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👍🏻

Anyone have suggestions for a Brexitshire mocktail recipe? Dry January has begun...

Is there anon alcoholic blue non EU drink?

Blue? Non alcoholic?

Too hard!

Mock tail generally for Brexitshire- apple and elderflower with sparkling water?

Cocktail for Brexitshire....something with English vodka....I’ll have a think...

Has anyone seen Cummings “job ad” on his blog?

I genuinely fit one of those categories but I imagine it’s a 24/7 job.

Tempted to apply out of curiosity. And not sure which name to use. Though they are the government so they will check anyway.

Dammit, it’s exploded on Twitter so applications will be tons higher than I thought. For some reason, I thought the post went up early today!

but I imagine it’s a 24/7 job

I've just read it, Autumn and I'm guessing it will be what used to be known as "all hours worked". You would put in as many hours needed to get the job done, at any time of the day or night, on any day of the week, at any time of the year (including Christmas and bank holidays).

I was "all hours worked" for 12 years and averaged 60 hours per week on duty. The rest of the time, I was on call. Even when I was on leave, it didn't matter. Leave could be superseded by "operational requirements".

It was not a job. It was a way of life. Great if you are relatively young and love the job and don't mind not really having a personal life (or only socialise with people who are also AHW).

Dmitri must have been given a sizeable budget and authority to recruit. He is refreshingly blunt about what happens if you fail to meet expectations. I wouldn't have minded a go when I was younger but not now.

If you're looking for a career challenge, Autumn, why not? The recruitment process would be fascinating in itself.

Morning, all,

The relatively mild weather continues, thank goodness, and all is calm and bright here in the Brexit Arms, the hotbed of optimism.

The Telegraph yesterday reported the results of a YouGov poll on the Labour leadership election.

"The poll of 1,059 Labour members put Sir Keir on 31 per cent for first-choice votes, 20 per cent backed Ms Long-Bailey, Ms Phillips received 11 per cent, and Mr Lewis and Ms Cooper were the first choice for 7 per cent. Ms Thornberry was on 6 per cent and Ms Nandy was backed by 5 per cent as first choice."

So far, only Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis have declared their candidacies. The rest, including Ian Lavery, are thinking about it. John McDonnell and Diane Abbott have ruled themselves out. Keir Starmer had roughly twice the amount of support in the poll from Remainers as from Leavers. Quelle surprise.

Does anyone know when the "period of reflection" will end?

Today's complimentary breakfast tray is an old favourite: mushrooms on sourdough toast. Please help yourselves.

Kettle's on ☕️☕️☕️

Morning everyone and Happy New Year!

Glad to see there's still plenty of good-humoured chat in the Arms, and superb breakfasts too!

I saw Dominic's blog and would apply if I was 30 years younger. Go for it Autumn

It's going to be fun watching the Labour leadership contest from a distance. I love a bit of spectator-sport politics, when I don't really care who wins, but enjoy seeing the battle.

Morning all.
Paul Embery on twitter this morning:
"You know when a British tourist goes into a foreign shop and just starts talking more loudly when it becomes clear the assistant doesn’t speak English?

The assistant is the British working-class. The tourist is the Labour party".

Yep.

DH silghtly appalled that his Brexitshire self is married to Leaverstan. Tbf I did only give him the edited highlights.

Morning all

Lily that’s partly what I was thinking, just the recruiting process would be interesting and with Cummings, hopefully not endless. And having a 24/7 job would actually be useful at the moment - first time I’ve ever thought that in my life.

The last one of those I did, I resigned after six weeks, but that was different. I think....

Thanks for the breakfast Singing.
Yes, have a go Autumn and let us know about the process.

I really don't think Kier Starmer will recapture that red wall. But we shall see.

“Today's complimentary breakfast tray is an old favourite: mushrooms on sourdough toast. Please help yourselves.”

