Brexit Arms - Out with the old and in with the new

[time4chocolate]

It’s time again for another Brexit Arms thread to see us into Christmas and beyond.

Well what a week it’s been!!

Boris has now completed his first week and he’s been busy. New conservatives have been sworn in, the Queens Speech yesterday shows promise (aware that the proof of the (Xmas) pudding is in the eating) and Boris’ Deal is going to be voted on today with the results being around 3pm I believe.

Meanwhile, on the other side all four wheels have definitely fallen off the red bus and were very nearly joined by a garden gate and a car door. Oh dear!!

Anyway, I have added a few more Christmas decs to the pub and popped the fairy back on the tree (it took a nasty tumble)

We are now good to go.
Cheers all 🍷🍷

Ps. If anyone wants to volunteer for outside catering that would be👍🏻

That video Autumn! 😂😂😂 Mumsnet fascists! See, leave or remain, we are all fascists together here. 😂😂

GhostofEpic sorry, I should have mentioned the name check 😂

Songs no worries, I don’t always respond but happy to read challenges. I’m a bit lost on current meanings though so only comment on the rare occasion I know what I’m saying

I like a good debate autumn 😀

I don’t enjoy debate, I’m really here for the lolz

But desperate times 🤷🏻‍♀️

I enjoy debate, and rhetoric and most of all, a place to discuss ideas that accepts the reasoned position that when the facts change, I change my views... sadly rhetoric usually lands me in very hot water when I try to use it. Should know better at my age. I am still a One Nation Tory, and only mildly patriotic because I am old enough to have seen things go badly wrong. I do think that it is important to have most of the community feeling together, but not 'othering' dissonance out of hand.

Anyone fancy a drink? I had forgotten that this is the Arms; my round I think.

Songs, up to a point, 30 years ago, I might have been a liberal anarchist, and relatively happy to see where events took us. But once I got hooked into working, family life and parenting, I became grateful for a state structure of politics that moderated dog-eat-dog rough and tumble. I never quite bought the all-must-have-prizes mentality that washed through the educational establishment with Ted Johns, and sadly I think 'woke' indicates the lack of emotional, social and intellectual resilience that was Prof Johns' legacy.

Evening all, I’ve been absent for a few days so have missed all the chat. Life here slowly returning to normal although DH is still moaning about the election result, moaning about Brexit and life in general but is slowly calming down. He’s is a full on Corbyn supporter though and I am not. Just leaving him to work it out in his head...he will be fine.

I’m sat here drinking Blood Orange Gin with the clementine and cinnamon Fever Tree...absolutely lovely.

Really looking forward to New Year and my new job now.

I'll have a g&t then xing!
I'm with you on not liking the all-must-have-prizes mentality. Levelling is the opposite of meritocracy. What I'd love to see is equality of chances and opportunities but that could only ever be an ideal.

It's late - I'm Rip Van Winkling - though not for 25 years; just seriously catching up on the sleep of The Carer, as I've been running on 'batteries' for at least a decade.

I'm happy to be A Bore - there really isn't anything Brexity going on at the moment - which is a bit of respite that all here, and all near, really need methinks.

Love and Peace To All.

Morning, all,

It's a lazy Sunday and we are whiling away the days until the New Year and the return of the HoC on 7 January. The weather has not been too unkind to us but nonetheless, leave your scarves and hats by the door and embrace the warmth of the Brexit Arms.

Today, the complimentary breakfast tray has a Welsh theme: full cooked breakfast with cockles and laverbread. Please help yourselves.

Immediately after the election, and further upthread, I mused that Boris had carefully positioned himself as far left as the Conservative Party would tolerate, and as far right as traditional Labour voters would tolerate - thus occupying the space previously held by the pre-Iraq Tony Blair - and that it would be interesting to see how the current Labour Party responded.

This survey last week by Conservative Home of verified Conservative Party members seems to bear out the first part. He is indeed as far left as the Party will tolerate.

Kettle's on ☕️☕️☕️

Oh and the rellies were nissed as pewts last night again. And they are snoring again.

I shall be cooking them breakfast at 9am and have suggested that they really need to set off by no later than 10.30 if they want to be home in time for him to watch the football match because the M5 is a nightmare on Sundays.

This might be a slight exaggeration on my part.

Morning Lily.

Fab breakfast offerings as always.

Your guests definitely need to set off early enough. Absolute nightmare if you don't have all your wits about you and get caught in traffic at the M4/M5 changeover.

Interesting ConservativeHome graphic. Somewhat gives the lie to the Gaukward squad rhetoric. However I would add that Cameron / Osborne / Soubry have somewhat muddied the definition of One Nation recently.

Found myself shouting at the BBC the other night because they had a physicist giving his "expert" opinion on the new funding criteria aimed at levelling up the North. There are whole Think Tanks of actual expert economists who have been recommending this for more than a decade. You would think they could have managed to dig up one of them or even some of the vast quantity of research papers on the subject.

www.centreforcities.org/blog/has-the-northern-powerhouse-been-a-success/

Morning lily breakfast looks fab

hope the Nissed Pewty Snoring Rellies are ready to hit the road!

how there's always an agenda and a declaration that No Ever Thought Of This Before.

Meanwhile, I'm muttering darkly because apparently the Lake District needs to attract more diverse visitors. Why can't all this shit fuck off already.

*One

From the Times (Friday's edition but I am a bit behind...)

"Under proposals being drawn up before the spring budget, ministers will reassess how officials calculate the value for money of government investments in transport infrastructure, business development and initiatives such as free ports. Investment decisions would be less focused on overall national economic growth and, for the first time, Whitehall resources would be allocated on the basis of improving the wellbeing of people in the north, or narrowing the productivity gap with the south. The change is seen as key to fulfilling Boris Johnson’s election pledge to unlock an investment bonanza in communities that voted Conservative at the election for the first time.”

