Westminstenders: War and Weirdos

[RedToothBrush]

With weirdos set to run No10 and Trump seemingly having started a new war in the Middle East, 2020 already looks set to be a cracking year.

To start off your year, it turns out that chinese curse about interesting times is actually a fallacy...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times

Happy New Year.

May we make 2030...

@mockers - maybe that the thing. Harry sees a day when William is running the Duchy of Cornwall and there will be no income for him.
If you are going to work to establish your own income etc- now is the age they should do it.
Megan has accepted a voice over deal - I do wonder if she was told she wasn't "allowed" to do it..... and that has been part of the trigger.
All speculation.

I agree with Big choc and I think peregrina? There will just be a gradual erosion of living standards - the slip of more of the population into deeper poverty ..... without the decent state funded education to pull your self out. Of course there will be some success stories...... but social mobility will be greatly reduced, the social divide increasing...... it is just so fucking depressing..... while politicians quietly vote themselves greater holidays (because let's face it - most of the current batch of Tory MP's aren't interested in helping people....)

Harry has an army pension. That's it. The Duchy of Cornwall goes by primogeniture. Even the biscuits.

Harry inherited £10 million or so 5 years ago. Unless he’s blown all or most of that he’s not exactly on skid row?

Although I picked Oslo because it’s supposed to be dull, maybe a hefty dose of janteloven would do them both good.

His army pension will be about tuppence, it might just keep him in beard oil. Apparently he’s worth around £30 million, which won’t last long in the circles they aspire to.

He got half of around £8m inherited from his mum when he turned thirty. Some of that may have been invested to bring extra income, but you can't play the stock market when you're royal, and deposit rates are not high.

I find it so ironic that the ardent Brexiteers are often royalists.

They weren't when it was suggested the Queen could have declined proroguing parliament. I imagine a lot of them are confused by the way the internet works, but it would be trivial to dig up a few posts from these threads alone to back that up, in case there's a sudden collective amnesia about the matter.

Don’t forget Great Granny left him a fair few million too - reportedly £14 million between Harry and William. And Diana left an investment fund plus her jewellery.

I couldn't care less about H & M. If they wanna go, let ‘em. (But, if they want out of their royalness, why have they called their website ‘sussexroyal.com’?)

Anyway - squirrel. While we’ve been fretting about that this week, there’ve been 12 votes in the Commons. Obviously went the Tories’ way. And all rather worrying, I bet.

The Sussexes net wealth is presently £35 million.

So obviously they need to have an income to stay super rich...

Anyway.

Sky News @SkyNews
Power-sharing has resumed in Northern Ireland, with the DUP's Arlene Foster elected first minister and Sinn Fein's Michelle O’Neill elected deputy first minister

Alliance's Naomi Long is NI Justice Minister.

Leaving the Sussexes for something which actually matters ...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7876363/Iranian-protesters-Tehran-turn-against-regime-military-admits-shooting-plane.html

'Death to liars!' Iranian protesters in Tehran turn against regime and demand the Ayatollah RESIGN after country's military admits it shot down passenger plane full of its own citizens

(contd)

Not a bad result for Team America, if it pans out

The pigs have been walking on their hind legs for some time now in Iran. The lack of an obvious bolt-hole bodes ill.

As far as the Ukrainian 737 goes, I'll bet not even deputy heads will roll. Some poor sod lieutenant will get the blame.

What are the positives of Brexit ?
What are the good things that the UK could not have done within the EU?

it is now only days away and I'm still none the wiser

so sad

As far as the Ukrainian 737 goes, I'll bet not even deputy heads will roll.

I may have been skirting bad taste with my guillotine discussion upthread, but that goes a little further .....

it is now only days away and I'm still none the wiser

Nor do we know which of the EU institutions/programmes team brexit want to negotiate membership of post withdrawal.

As far as the Ukrainian 737 goes, I'll bet not even deputy heads will roll.
Why should they 'roll'? Western practice is no apology and to award medals:
apnews.com/fd61c6f19690534cff58995092cbe885

Iran also had to sue the USA for compensation in the ICJ, case took 7 years.

