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...

This is a tangent maybe too ...

I've just read this www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/05/pregnancy-vermont-paid-parental-leave-abortion-difficult-decision

And it's really upset me. I had no idea that the US was this bad. What is the likelihood of the UK going the same way? Or am I panicking unnecessarily.

On a bit of a tangent, I've been vaguely following the Pandemic thread in Preppers

Most preppers have the same kind of low-energy thinking as Brexiteers do. Summed up as a complete and utter ignorance about how things work.

If an event occurs that means you need to have six months worth of supplies, then I would suggest it's a fair bet that after 6 months, you aren't just going to walk back into the same world. The little bubble you have tried to lock yourself into isn't somehow unaffected or independent of the world around it.

The end goal of any prepped is best summed up by James Burke, who covered the whole topic in excruciatingly accurate detail 45 years ago:

Explains how massively interdependent the modern world of 1978 had grown (and more so since) - and moreover how quickly it unravels.

When was the last time you made anything for yourself ... ?

(pause as some smug DIYers open their mouths)

Including the tools to do it ?

That's not to say an extra loaf or two in the freezer isn't a bad idea.

Any prepper who hasn't got a weapon of choice - and spent time learning how to use it - isn't really a prepper. Just an extreme shopper.

What is the likelihood of the UK going the same way?

Yesterday, a post on Facebook had a photograph of a clock in a mill in the UK from years gone by.

I say "clock". It was actually two clocks. One was statute time, the other was "mill time". The Mill Time clock was what workers were paid by and it was stopped whenever they had to stop the machines to reset or repair them.

I appreciate that's not a direct answer to your question. But for every person that saw that post and thought "My God, they were terrible days, thank goodness we've moved on"; there will have been a few people thinking "Boffo idea ! Why did we ever change ?". Look how travelling time has been removed from a lot of jobs already.

I'm happy to go with an Australian deal. I hear it comes with a free koala each instead of a unicorn.

Interesting article ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/05/galileo_uk_clause/

I particularly like the bit they snuck in that the EU would be granted access to the UKs "Brexit Satellite" (BS) system when it's up & running.

Oh, and the last word ?

"It is in the EU's defence and security interests to have the UK able to use the PRS element of Galileo as a passive user."

Brexit Satellite?

Brexit In Space?

Ramsgate, We Gotta Problem.

Now if I had a tinfoil hat and a vivid imagination, then I would suggest this story hints that someone is out to get David Cameron

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51383104

A bodyguard for David Cameron is being investigated after he reportedly left his gun in a toilet on a transatlantic jet

(contd)

Does anyone remember the policewoman that managed to leave her gun in a Tesco toilet in (I believe) Hertfordshire somewhere ?

This is one reason why I refuse to bend my knee at the sainthood of police officers and consider them mere mortals who should be treated as such in every respect. Especially when they fuck up like this.

Ooh what animal with a Canada style deal? A bear? A dancing bear?(even better.)

Ooh what animal with a Canada style deal?

A beaver ? can't see Boris going for anything else, truth be told.

When threatened, a beaver may bite off its own testicles and offer them to its persuer as a present so that it may escape.

When threatened, a beaver may bite off its own testicles and offer them to its persuer as a present so that it may escape.

Not an appropriate animal for Boris then.

Are there any animals that would bite off someone elses testicles and fling them after a pursuing attacker to save themselves ?

I'm happy to go with an Australian deal. I hear it comes with a free koala each instead of a unicorn

I'll settle for a koala.

As for the maternity leave question - if we are going to take climate change seriously and reduce the world's population, then we will have to consider unpopular measures. Reducing maternity leave payments, or the number of children you can have paid leave for, might be something some countries consider. However, I'd not expect it to happen in the next decade.

Are there any animals that would bite off someone elses testicles and fling them after a pursuing attacker to save themselves?

Honey Badger would go for the persuer's goolies, as many a sorry lion will testify.

Honey Badger would go for the persuer's goolies, as many a sorry lion will testify.

From memory, there are other animals that work with honey badgers ina symbiosis - birds mainly. They spot the beehive, the badger rips it open (with the knacker-nashing claws) and the birds gets a free lunch.

Not sure it that's a fit for Boris or not ?

I was just skimming the questions being asked of Emily Thornbury - the post about the Honey Badger makes me wonder which Labour leader could metaphorically go for Johnson's goolies?

