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.

BigChocFrenzy
That doesn't mean I wouldn't like him.
I joke about the whole thing myself, you have to laugh or you'd cry. But I don't think that makes us a "laughing stock".

Pmk

Megan maybe you also need to see how things are inthe uk outside you ur very protected environment.
I’m in the north. People here wait 3 weeks for an appointment even when it’s urgent. Numerous people get ‘telephone consultation’ where they dint even see a GP and get given medication that aren’t always suitable.
Schools are appalling (that’s why my two dcs are in private school. At great expense and only because my non british parents are paying). Both in what they can offer and in the attitude towards learning. I have described what the dcs state school was on here before and have been told ‘to stop telling lies and repeating what I read in trash newspapers as no school is as bad as that’ Except that it was a true description of what it was for them.

Add the fact it’s extremely insular. And voted leave because of all the immigrants (when there are very few of them around).
I’m sure you can imagine who it is to live there as an immigrant (think my british dcs told to ‘go back home’ because they also have second citizenship and it’s the ONLY thing that is ever remembered. They are not seen as British.

I coud add the refusal to do some checks on a growth ‘because it wasn’t giving any symptoms’. It turned out to be cancer.
No treatment for a gall bladder full of stones (that then created serious issue with the liver)
No support in diet change for diabetes etc etc.

Seriously, what you are describing has nothing do with the experience if the a LOT (if not the majority) of people.
And that has a lot to do with the fact more money ha been spent in a local levels (both for the NHS and schools) in areas that are wealthy (and in less need for support in those areas) than in the poorer areas in the U.K.

I get that anyone watching the pantomime in parliament would be forgiven for thinking they are a bunch of clowns. But in some way I think it's a fairly robust democratic process that will play itself out and no matter how worried I am, I try to keep about a quarter of my brain separate enough from the process to enjoy the show. Any outcome is still possible - even withdrawal of Article 50, or an improvement at the 11th hour to TM's deal - and in that case, we may yet say that the process was fit for purpose. We're in the midst of it now so it's horribly uncomfortable and likely to get even worse before it gets better.
I'm just not negative about the UK the way some on these threads are and I don't think my non British friends are either.

Honestly if I met an AMERICAN who sneered at me for being British I would be incandescent. I'd rather have Brexit than Trump.

I think British people are good at laughing at themselves and have made an art of it.
Other countries don’t, especially when it’s nit about them but about other countries.

Someone who is laughing at the british/Brexit who isn’t british (or living in the uk etc...) is laughing at the uk.
They dint need to ‘laugh otherwise they would cry’ as it doesnt affect them.
They dint need to laugh at themselves as it’s not about them.
They just think the whole thing is a farce. And with very good reasons.

After all, if WE think our politicians are a joke, why wouldn’t anyone else everywhere in the world??

Et Voila Brexit
I know (and stated above) that healthcare is a postcode lottery. My comments above were about comparing Germany to the UK. I probably do live in one of the wealthier parts of the UK, but we lived in the wealthiest parts of Germany too, and my in laws are all across southern Germany. So my point was effectively comparing like for like, Germany to England.
You are making an entirely different point about wealth being unevenly distributed throughout the UK, which I agree with.

But in some way I think it's a fairly robust democratic process

You see I believe, like other politicians, commentators etc..., that Brexit is actually showing the collapse of the british political system by showing all the issues that are wrong with it.
And by leaving the door wide open to politicians acting like dictators do.

Eg
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-seekers-home-office-zimbabwe-immigration-embassy-political-persecution-africa-a8675571.html
Home Office invites Zimbabwean officials to interrogate asylum seekers who have fled political persecution

Note the close collaboration between Britain and a repressive regime on people who have fled said repressive regime.....

My pointbwasnt about complaring different areas.

My point was that it’s not because your experience is different that yours is right and BCF is wrong.

If you want to compare, then you need to compare country to country. Average care in the country to average care.
Because otherwise you only have a snap shot that can be very far from the reality.

