Westminstenders: 10 day count down

[RedToothBrush]

10 days to go...

... Wake me up when the shit show is over.

Missed attached image.

An ageing population with an under funded social care system, a struggling NHS and fewer people willing to do the care jobs is going to raise serious questions about the future. Coupled with the rise in people still needing to work in the future to pay for their mortgages, or who still need to rent, adult children who give up work to look after their older parents and it's an issue that can't be swept under the carpet.

It's not going to pay for itself.

The low tax model is broken - even Singapore is having to raise taxes and pensions

Hopefully the UK and the USA will get governments who use evidence rather than belief to make decisions

"The vast majority of Waspi women aren’t middle class and affluent. Remember less than 10% are graduates. Many have worked in low paid jobs since they were 16,"

Or even since they were 15? School leaving age was raised to 16 in 1972, so I suppose it depends on the age of the cohort.

Thank you for the link. dreich

I'm doing it later. I predict - drum roll - Labour / Green split.

My mum left school at 15, my mil at 15.

My mum at 14 that should read!

For the Scottish GC feminists among us, have you seen the FWR discussion on issues of single sex provision in schools? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3759741-ScotGov-new-schools-guidance

I'm feeling somewhat affirmed in having voted Labour - their manifesto at least showed glimmers of understanding in comparison to this from the SNP which appears to be completely ignoring the needs of women and girls.

My late dad left school and started ft work on his 14th birthday, to help feed the family.
However, this was in the 1930s

iirc it was the 1945 Labour govt that raised school leaving age to 15
It was still 15 when I was at school
Most girls I knew left then.

This photo!

twitter.com/jensstoltenberg/status/1201958901790494721

Can't do the photo as a file.

Our world is not equal! (But I love the guy sitting at the end, legs crossed)

Get Brexit done clearly means we will no longer be a member of the EU after January 31st.

A bit of cheer.

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/polling-mastermind-john-curtice-says-underestimated-remain-vote-will-decide-election-1-6407100?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social_Icon&utm_campaign=in_article_social_icons

Astonished that the I came out as 100% Green on that checker (although I only chose 3 policy areas)

Still going to vote Labour.

TheElementsSong
prising my eyelids open with carefully extended claws
Holy crap, I’ve been trying to persuade DH to get a cat, but reading this anecdote I’m having second thoughts.

Holy crap, I’ve been trying to persuade DH to get a cat, but reading this anecdote I’m having second thoughts.

I adore my sister's cat and love it when she comes to stay (my flat is her holiday home whilst her mum (my sister) goes on an actual holiday) but when she starts aggressively kissing and head rubbing for her breakfast at 4 in the morning I am rudely reminded why cat ownership is not for me. The bunnies get fed when I feed them - and they don't make a fuss. (they make a mess - but not a fuss)

I got an exact 3 way split

33.3% Labour
33.3%, LibDem
33..3% Green

I’m much more green than i thought.

If my cats get very pissed off at the lack of food, they have been known to leave headless rats next to the bed. As a warning.

Nothing like a little blood and guts to start your day. It has rendered most horror films pointless, though.

Our old tart softy had velvet paws: there was as only one occasion he would use his claws, in fact only a single claw, on me only never dh , on my bare back, to get me to lift the duvet so that he could get under the covers

The current boys also have velvet paws - and don't ever ask to go under the cover

They are however the most vocal of the Siamese we've had over the years even for Siamese especially when they lie want food

The electorate tends not to vote for people and parties who hate and despise them, generally speaking...

Of course they do. How else do you explain the fact that the Tories are one of the main parties in Britain?

HMQ squashed between manspreaders in that Stoltenberg Twitter photo

The electorate tends not to vote for people and parties who hate and despise them, generally speaking...of course they do

In my (usual) early morning insomnia I was pondering why in Britain we do vote for self punishment.

Why is there a weird sort of masochistic self flagellation. Why vote to damage our economy by riling a successful trading bloc on our doorstep? Why demote ourselves from the 5 th richest country in the world? Why vote for a resurgent political class who do not believe in the common good?

In pondering this and messing about on the Internet I found this article. It was written a decade before the referendum. Practically every sentence in it explains why the majority of the population think and vote as they do.

Snobbery, insularity - anti intellectualism. It's all there.

"Insularity is not only a defining feature of the British, but is at the heart of our value system, and the sooner children have it drummed into them that we are here, and Europe is "over there", the better they will do in life."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/16/britishidentity

My results are consistent with everyone else’s - more Green than I expected (60%, with 20% Lab, 20% LD). It just goes to show that they’ve got some good policies all round, not just about environmental issues. Now we just have to get rid of FPTP...

I haven't done my percentages yet but we are in a minority folks, the majority of the country would have a high Tory percentage. It's depressing but I think it's innate. The article I just posted explains this Tory/ERG infallibility.

The threads have probably addressed it before but the penny just dropped with me.

I think in other countries people would look at their own equivalents of JRM , Duncan Smith ,and Johnson etc and think
' who the hell do they think they are- we are their equal"

But we operate in a class context:

"The ability of the average Brit to locate his countryman educationally, geographically, socially and culturally and judge him accordingly within four seconds of said countryman opening his mouth should not be glossed over: class awareness remains a cornerstone of our culture. It has survived the allegedly levelling effect of two world wars, and the fracturing of our social hierarchy, and shows no sign of weakening in this supposedly meritocratic age."

So England and Wales ( not Scotland/NI ) because of the class system we don't think about our equality we think:

" They are higher up the ladder than me and I support them and aspire to be like them".

This is a rare, and good, article about how hundreds of thousands of Britons are being denied a democratic voice.

Of the main English parties only the LDs have a serious plan to address this. Labour manifesto silent on the issue.

www.euronews.com/2019/12/03/britons-living-in-eu-countries-denied-democracy-in-uk-brexit-election

PMK