As you say, Howabout, not before flaming time. I read recently that government expenditure on public transport in London and the South East was an average £900 per head p.a. As for the rest of the country? £408 per head p.a. - and that is a level of so-called investment that has gone on for years. There is a massive amount of levelling-up to do.

Diverting slightly...

The good news is that the Nissed Pewty Snoring Rellies (perfect description, Autumn!) have gone. Mr Lily was turning cartwheels of joy on the drive as we were waving them off.

The bad news is that I might have overplayed my hand as a smiling host. They said next time, they'd like to stay for a whole week. I can't bear to tell him just yet. He looks so happy.

I've been in to their bathroom to make a start on the cleaning. Apart from the toilet, it is still in pristine condition, untouched by human hand. Towels ditto. The fresh new soap is, well, still new and fresh.

Buy shares in Zoflora now.

lily did they bring their own stuff?

I am now pondering what Songs meant by social justice.

I'm off out for the day....so may not be back on for a while but not ignoring any replies.

lily did they bring their own stuff?

Neither had a case and they wore the same clothing for three days.

The only things they seemed to bring were their phones (which absorbed a lot of their time), her cigarettes, and a bottle of wine as a thank you, but they polished that off while I was cooking dinner on Friday.

Hope you've got something nice planned for the rest of the day. You know what I'll be doing...

Happy that the Nissed Pewty rellies have departed Lily; do sleep well.

Was it the USheffield physics professor who has caught Dmitri's eye recently, howabout? There was a CapX link to his paper a few days before December 12, and it was pretty good reading.

I was delighted to read that the Treasury have new tools/criteria for evaluating the cost/benefit of investment to balance spending away from London. Education is another candidate for national per capita spending levels, probably banded by age.

High points from the Sunday Times' op ed columns: Matthew Goodwin (in lieu of Niall Ferguson) and Robert Colville (standing in for Dominic Lawson) "...I want Labour to learn the right lessons from defeat. Voters deserve a choice between credible centre-right and centre-left governments, rather than one party that accepts the basics of modern economics and another that decries fiscal reality as a bourgeois, imperialist-patriarchal construct." I can't link because of the paywall. Rod Liddle explains Labour's defeat cogently too. Nothing very new to anyone following this thread, mind you.

"...I want Labour to learn the right lessons from defeat. Voters deserve a choice between credible centre-right and centre-left governments, rather than one party that accepts the basics of modern economics and another that decries fiscal reality as a bourgeois, imperialist-patriarchal construct."

Spot on, Xing, but sadly unlikely to happen if my anecdotal evidence is anything to go by. The NPSRs are members of Momentum and will be voting for RLB, along with all of their Momentum mates. You see, people loved the Labour manifesto - it was incredibly popular and the country has been crying out for it - and the Labour Party only lost because (a) the evil right wing media including the evil right wing BBC smeared Jezza, an honest man with not an anti-semitic bone in his body, and (b) most of the sheeple didn't know they were voting against their own best interests because they had been brainwashed by the evil right wing media and they wanted the hard ERG No Deal Brexit.

Oh, and that rubbish about the top 1% of earners contributing 28% of the total income tax take and potentially fleeing the country is just that - a load of rubbish. Who cares if they flee CorbyUtopia? Everyone will just get promoted and a new 1% will step up and pay instead. And if the new 1% decide to pack their bags and go too (yes, I did ask the question), good riddance because everyone will get promoted again and the next 1% will shoulder the burden. That will mean 99 promotions tops before everyone has left the country and the UK becomes a deserted wasteland but who cares about billionaires anyway?

Oh, and Jezza is squarely on the centre ground. Neil Kinnock is right wing. Michael Foot was right wing. Stalin? Chairman Mao? Right wing.

I've learned so much in such a short time.

I am now pondering what Songs meant by social justice.

It's a broad concept but for me social justice is about mitigating the effect of the birth lottery so that no one undeservedly ends up on the scrap heap. Success or failure should be about what you do not who you are. Two of my former bosses were completely self made (bad start in life, no formal qualifications etc), both very smart and exceptionally determined. They also were both lucky. For each of them though how many never got a break? Social justice I think is striving to build the right conditions for people with the odds stacked against them, or different in some way, to still have a decent chance to achieve.

Don't you think though that we have equality of opportunity via the state education system (or are some comps more equal than others?). You can give as much equality of opportunity as you like (NHS, education etc), but that doesn't equate to equality of outcome. People make the decisions that affect the outcome.

You cite your former bosses, and you said it both exceptionally determined. That's down to the individual surely?

Yes, it's down to the individual + luck. Unfortunately luck will make all the difference. I'm not saying everyone should end up in the same place but not everyone gets decent opportunities despite NHS and state education (and both feel at risk anyway).

Also yes, sadly some comps are better than others. Postcode lottery.

Not entirely sure I believe in luck; it's the drive and determination that will get you there.

I don't think state education is at risk any more than it was when I went through it (did A levels in 84, so started in 70/71), or when I was teaching (under Labour, so it costs me a small fortune in equipping my classroom, as Labour didn't bother funding rural SW schools to any great degree, just urban ones way north of Cornwall). I'm glad to see some academic rigour being reintroduced. I remember the syllabus change to my subject, and the exam board wrote that they had removed the parts the students found challenging...they were the most interesting bits to teach, and the bits the students most enjoyed, and where, as an examiner, you could judge if they really had grasped what they had been taught.

I liked the O level/CSE divide - employers knew what the difference was, and the GCSEs were effectively the same thing..if A-C was the benchmark, as it was t O level, why not just keep it?