Westminstenders: Frozen

[RedToothBrush]

Boris Johnson was empty chaired by C4 with a block of ice.

The Conservatives went mental and have threatened to look at C4 broadcast remit.

This is illiberal and anti democratic.

Journalists are supposed to hold power to account on behalf of the public. If MPs don't turn up then they can't be held to account.

They have a duty to show. It's not good enough to avoid scrutiny because it might make you look bad. That's the whole point.

The contempt with which Johnson holds the press and public is reprehensible and you should be concerned whatever your political alligence. It allows corruption to fester without consequence.

And to then threaten C4 because they do their job in line with their responsibility as a broadcaster is alarming.

This is how authoritarian dictators work.

Albania maybe can get a Deal with the UK, without waiting several years for the EU to accept us in.

What do you think the UK would want from Albania for a trade deal, and what exactly would they be offered? I am genuinely curious. Some while ago a leading Brexiter in Government was trumpeting about a trade deal with the Faroes, and I thought well, apart from some chunky knitwear and some fish, what can a small country like that offer?

Ahem... the Faroes aren't even a country as recognised by the UN ,as they say on Pointless.

I put white other MShip. My DM is American. I am not White British. I consider my DCs WBRI. They have never even been to the US.

pretty That video was

Hate In the current climate, asking our nationality or residence on MN, has normally been a prelude to indignantly criticising us - UK or E27 expats - for posting about Brexit and / or voting in the UK

Looking at the massive jump in EE economies like Poland after joining the EU, Albania would also greatly benefit from EU membership

Do you oppose Albanian membership ?
If not, why oppose British membership - is it because you think Albania will get a quicker trade deal with the UK ?

The UK will have to negotiate new trade deals with all the major economies first and has very few trained negotiators.
It will take at least 20 years to get round to all the countries

BJ will prioritise the EU and USA, then Canada, India, China ....
Realistically, Albania will be at the bottom of the list

• and I doubt if the UK will be offering Albania large development subsidies, which are what super-charged economies like Poland.

The Uk will need all its development money at home.

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall

Fascinating how Rishi Sunak describes Brexit,
part of a wider shift in government rhetoric on the subject we’ve seen recently:

“we must get Brexit behind us so we can grow the economy.”

I thought Brexit was the thing which would grow it?

#ITVDebate

Money talks louder than merit

Benjamin Butterworth@benjaminbutter

Rishi Sunak describing himself as an example of Britain's meritocracy because his parents are migrants.

What he doesn't mention is that he went to a £40k a year school
and is married to the daughter of a billionaire venture capitalist,
who he worked for before becoming an MP.

Rather, that under two tiered systems it ends up that higher socioeconomic folks get to pay for better care whilst lower socio economic folks get the less experienced, less skilled. Two tier systems tend to cream off the better doctors.

I don’t think that’s true actually. Paying doesn’t get you better care it gets you longer appointments more quickly. It creams off doctors who want to earn a lot, not necessarily who are better. There are countless truly excellent doctors who stay within the health service.

It’s safer to have surgery at an NHS hospital as private hospitals don’t necessarily have intensive care facilities, equipment or medical support for complications. If something goes horribly wrong, they put patients in an ambulance and send them to A&E. Equally their safety standards may not be as high. This is a particular issue now the NHS is farming out surgery to private hospitals.

An NHS consultant is an employee of that hospital and the hospital is liable for anything that happens to their patients. But private hospital consultants are not employees as such. Thus private hospitals can avoid liability if something goes wrong - if it does the consultant’s insurer pays. This means private hospitals don’t have a major financial incentive to minimise risks.

Yes - born in Britain - always put White British on the forms (I used to put Prefer Not To Say). But now I'm too old, to deny what I am, although mostly I'll still put White British on the forms.

Pere - depends what the UK wants - there's a lot of minerals here; although I think given the UK people's preference to escape their foul weather and decamp to the Med there's something there that Albania can offer - way cheaper than the Costas too.

And skiing - the Accursed Mountains (for that is their name) are pretty much The Alps.

Maybe you are only interested in what the UK can get out of a deal with Albania and would prefer to keep them out of the EU you wish to stay in. Maybe in 10 or so years when the EU accepts Albania you will think differently. Meanwhile.....

I think the deal with the Faroes is something to do with keeping Appledore Shipyard open - saving local skilled jobs in an area of high unemployment. But that's in North Devon, so probably as far removed from you and your life as Albania is.

TheMShip - I also find the ethnicity question interesting/difficult.

