told dh yet though

{"The fact that this money is predominantly going to European companies is nothing short of ironic, reducing Britain to a laughing stock on the global stage." }
And as reported, not going to the usual tendering process. Even if there is a 'deal' the ferry companies get to keep a chunk of the £107.7 Million that is proposed for 'no deal'.
The government will also be recouping the money for this, presumably by food price hikes. Do I see the ERG mob putting their hands up and saying they will fund this from their 'Brexit bonus' ,,,,,,,,no !
Don't forget, 17.4 Million voted for this mess, why are they not being taken to task?
See also Flanders and Swann, 'The cannibal song'.