Westminstenders: The Mask is Slipping

[RedToothBrush]

This week has seen the department of the Chancellor who launched a 50p piece, the serious contemplation of a tin pot bridge, the rebirth of eugenics as a subject for cabinet, the announcement of the end of the BBC as we know it, the cabinet chanting after the PM in a way Orwell would be proud of, suppression of a report into trade deals which dares to mention the effect of distance and geography, worrying signs of an ever growing rift with Europe over negotiations for a deal, an appointment which starts to make our membership of the ECHR look very dodgy and there have been rather a lot of floods which so far seemed to have escaped the attention of those in London busy in their own swamp.

It's becoming apparent very quickly just how Trump like our new government are and how they want the UK to emulate the very worst aspects of America.

We are falling fast and its not looking like it will be pretty.

All we need is a major global issue to test our national resilience and the incompetence will truly be laid bare for us all to see... But not necessarily speak of. Such us the way it works.

Brexit Britain is not a nice looking prospect.

Surely in our newly great Brexit UK we should be able to produce all the very clever, skilled, highly educated, perfect English speaking professionals we need? Surely the only imported workers we need will be the unskilled ones, in droves?

We have had at least one person on these threads lamenting how older construction workers can no longer get work because younger, well trained E Europeans come in and do the jobs. Well, maybe the employers will have to tap into this pool of workers....

Truthfully though, it wouldn't be a bad idea for UK employers to train people better. One thing the Cummings Government could do right now is reinstate the bursaries for nursing and midwifery students.

I think the marbles should be returned to Greece.

You know why they're in Britain to start with ? It was to stop them being turned into quicklime ...

So many new ideas on here for care and nursing work - perhaps there should be a collective application for Sabinsky's recently vacated job:

1. Reinstating government nursing ( and caring) training and bursaries.
2. Using old construction workers!
3. Using prisoners(!).
4. Shipping the elderly overseas a bit like a call centre/ care centre.
5. Investing in developing robotic/AI carers for that nurturing touch?
6. State euthanasia like in the Logan's run film
7. Developing Genetically engineered slave humans quickly?
8. Care in the community/families.

Odd that nostalgia for the early 1970s featured highly in the early days of the Brexit debate - yet old ideas are not being sought or delivered.

Truthfully though, it wouldn't be a bad idea for UK employers to train people better. One thing the Cummings Government could do right now is reinstate the bursaries for nursing and midwifery students.

Let's pretend - for the sake of argument - that will never happen.

What then ?

So many new ideas on here

You can bet your naice ham that some are being floated by sock puppets for no.10 and chums too.

Any word on who's going to be picking the cauliflowers?

Maybe the judges, once they've been replaced by the tribunes of the people.

Any word on who's going to be picking the cauliflowers?

Remember -It's new weird ideas that are required, out with this old fashioned picking malarkey.

I think let the 5 a day thing go. It's had its day.

Replace with new vitamin/ fibre tablets. They could be made by ex aviation/motor manufacturing workers. Job done. Just think of the extra shelf space in Waitrose.

8. Care in the community/families

Oh yes- why not send vulnerable/ elderly people to be cared for in the homes of Tory voters with spare bedrooms, eh? Much better than the mansion tax.

Yes Songs - good one!

Just think of the extra shelf space in Waitrose.

Well, if you're truly rich you employ a full time gardener and grow your own veg. Supermarkets, pah! So middle class and passé!....

I think let the 5 a day thing go. It's had its day.

On "Museum of Curiosity" ages ago, a guest who had a pretty good track record at being innovative suggested this - I think it was Rory Sutherland ?. Anyway it was held up as something which would cost the taxpayer nothing, and yet would massively boost the economy. A 4 day week, that is.

It's entirely possible for the government to pass a law without spending a single penny of taxpayers money that would have a profound - and beneficial - effect on the economy and the wider society. Something I always bear in mind when I'm told why something can't happen by politicians.

Nursing bursaries supposed to be back from September news.sky.com/story/tories-reinstate-student-nurse-bursaries-two-years-after-taking-them-away-11889437

There are numerous items in museum collections in this country that if left in their country of origin would have been destroyed.
However, while their return can be negotiated on an individual basis, placing them within the ambit of a "trade agreement" is denigrating their cultural significance to both host and source country, and this pressure needs to be resisted.

However, while their return can be negotiated on an individual basis, placing them within the ambit of a "trade agreement" is denigrating their cultural significance to both host and source country, and this pressure needs to be resisted.

So you say. The problem for the UK is that Greece is an EU member, and not be slapped down by the rest of the EU in negotiations with a third country. We return to a problem that is going to dog the UK from now on. Namely that it doesn't get to set the rules anymore if it wants a deal ... and we look down the barrel and see exactly who no deal is going to hurt most.

Even if up until now, there was a justification for keeping marbles and trade separate, there's no reason why that couldn't change. Obviously it might then give other countries ideas too. The provenance of a lot of UK museum exhibits is questionable if not non existent.

Any James Acaster fans in ? He has a brilliant routine about nicking stuff from around the world.

The Greeks have a veto and they are not afraid to use it.

They blocked what is now North Macedonia because of their name.

Any word on who's going to be picking the cauliflowers?

Joking aside, I would not be surprised at all if we some sort of reinstated national service. Young people will be forced for a couple of years to do care or farm work. They might get a reduction in student loans or something to try to make it look right.

The Greeks have a veto and they are not afraid to use it

And no love for the UK either.

More references from my memory banks ... who remembers in Blackadder II when he says to Baldrick .... Am I not popular then ? and hears the awful truth.

If they wanted to, Greece and Spain could simply freeze any negotiations for 9 months on their own, let alone with all the help the UK will be giving them, based on the current trajectory.

Meanwhile, in la-la land, it seems that any moves to ban Huawei from access to US tech will be soundly resisted by .... Donald Trump ..

www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/19/trump_tech_huawei/

because he won't support measures that harm US businesses.

Joking aside, I would not be surprised at all if we some sort of reinstated national service. Young people will be forced for a couple of years to do care or farm work. They might get a reduction in student loans or something to try to make it look right.

30 years ago I would have supported that

Maybe not quite like that, but I thought that something which was compulsory and put 18-20 year olds into a mixed up (socially and geographically) sort of "national service" with a little PE and topping up literacy and numeracy, plus a lot of the community projects that never ever get funding (so not taking anyones jobs).

If you wanted to get a degree you could defer, but then had to work for a couple of years using your degree as a form of payback. So no uni fees.

I got the idea from a Nigerian I shared a house with. He said when he returned to Nigeria he'd have to do "national service". I said "What with a gun ?" and he said no. He'd have to work for the government to repay his education.

Will never happen of course - far too unEnglish. But I like to think if it did it would help a lot of social cohesion by breaking up the various cliques people fall into.

Omg

How long until the cummings govt make it policy that to get your UC you gave to go to forced labour camps to pick veg?

Once we aren't in the ECHR what's to stop them?

Rees mogg has long salivated over the re introduction of workhouses.

I'm sure I actually read someting this morning that suggested that "5 a day" was no longer required...

Am I wrong to assume that in reality there will simply be no more cheap vegetables? Certainly no more bags of carrots, parsnips, sprouts and spuds retailing at 29p at Christmas in supermarkets. No more packs of mushrooms for 65p. All unsustainable.