I find it interesting for example that you expect a postcode lottery to happen and wealthiest areas in Germany to be doing better than others.
I dont expect that in France. I dint expect that anywhere tbh.

Mother.
It is worth a quick check of your route for GJ protests if you can, or are particularly worried about it. I went across Belgium a couple of weeks back on a Friday and Tuesday and it was fine but that was before the big stuff in Paris. I have not been anywhere far in 'my' bit of France so don't know what the real situation is except cars, probably fewer, have vests on the dash.

My extended family in the NE are fervent Leavers, of the "just Leave" and "Remoaner Project Fear" kind

Their area has suffered dreadfully for decades wrt grotty housing, grotty hospitals, grotty schools,
shocking waits for GP - 6 weeks once ffs ! - several months for ops
("you have no idea what life here is like, BigChoc")

I can understand why they just want a reset button,
because their coummunities have been neglected for so long and damaged for so long by policies laid down by smug wealthy people in London.

Brexit will make the NE worse off in all impact projections,
but when a country neglects whole regions so badly and neglects the poor, don't be surprised at the angry uprising.
(my family aren't poor, but their service users & many in their communities are)

PMK.

❤

Just sayin ....
I have a Blue Passport .... it comes with a trump

I am sad that both of my countries are dysfunctional

Seems the govt want Dr's to lie to their patients.

twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/1076138724981907463?s=19

6 weeks to see a GP, that's quick!
Before I moved, to see a nurse for a blood sample was 5 weeks.
For me to see a 'specialist' for an initial check took 8 months, or would have done but I managed househunting and all the 'excitement' of moving abroad and got the keys to my house in France on the day I was due to see the specialist.

Happy Christmas, 🎄 MrsR8
and a Revokeful & Happy New Year

Ha, leclerc I see the GP same day
If she wants bloods, she just send me downstairs to their lab, where the nurse takes it, sends it off and we are discussing the results within a week !

TBH I live in a v poor part of the UK (yes its in the south but its poor)
my GP has 14 doctors and delivers prescriptions by the van load
but our local hospital is world leading

the problem in the NHS is

• money
• not sharing best practice

and that is common all over

US agribusiness lobbyists paid for trip by David Davis

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/21/us-agribusiness-lobbyists-paid-for-trip-by-david-davis

The E Foundation worked with UK thinktank on Brexit and is alleged to favour weakening EU food regulations
.....
The E Foundation attracted attention this year when undercover reporters from Greenpeace’s investigative unit, Unearthed,
recorded its director saying that he aimed to raise thousands of dollars from US donors too* campaign on Brexit.

< the US-Brexit connections are everywhere >

I find it interesting for example that you expect a postcode lottery to happen and wealthiest areas in Germany to be doing better than others.

I don't expect/condone it either.

Shanker Singham is the 'expert' that Farage interviewed on his radio show a few days back that a PP was saying was 'proof' that Brexiting was a good idea. A trip to Oklahoma to discuss hormone beef, accompanying D Davis

Brexit here in the U.S. simply isn't on most people's radar. They carry blips about it on the national news, it simply isn't a major headliner.

Business people are no doubt aware of it as would be travelers to Europe for business or pleasure. Now if it is explained to an average American then the response is bound to be one of being appalled rather than one of laughter.

Countries around the world have formed trading blocs to give themselves certain advantages and certainly greater clout when dealing with other trading blocs.

The idea of leaving a trading bloc especially one that is so close by in order to go it alone doesn't make a lot of sense to most people.

I know it's a connection which has been made before but worth repeating to any conservative leave voter: the motivation behind brexit (the politicians I mean) was tax avoidance. That's it. And to think people are not having adequate services in schools and hospitals when others refuse to contribute their fair share is disgusting! To think this pile of fuming horse crap is causing a recession and many people to lose their jobs now and in the next few months is disgusting!

thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/the-brexit-undertones-of-the-eus-impending-anti-tax-avoidance-legislation/21/06/?utm_source=marfeelpush