Mushrooms seem apt considering the news about Soleimani! WW3 anyone? 😱

Happy new year folks, it’s going well so far!

Morning all, hope you all had a nice Christmas break. Back to it now!

The Dom Cummings blog / job recruitment is quite funny. Seems to have set the chattering classes into a spin (how dare he shake up the civil service?!). Outside London, I think its the kind of thing that would get support, the civil service seems this opaque structure, far away and not transparent to ordinary people. I imagine its stuffed with a lot of very similar people and so you get group think. Not to mention the structure probably promotes nepotism and hierarchy.
If Dom wants to recruit people with science degrees, project managers who can get shit done, then good on him. The point being they need people that can make balanced judgements and get on with it. I read an FT article that had a good overview

www.ft.com/content/9ff61dee-2d67-11ea-bc77-65e4aa615551

Keir Starmer being the front runner in the Labour activist poll was very interesting too. I wonder if activists had such a bad experience on the doorsteps in the election, they recognise the need for someone more electable. Time will tell as its early days. I have seen a few rumblings on twitter about a campaign to keep Corbz on... had to laugh at that!

When is Jezbollah off to go do some ‘peacekeeping’ missions in Iran then? Could be a great photo op for him. Really cement our view of the kindly pacifist grandpa who is always on the right side.

Looking forward to seeing Our Jezza defending Iran in HoC soon Epic

The outriders have already started on Twitter

The Dom Cummings blog / job recruitment is quite funny. Seems to have set the chattering classes into a spin (how dare he shake up the civil service?!). Outside London, I think its the kind of thing that would get support, the civil service seems this opaque structure, far away and not transparent to ordinary people.

Absolutely the point of it. All about sending the right signals to the core Red Wall electorate and making sure the other side continue doing the exact opposite.

Re the Iranian situation

VERY long read, but this article from 2013 gives background to Qassem Suleimani if anyone is interested

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-shadow-commander

Couple of interesting articles in the DT this morning. Will link later. It's scary stuff...I knew there had been a couple of US missile strikes last week in Iraq, but this is something else.

The Middle East has been volatile for a long time though. I think it's a case of not if, but when...and are we ready for it?

So, what do we think then?

More Iranian posturing? Abstract attacks by Iranian backed guerillas/terrorists? Actual physical war from Iran?

Based on the response from the Ayatollah I’m thinking a combo of the first 2... I’m waiting to hear the response from Russia. 😬

This is some scary fucking shit right now, but I agree with PP’s, it’s been a tinderbox for years, if this doesn’t kick it off something else will. 😞 My hearts go out to all those who will ultimately be affected by the inevitable outcome of all this.

Are we ready for it? you mean "i'll cheer from the sidelines, whilst others die?"
We need to stay out of any conflict (and persuade Trump too but i fear this about winning a 2nd term not regional stability) unless we want millions more refugees heading into Europe and of course, the UK.

What Trump has done is nothing short of state sponsored terrorism, no other POTUS did this but at least Raab is attempting to defuse, i doubt we knew beforehand

Heart... not hearts. Lol.

“Are we ready for it? you mean "i'll cheer from the sidelines, whilst others die?"

Don’t be fucking ridiculous. She didn’t say that.

Thats why i said "you mean" ..... means!!!! lol!

But when someone (seemingly) gleefully says "Are we ready for it?" what does that mean? Rearm? so we are?

Iran was, just about, being contained until that Orange idiot got into power, now we are looking at another middle eastern war and Iran is no Iraq and will be far far worse.

Are we ready for it? you mean "i'll cheer from the sidelines, whilst others die?"

Bless your dear, sweet, disingenuous heart!

You know fine well that's not what she meant poppet, but don't let your confected nonsense get in the way of real life though - that would be a real departure from SOPs & may cause distress 😟

Scary is part of the military, as was I - we know only too well what war means

Perhaps stick to the other thread if faux outrage & hyperbole is your penchant?