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.

Just seen this on Twitter. Interesting statistics.

Susan Filthy-Remoaner 🍑 🍒 🍌 🇪🇺
‏*@shushitssusan*

In England the top 6 Remain seats (same aource) are - make of it what you will

Bristol West : 84.7% Debonnaire (anti PV)
Hackney North: 84.4% Abbott
Islington North: 84.3% Corbyn
Streatham: 83.9% Umuna
Hackney South: 82.9% Hillier
Vauxhall: 81.6% Hoey

twitter.com/shushitssusan/status/1076949424318885888

@redtoothbrush and any other keen readers of political lit - who haven't yet read this

Recommended: Excellent book for the New Year,
I should have read this when it came out years ago - it would have explained the background of hard right economics & prepared me in advance about what strategies to watch for

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

either free pdf
focalizalaatencion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/tsd_nk.pdf

or £1.99 Kindle on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shock-Doctrine-Rise-Disaster-Capitalism-ebook/dp/B003KVKQB4

"Klein doesn't try to show any sort of 'hidden' group of people in secret rooms who mumble strange mantras together,
but highlights various political figures and events, from Pinochet's Chile through Reagan and Thatcher, to Iraq, and shows a common ethos and philosophy that will shock you.

There are some links between these people but not like they all belong to some secret club.
Their agendas just happen to be from the same mindset and political stable."

I have a copy...

... Just have to read it

(I'm terrible atm. I was hoping to do some reading over Christmas but has not happen)

DH bought a while back for me on recommendation from a friend

If you want to know who's doing well out of Brexit: 🤔

Hedge-funders / gamblers like Tory & Leave donor Crispin Odey who bet against UK businesses and Sterling
e.g. £220 million profit for a 900k donation to Leave 🤔

Think carefully before you side with people who make hundreds of millions each,
when Sterling / UK businesses / UK bonds plummet in value

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/28/crispin-odey-hedge-fund-bets-against-uk-economy-brexit-profit-falls

Odey was one of the most prominent supporters of the drive to leave the EU and donated almost £900,000 to pro-Brexit campaigns.

He placed huge bets against the pound and government bonds
in the run-up to the June 2016 referendum
and made an estimated £220m profit when the pound collapsed following the leave victory.

The day after the vote, he told the BBC: “There’s that Italian expression – ‘Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca’ (the morning has gold in its mouth) and never has one felt so much that idea as this morning.”

Odey has boasted that each day of Brexit-related political crisis is a “good day” for him and his hedge fund.
“I have had a good day,” he told the Times last month, on a day when the pound fell 2%.
“Bad days tend to be good days for us.”

Well, red I've heard of it a few times, read the reviews, so I have just bought it
Let's get stuck in this NY

BBC News Press Teamm@BBCNewsPR*

The #BBCC^ has written to the Russian authorities to raise concerns about the apparent leak of personal information about its Moscow staff.
Statement from @bbcworldservice Director Jamie Angus @grvlx001

I find Odey's outlook simply obscene. The man has no shame!

Isn't that the blood sucking elite?

Queenie I think the sentiment also comes from frustration.

There are people who have done 'all the right things', as in saved, worked hard and long hours, missed time with family by sacrificing to work and earn money, got an education, saved their own pension who have be unfortunate in how economic conditions have meant they haven't benefited in the way they were led to believe they would.

It's stuff like being sensible and not making high risk investments which they see having been bailed out (ppi is a good one) or buying their own home whilst seeing someone on benefits in the same area living in a bigger property. I can certainly think of a family who we know locally who fall into that category and the parents are a total waste of space (he can't hold a job cos he doesn't bother to turn up) - I would not like to be in their position but I can see how others might resent them for it. Losing your pension because of situations like BHS or being of a certain age and the retirement age being adjusted.

I do think there is a problem in the sense that you can be working poor or a JAM as May calls it, that there doesn't seem to be a fairness about it all.

That's not to say that there aren't people who should not be supported by the state better because of things that are no fault of their own, it's just this idea that work should bring reward and security and its presently just not at the moment for certain sections of society.

That is the result of a structural failing somewhere and failed policies. It's not anywhere as simple as its made out to be to fix (though does often centre around house ownership issues)

And its a point of view that's shared by parts of both the left and right though in different ways.

It does need to be addressed but simple political promises and the quick fix seduction of popularism are not going to be the way to do it.

I certainly get why people feel the way they do about the concept of 'deserving' but it's not the whole story.

tanith can I vote for you please?

mrs8 no one can doubt your commitment and hard work to help others

Prettybird are you me ?

