Westministenders: No Australia Don't Have A Deal

[RedToothBrush]

Since Friday, far from letting things calm down, Johnson has doubled down stating that if we can't have a Canada Deal (which the EU says wouldn't be equal because we are much closer than Canada geographically) we will go for an Australia Deal.

This is the latest rehash of a managed no deal package up as something else which the EU have already repeatedly said no to.

So we are on track for no deal.

At the same time Johnson has got very excited about American food and how its great. Almost as if he wants no deal wit the EU to force a shitty bad deal with the us through.

Johnson and his chronies have also been trying to undermine journalistic transparency by blocking access to the lobby to some media outlets in a move that makes us look like a tinpot dictatorship. Fortunately there was a mass walk out of journalists but it remains to be seen how long that can be maintained.

Far from being a clean slate to move forward from its already proving that nothing has changed and old divisions are as deep as ever, if not worse...

Meanwhile, in the real world, protesters sets out with one name on the letter and has to amend it mid-morning ....

www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/13/contractors_protest_against_ir35_outside_parliament/

Sign-waving contractors and freelancers accumulated outside the Houses of Parliament in London's Westminster yesterday morning to protest against the UK government's controversial IR35 tax reforms.

The group then briefly marched to the Treasury building to present a letter that urges now ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, to halt the legislation, which are due to come into effect on 6 April.

(contd)

it also seems that quite a few contractors wanting to leave are picking up on the loss of EU membership for quite a few roles.

Plenty of times, when a chancellor resigns, or similar high post, there's "ooh, ahh! rumblings that this means something significant for the leadership. Quite often nothing happens. In this case with Javid? With the ge result? With Cummings? Double nothing will happen. With knobs on.

DGR
On my Linkedin is a post about HMRCs success rate in IR35 cases
it would be amusing they almost always lose if it was not clear evidence of utter incompetence at the decision making level.

TBH the coverage of the reshuffle on the BBC implies that their grossly overpaid 'editors' cannot even be bothered to read these threads as all of the 'surprises' were indeed posted several days ago by various people.

IR35 seems to be the blueprint to create Schroedingers employee. Someone who has to pay their full whack of tax as an employee whilst simultaneously not being an employee for the purposes of benefits legislation.

You can see where the ESA/PIP assessors had the bright idea of assessing people as if they had every single aid possible available to them, which meant they weren't less able at all.

"I wonder if a GP and pharmacist could afford to send their kids to Winchester College nowadays?"

With a bursary, yes they could. Not if they had to pay full fees.

"I wonder if a GP and pharmacist could afford to send their kids to Winchester College nowadays?"

I think we need to start adjusting to the new world order.

That's "family doctor" and "druggist"

BBC just reported on Irish govt. negtiations illustriating it with a picture of Stormont.

(Has Karen Bradley got a new job at BH?)

BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg calls the chancellor's resignation "an unexpected turn".

Why? We expected it about a week ago. I suppose the only unexpected bit was that he jumped before he was pushed.

Seen elsewhere:

Those who keep an eye on politics will know that a reshuffle has been going on today. One new appointment is that of Suella Braverman to the post of Attorney General. In her previous job as a QC, one of her cases was acting for HMRC in a dispute over whether a certain form of cuddly toy was stuffed or not stuffed. She won that case, with the court agreeing with her that the toys were stuffed.

Our decision is accordingly that the two relevant products in this Appeal are "stuffed". They look stuffed. Physically they are stuffed, and indeed "totally stuffed".

www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKFTT/TC/2014/TC04100.html

I'm sure that the Prime Minister will be pleased to know that his new Attorney General has such a track record of giving her opponents a good stuffing. But I'm also pleased that her promotion has brought attention to this judgment, which is stuffed full of earnest assessment of the cuddliness or otherwise of toys. As well as the conclusion, part of which I quote above, it also contains such gems as "a car (even one with eyes) is not an animal or a creature" and "what makes a toy cuddly is of course the insertion of stuffing".

So how we doing on the women minister/men minister ratio?

So how we doing on the women minister/men minister ratio?

They're all Tories. Not sure there's much of a distinction beyond that.

A GP earns around £90K. A pharmacist earns around £40K. So they could afford to spend £40K a year on 1 child going to Winchester. Maybe 2 children if a senior GP. I've taken tax into account.

Bluehighlighter - from memory I think that Rishi Sunak's mother owned a chain of pharmacies. So the family income was likely higher than from £40k salary + GP earnings.

He spoke in his Nick Robinson podcast interview a few months ago about helping his mother do the company books as a teenager.

He saw how much tax they were paying and thought to himself how much better off the family would be if they could keep that money. I hope his understanding of how tax and what it funds (eg. education for his mother's employees not lucky enough to go to Winchester) has moved on since then. Though he gave no indication that it had.

He came over as a nice guy, politically a Tory, but definitely not so bright as to be worth remarking on.

from memory I think that Rishi Sunak's mother owned a chain of pharmacies.
His family owned Sunak Pharmacy at the junction of Hill Lane and Burgess Road in Southampton. They sold it in 2015.
I did not realise he was head boy of Winchester.
He always seemed a bit of a twerp when he was working there in the holidays.

So how we doing on the women minister/men minister ratio?

Was seven women, now five.

Was seven, now five

Hmm

His family owned Sunak Pharmacy...in Southampton. He always seemed a bit of a twerp when he was working there in the holidays

love it LQ

He always seemed a bit of a twerp when he was working there in the holidays.

Lol! Twerp is a great word!

PS I know it was him cos his mum is teeny and he towered over everybody else. His sister was the clever one IIRC. She knew where to find the lipsyl - technical stuff

I'm back after an afternoon building shoe cupboards into my wardrobes
< licks skinned knuckles & blisters >
to find Cummings has been DIYing in the cupboard too

Why is there always a screw loose, something wonky and a few bits left over? 🤔
That's wrt the Cabinet reshuffle, btw

BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg calls the chancellor's resignation "an unexpected turn"

Illustrating yet again what a useless political editor she is
A BBC professional really shouldn't be weeks behind Westministenders. Again.
It's long past time that she crawled out of BJ's arse cheeks to get a clearer view of politics

to find Cummings has been DIYing in the cupboard too

So with all the twerp references we can safely assume that Rishi Sunak is another one promoted well beyond his abilities?

I wonder whether Sunak has been promoted far too quickly? Cameron became party leader after only a few years as an MP and I suspect it didn't help him.

We predicted on the 10th that there was a power struggle going on about Javid. I wonder if this 'compromise' of sack your staff to keep your job was Johnson's own idea, or a Cummings wheeze? Either way, it backfired, and I would just have a modicum of respect for Javid for standing by his staff.

Do Sunak's family still own the pharmacy? If so, I think they might find out about not having a trade deal, what with a vast number of drugs coming from the EU.