Westministenders: Conference Cult

[RedToothBrush]

Is it over yet?

The Tory Party Conference is in full swing in the Manchester Rain, and is proving to be its usual fun.

Johnson is caught up in all sorts of allegations of abuses of power - the non-declaration of his "friendship" to a busty blonde whom was getting a large tax payer grant, and then there the Odey question after his sister said he was under the control of the Hedge Funders.

And thats before we talk about the 40 hospitals, his provocative language and how many times he can say the word surrender.

There is lots of distancing from Lyton Crosby. And accusations that Johnson has gone 'rogue' only listening to the wisdom of Cummings and Symonds.

The Queen apparently has asked for advice as to under what circumstance she can dismiss a PM.

AND NO ONE IS EVEN TALKING ABOUT A DEAL.

The GFA had zero profile in the referendum.

I should have known......

Frances Ryan
@DrFrancesRyan
I don’t know, Esther. I think disabled people felt it was pretty “personal” when you were telling the right wing press you’d go after the “bogus disabled” and promptly took the money they needed in order to live.
Quote Tweet

Esther McVey
@EstherMcVey1
· Sep 29
Michael Portillo perfectly sums up how Labour are the ones who personalise politics and really use inflammatory language
#JohnMcdonnell
expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2019/09/29/government-language-not-particularly-inflammatory-michael-portillo/

I give you the No Deal Brexit courtesy of the LibDems

Sky News
@SkyNews
· 10h
.@LibDems leader @joswinson is vetoing a plan - backed by the other parties - to install @jeremycorbyn as a temporary prime minister if @borisjohnson is defeated in a vote of no confidence po.st/11Y2U9

What has the EU ever done for us? EU brings in 'right to repair' rules for appliances

From 2021, firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting, and they will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

Listening to Johnson on R4 this morning was deeply unpleasant.

Highlight of the soft Nick 'Tory-Boy' Robinson interview*

NR - Do you have a woman problem?
BJ - I've always been in favour of women on top.

HE DIDN’T SAY THAT?? Did he??? Oh FFS, really???

"I've always been in favour of women on top" - got to be the next cover of Private Eye surely?

From 2021, firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting, and they will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

Noble ambition, but it misses the fact that a lot of machines now rely on software (starting with the smartphone in your pocket). Is that going to have to be kept updated for 10 years ? Most Android handsets stop receiving updates (if they ever got any) 18 months after purchase.

Also, is it better for the environment to keep older less efficient machines running, rather than moving to more efficient ones ?

Sadly, discussions like this are irrelevant, since I can't see UK manufacturers wanting to invest a penny more than they need to if we are leaving.

Maybe a better initiative would be to somehow get the costs of disposal of some items (thinking fridges) built into the purchase price, so the incentive to festoon the countryside with them is removed ?

I must have zoned out at that bit. Was there a full stop after the word 'top'?

It is definitely better to keep less efficient machines going rather than buying new. By far the biggest cost to the environment is the manufacturing stage. Not only in terms of CO2 and resources but also, when it comes electronics - very specifically mining rare elements for components is hugely damaging to the environment and to the health of the children forced into what amounts to slave labour to do so.

We have to think about the whole life cycle of an object.

I've just had to get a new phone as my old iPhone 4 only ran on iOS 7 and more and more apps were struggling or even not running on it (including, from February next year, WhatsApp )

But on the other hand, the logic board (they think) on my dad's Apple Air laptop - 5ish years old - has just gone and it is being repaired for free under the Sale of Goods Act

I wouldn't normally expect serious sectarian violence in Scotland,
BUT

This govt would have no scruples about a Shoot To Kill policy against - peaceful - civil disobedience
If troops were sent there to squash demos, strikes etc, then imo that could soon spiral out of control

Tony Connelly
@tconnellyRTE
· 12h
BREAKING: the UK has proposed a string of "customs clearance centres" on both sides of the Irish border as a key part of its plan to replace the backstop, RTE News understands. The "centres", effectively customs posts, would be located between 5-10 miles "back" from the border.

My friend had an old 1950s fridge that only stopped working a 3 years ago having never broke down once.. She got in touch with the manufacturer and they gave her a new one free took the old one and put it in their museum! In the last 3 years new fridge broke down no less than 14 times and finally bit the dust last month. That says a lot about modern built goods.

There would be a lot of jobs lost if they built things to last nowadays.. Like phones that won't update just so you will go and buy the new versions. Mugs game.

So its not border controls if its not at the border, I fucking despair today

Most household appliances don't have much or any software.

Software for the various iShinys is a challenge, but so are all the C02 regs for the auto industry, which have cost many billions
Hopefully it will discourage the annual software updates by certain US tech firms which are designed to make old iShiny's obsolete within a couple of years,
in which case it would save consumers having to fork out for new ones so often

Firms will have to obey the law, whether for parts or software

btw, some big US tech firms were among those financing the rightwing Brexit thinktanks,
because of the whopping billion Euro fines that the EU has and will impose when firms deliberately flout EU law.

customs clearance centres" on both sides of the Irish border as a key part of its plan to replace the backstop, RTE News understands

Johnson just denied this personally on Radio 4.

But hey he also implied that the Benn bill was a constitutional impropriety.... Err this from some one who supports:

1. Illegally suspending Parliament.
2. Suppressing impact assessments.

3.Using dodgy campaigning funding and tactics.

NR - Do you have a woman problem?
BJ - I've always been in favour of women on top.

Is it just me, or is that so unpleasant, even Viz would reject it ?

Boris the Sexist eh ?

Somewhere, someone will be working on a Deepfake of that exchange, overlaying "Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink" onto it. And an angel will die.

Another load of Tory bullshit about their 'plan' for NI problem.
Jo Swinson putting party before country just because you don't like Corbyn, same with ex Tories and ex labour and ex change(nothing) party. Your all fucking useless!

Perfect summation stolen from Twitter

“This shit started because some tax-dodging Eton twats hoodwinked an austerity-ravaged nation into thinking their Tory-created misery was really the fault of the EU.

Now they want to repartition this island and restart the Troubles.
Fuck these hateful, callous, lying bastards.”

I can remember my mum or dad taking things like the iron to be repaired at the local electrical shop. New cords put on if they frayed. We were taught to rewire plugs as kids. Things had screws and you could take them apart to fix them. Now everything is a sealed unit and designed to be replaced. Mum has my old iPhone 5 and can no longer access the banking app she uses as it needs iOS 10 or later. She's waiting for me to update my phone so she can have it. I'd quite like the 80s back minus the political and terrorist aspects that marred the decade. I remember those years as Thatcher and scargill, miners strikes, the IRA bombs, plane hijacks, Kuwait. Nothing changes much really does it? Our problems just evolve with time but the core issues remain.

PMK

So its not border controls if its not at the border, I fucking despair today

A bit like saying it’s only a hat when I wear it on my head. Otherwise it’s a coat.

No chance that the EU would back down on the main WA terms
Ridiculous that the British media keep publishing fantasies about this.

BJ / Cummings have never been serious about a deal, because:

• Farage & half the ERG would always have attacked any deal as surrender AND
• Brexiter objections are not just about the backstop, but also about all the "level playing field " rules that stop the "Bonfire of Red Tape" / all the rights gained since 1945.

All this froth about deals & backstop is just about Brexiters trying to shift blame for the disaster after No Deal.

The media should be doing its job, instead of indulging govt fantasies and ridiculous propoganda