Even in the late 80s, I was annoyed at Thatcher for reducing the basic rate of taxation, as I recognised that if we/I wanted decent levels of spending on the NHS, education and benefits, then we needed to be prepared to pay taxes for them. And this despite the fact that as a young, single, healthy relatively high earner, I wasn't making direct use of education, health or benefit spending - but knew that one day I would be.

Later, as a higher rate tax payer, I was equally prepared to pay more in tax - because I could afford it smile. Higher rate tax payers now pay more in Scotland than they do in England - yet when it came into force, the BBC was hard pushed to find higher rate payers who objected to it (you could tell that they'd tried really hard wink as the strongest criticism that they could find was along the lines of "I'd rather not pay more but if it means better services for those that work for me and it's being well spent, I'll tolerate it"

RTB I fully agree about the fed up feeling.
But surely this affects EVERYONE, regardless of the country or the income??

I also find it interesting that it leads to this idea of ‘deserving people’ in the U.K. I’ve never seen that in France for example.
Which tells me there are other cultural mindsets involved there.

For me this is closer to the American idea of the ‘deserving rich’ which is rooted in religion rather than not getting what you thought you would have after working so hard.

I got a letter from the Tory MP in my part of the world who has kindly put pressure on DWP for the way they have treated me this past year. He enclosed a full apology from them written to him admitting their failures regarding me. I'm waiting for an apology from them directly to me. Think I may have a long wait.

I meant to add he is currently awash with complaints about pip and universal credit. DIAL my local disability advice centre has a 12 week waiting list for appointments as people are being reassessed to change from DLA to PIPS. You only get a month to send form back so people having to ask for extensions etc. The benefit system a shambles. We have had suicides in our area over benefits being denied to severely disabled or those with mental illness too. This will now be even worse as its rolled out across the country.

Quiet,

I know he is greatly disliked in the UK, but Donald Trump made a very good point in one of his books. He was talking about Ivan Boesky getting busted for insider trading and being sent to prison.

Donald laid out three hypothetical choices. There is a deal that is both legal and moral and you can make 50 million from it. There is another deal that is legal but immoral and people will hate you for it but you can make 100 million from it. There is another deal that is illegal and immoral and people will hate you for it but you can make 200 million from it but you risk going to prison for it and possibly losing everything.

Donald argued, why shouldn't you be happy with the 50 million dollar deal?

If you are going to do something as creepy as what Crispin Odey has done, you should have the sense to not brag about it on camera.

And that from a man who is going full throttle on coal mining AND is determined to get rid of the legislation in place for coal mines to reduce the release of mercury into the atmosphere. Trump has no concept of what is immoral.

Quiet that's the point, it doesn't effect everyone equally. If you can't afford what is seen as basic then you'll resent it more than others, simply as you can't afford the basics. Or if you feel you have shouldered the fall out from others taking risks, but they ultimately have not been any worse off for it, you'll resent it more.

I think the Trump thing above is very interesting. Its almost as if Trump started out thinking the 50 million option was best, but quickly realised that since others were perusing the 100 million that he might as well join them and ultimately he realised that there weren't actually any consequences to the 200 million option: the deterrent of prison and consequences to dispicable actions didn't actually exist - particularly to those who were rich enough or brass balled enough to brasen it out...

And look where we are.

2bees - I don't know. Are you a middled aged , Indy supporting Glaswegian?

Harry Cole @mrharrycole
In tomorrow’s MoS:
💥 Sajid on the ropes
💥 Hunt on our Singapore style Brexit future
💥 May’s plan to get Deal over line
💥Tory Nicola Blackwood set for shock return to Health via a peerage next week

Singapore deal... And the Javid story is an another migrant outrage story...

Axel Antonio @ antoni_uk
What crisis? Have I missed something? Germany saw almost 1m crossing the green borders in 2015. And coped. We are talking 121 people here. And the Home Office, print press & TV stations are going into meltdown. The UK is the laughing stock of the world right now. Seriously.

More brazening... Bet Javids back because he's losing ground to Hunt in the leadership competition...

James Felton @jimmfelton
"Sorry kids, holiday's cancelled, daddy's got to go do some xenophobia"

"Can't it wait, papa?"
"No boy, 12 people failed to get in by boat, you know that means daddy has to appease some racists urgently."

About the sum total of it.

That's an interesting insight xebob. I can see how these people think, and moral obviously doesn't come into it. Call me naive and old fashioned but when all moral goes, when that despicable outlook wins then what's the point of anything? That's not civilisation, it's hell.

AIBU has a thread: "we should turn back the boats"
Some people sound angry / scared even on MN