Another topic I know, but
I've just read the forecast that the coming week will get up to 15C here
In January

I've noticed the average winter getting much milder than when I first came to Germany in the late 1980s

• the norm used to be sub-zero snowstorms and one year I arrived back at the railway station after work to find my car battery had exploded at about -12C (although it shouldn't have, even at that temp)

Summers too with the 40C heatwave becoming a thing
Before it was a high of about 33C in our area and only some years

Like many people, I had ceiling fans installed last year and showered about 8 times daily, but obviously much of Africa and the Middle East - suffering much higher temps - can't do that
If the temperature there continues to climb, does it become migrate or die ?

We're back to how much cake we'll be allowed to eat

imo wrt the financial sector, it will take years before the EU can replace what London supplies it.

• I wouldn't like to bet on it though

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/11/brexit-deal-eu-may-threaten-to-block-citys-access-to-its-markets

A major issue in the EU-UK negotiations over the future relationship concerns the extent to which the British government wants to diverge from the bloc’s rules in various sectors of the economy.
.....
The European commission will make a unilateral decision before the summer
on whether it recognises British regulations and supervisory bodies as being sufficiently robust for its financial services sector to continue to work for EU-based clients.

The City earns about £205bn a year from European demand for financial services.
Trade experts have described the so-called “equivalence” decision as vital for the UK’s financial services sector,
which generates 11% of total tax revenues.

Britain First says 5,000 of its members have joined Tories

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/28/britain-first-far-right-members-5000-have-joined-tories

About two-thirds of the 7,500 signed-up members .....

The organisation, whose leaders were jailed last year for hate crimes against Muslims,
said the prime minister’s approach towards “radical Islam” had encouraged the majority of its membership to join the party.

Britain First’s spokeswoman, Ashlea Simon, who was among senior figures recently investigated by counter-terrorism police, said:
“We will support a party that is willing to take a firm stance against radical Islam and it looks like the Tories are willing to do that.”Britain

If the temperature there continues to climb, does it become migrate or die ?

Yes.

You become stateless if you live on an unfortunate Pacific Island.

Water becomes like oil too in equatorial regions. You get wars breaking out over access to it. Dams which screw up those down river are an issue.

Pretty sure that others in the EU are very concerned about this, and its part of the growing willingness of governments to 'shut up shop' and close borders. Syria is the first big wave thats all. Hence why boats in the Med aren't being rescued anymore too.

Long term, its something political leaders are desparate to avoid talking about because of the unpalatable reality that they will have to manage against domestic intolerance. Especially combined with the technical revolution.

The only certainity ahead is greater political instability because no one is getting a grip on this, and its easier to prioritise racism and a role back on human rights than tackle human rights.

You are also pretty stuffed if you are Dutch because you have too much water but at least you have freedom of movement still.

There is a leftwing Eurosceptic Irish MEP for Dublin who keeps castigating the EU for its "Fortress Europe" policy to stop more migrants entering

Eurosceptics on the left differ massively from those on the right on the issue of migration from the Middle East & North Africa

One of my former projects had a large Indian tech supplier

Their project manager notified me a few times that his team had to work from home for their own safety,
due to what was in effect "water wars" with neighbouring Indian states

• in which the equivalent of the National Guard of those states were fighting each other

and there were also rioters on the streets demanding water.

BCF Quantum of Solace was released in 2008. Its long been on the radar of people that war insecurity is going to be a rising issue. Its just that no one is properly talking about it in the way they should be. Neo-liberal captalism at its finest.

Faisal Islam @faisalislam
Missed this - Government this week going to remove never used Op Brock No Deal contra flow system that would have allowed 13 mile section of the M20 to become a lorry park for thousands of trucks - part of standing down all No Deal peeps for Jan 31st...

No official announcement

No written ministerial statement, no Dft press release...

Anyway. It is feasible, if the Government does indeed wants a move to WTO terms in December left on the table/ no transition - that something like it would again be needed at some point this year... an interesting “tell”

Speaking of eating cake -
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/09/uk-accused-of-behaving-like-cowboys-over-eu-database-copying

Turns out the UK allowed US contractors to copy security databases it was allowed to have access to.

Tada!

Tomorrow's MoS.