Genetically, I'm a Heinz57: German, Irish, French (Huguenot), Swedish, Danish, English, South African (but probably all of the preceding nationalities), Scottish (only recently discovered I had a smidgeon in my background), Australian (but mostly English - but that's where the bit of Scots comes in)....

I usually now answer either Scottish (if I'm feeling particularly strongly Scottish at the time - or it's particularly relevant) or "White European" - but will occasionally answer "White African" if that's an option, as that's where my dad's family had been for over 200 years and is where I was born.

I once tried to do the mathematical percentages and think it came out that "white Germanic" was the biggest proportion

Does BJ disown all 2010-2019 Tory govts, including the ones in which he was a minister ?

Tamara Cohen@tamcohen

Boris Johnson’s answers to all these questions about the Conservatives’ record over the last nine years is to say he’s only been in power for 3-4 months.

(The MP and foreign secretary years don’t seem to count)

Hate the Faroe Islands are politically part of Denmark, which is in the EU... So there will not be a separate deal with the Faroe Islands, will there? Am I right in thinking you want Albania to be in the EU, but you want the UK not to be in the EU? How do you explain that logic?

"Maybe you are only interested in what the UK can get out of a deal with Albania and would prefer to keep them out of the EU you wish to stay in. "

Remainers are NOT trying to keep out Albania, or Albanians

Leavers tend to be against East European immigrants, including Albanians, but I've never heard of them being bothered - or aware - about Albania's application

Albania's application tends to be something only hopeless nerds like Westministenders (!) are even aware of

Yes, I know that the Faroes are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, as is Greenland, which so far is the only place to have left the EU. This took three years, so why anyone thinks the UK can do it in less than that is beyond me.

But Greenland presumably has a sort of half in half out status?

It is likely that BJ has never had a thought about Albania and won't have one while he is PM

BCF - when you're the poorest country in Europe it doesn't really matter if the Deal comes from the EU or the UK - it's likely that the UK will go first.

Albania has many good qualities, that needs more attention paid, the cheap shot would be that Mother Theresa was Albanian. The other extreme would note that whilst ISIS tried to get in there they got kicked out (sometimes a mafia can be handy).

It's actually one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. Go google it.

Unfortunately for Albania, Brexit will most likely put paid to accession to the EU in the foreseeable future. As U.K. influence wanes and then disappears, French influence is on the rise, and Macron is against expansion.

"Greenland presumably has a sort of half in half out status?"

Yep
The Kingdom of Denmark consists of: Denmark, Faroe Islands & Greenland.

Greenland is an OCT (Overseas Countries and Territories) of the EU
It receives EU development subsidies and is within the EU common external tariff, with high SM integration & access

It's citizens are EU citizens and iirc can even vote, as part of Denmark, in the EP elections

Maybe you are only interested in what the UK can get out of a deal with Albania and would prefer to keep them out of the EU you wish to stay in. Maybe in 10 or so years when the EU accepts Albania you will think differently. Meanwhile.....

I have no problem with Albania wanting to join. I don't know why you should think this. I genuinely don't know a lot about the country, because it had been so closed off to Western Europe until Hoxha went.

So there will not be a separate deal with the Faroe Islands, will there?
It was me who mentioned the Faroes, and I can't now remember for the life of me, which person was trumpeting the trade deal we had already done/were about to sign/might have talked about/ but with the best will in the world, trade with them is never going to compensate for trade lost from France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Not sure about pretty or anyone else on here, but to me 🎶 or Scroll on By signals I haven't got the mental energy to engage with those that I believe are posting to goad, gloat or otherwise post not in good faith. Not because I'm rude or don't want to talk to people I disagree with.

'At least, if Brexit starts (we all realize it's not getting Done straightaway)

But 'we' don't all realise that do 'we'? Because 'we' keep being told by Johnson that Brexit will be done on 31st January and 'we' still want to believe him, even though he does nothing but lie.

It doesn't help that I work in genomics, so I'm well aware that we definity aren't genetically British, and the diversity forms are a crude way of getting at those groupings. I find it so confusing, what do you put?

Your post highlights so well why ethno- nationalism is a ridiculous concept! We're all mixed to an extent, trying to put people into boxes is the way to hell as far as I'm concerned.

Tory Fibs
@ToryFibs
·
55m
Humongous Labour Policy just announced

• Labour will CUT RAIL FARES by 33% from this January
• This will save average commuters £1,096 a year
• Labour will introduce free rail for those under 16
• Labour will introduce a fair fare scheme for our part time workers

Sorry, how are Labour going to cut fares by one third?

Scroll on by 🎶🎵🎵🎶