A strong Labour leader is required: both John Smith and then Blair looked like PMs in waiting. Corbyn most certainly didn't, Starmer might, and Nandy might grow into the job.

I also always change impact used as a verb to affect.

cologne4711

I feel just that little bit less lonely when I come onto these threads...

*This is a tangent maybe too ...

I've just read this www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/05/pregnancy-vermont-paid-parental-leave-abortion-difficult-decision

And it's really upset me. I had no idea that the US was this bad. What is the likelihood of the UK going the same way? Or am I panicking unnecessarily.*

I have been thinking about the states recently. Growing I thought as a nation they were litigious, obese and I travelled ( as only 7% - or similar) have a passport.

I have now realised that the reason they are so litigious is that their business is so unregulated that instead of the government imposing safety regulations, it is up to the public to sue if a product or service causes harm. They are overweight (in general) because good healthy food costs a lot more than cheap food, which is stuffed with corn syrup. They don't have passports as most of them have 2 weeks' holiday a year. Why would you leave the country with 10 days off?

I worked with Americans who told me that their maternity leave was their holiday leave. Also I worked in Germany for a german-amercian country. They both had the same productivity but the Germans had much more holiday (6 weeks?), generous maternity and sick leave while the Americans did not (understatement).

I think the UK is heading towards the US. For what fucking point?! Not the well-being of the workers for a start. I live abroad and will stay abroad. I know I would be working for shit pay and conditions and will it only get worse if we moved home. (Not to mention just having a pleasanter life where we are.)

*untravelled

As for the maternity leave question - if we are going to take climate change seriously and reduce the world's population, then we will have to consider unpopular measures. Reducing maternity leave payments, or the number of children you can have paid leave for, might be something some countries consider
Population growth is happening in countries without maternity pay ....
Not Europe
Not North America
Not South America
Not Asia
Not Australasia
only Africa has a birth rate above replacement

and as per the chart I posted at the top of the thread, the carbon impact of one American = 10,000 sub saharan africans

we need to consume a lot less rather than penalise the poor

PS the USA tipping culture is all tax dodging ....

Employers pay wages below the limit to not have to pay healthcare
Staff do not pay tax on their tips
customers do not pay sales tax on their tips
the true turnover of businesses for all taxes is artificially reduced

ooh I think I see a Brexit bonus!

We rich, white, countries will not be allowed to reproduce because climate change. African countries will continue to reproduce, and then their people will take over the world, as basically there will be more of them than any others (and of course, they are as bright and entrepreneurial as another nations, perhaps even more so).

So the Brexit bonus you say? The face on the the Brexiteers when they realise the rise of those non-white people. Ha! put that in your pipe and smoke it, assuming you can afford to smoke a pipe when the time comes.

(sorry, not feeling the need to 'pull together' with Leavers at the moment)

There was a minister on TV the other day who said that Britain had the best maternity rights in Europe. As a mother who lives in Sweden, I nearly choked on my knäckebröd. British maternity rights are not far off American ones when compared with Swedish. I'll give you more details if you like but it'll make you cry.

We rich, white, countries will not be allowed to reproduce because climate change. African countries will continue to reproduce, and then their people will take over the world, as basically there will be more of them than any others (and of course, they are as bright and entrepreneurial as another nations, perhaps even more so).

You forget the rich white countries have plenty of nuclear weapons that can reduce any up and coming population if needs be. As a rather blunt population control tool Trident makes a lot more sense than for defence purposes.

(Anyway, US foreign policy 1945-now has been to ensure that Africa is in a state of permawar somewhere, so as to be easy pickings for capitalism. Heaven forfend they were to succeed with a PanAfrican union that started charging a living price for it's resources.)

US foreign policy 1945-now has been to ensure that Africa is in a state of permawar somewhere, so as to be easy pickings for capitalism.

Yes, but you have to remember that the Vietnamese - small of stature Asians that big white willy waving men think they are superior to - beat the US. I recall being shocked at the time when we realised that for all our press adulation of the US, that they were in fact losing. Despite Agent Orange and all that.

Joking apart,
Women who are given access to healthcare, education and contraception have less children.
Coercion leads to bad results.

In South Korea, each generation is 55% smaller than the last
China is very nearly the same

The tax system is a ponzi scheme so a steady decline in populations and a move away from "growth based" economic models is the future.

Turning ones back on international cooperation a la Brexit is not a good move