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.

Jacqui Smith was victim to either her hubby and/or teenage son and their online browsing habits.

Wouldn't you just love to hear that dinner-table conversation.

Most of the country are self isolating in the warm and dry as far as possible

Lots of people incubating in overheated open-plan offices...

Ah John Patten - he was my MP. He made another expensive mistake when he referred to Tim Brighouse as a nutter. Brighouse was a well respected educationalist and once Chief of Education for Oxfordshire and later London among other things. Brighouse also sued and won. We stumped up a tenner for his fighting fund.

This was the end of John Patten.

Jacqui Smith was victim to either her hubby and/or teenage son and their online browsing habits.

To be honest I'd forgotten all about that. It was her minders taking a day off and letting her make an absolute tit of herself to the world that signalled she was on the way out.

She also began the slow ignorance-led descent of government into arbiter of morals. Or certainly greased the tracks for it.

www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/working_papers/paper431.pdf
uni of Oxford, dept of Economics: The possible macroeconomic impact on the uk of an influenza pandemic May 2009

Some light reading for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Add brexit to a possible pandemic...squeaky bum time at the treasury.

The possible macroeconomic impact on the uk of an influenza pandemic May 2009

11 years is a long time anywhere, let alone politics.

I would hope that document was treated like a live one and kept updated on a biannual basis ? Although I could win a lot of money betting it wasn't. I can even trace the exact moment it wasn't. Which will be when someone spotted a line in a spreadsheet and said "What's that for ?".

Having delivered my wisdom into business continuity planning, I know full well the value of keeping some documents bang up to date. AND testing the plans therein at regular intervals.

I've submitted BCP plans for alien invasions before now. Likelihood:low;Impact:Critical. That's all you really need to know.

Priti Useless on Sky, talking about the wonderful new points system for immigration.

The arrogance of that woman, and by implication, the UK: we will attract the brightest and the best from all over the world.

Why on earth would they want to come here??

Why on earth would they want to come here??

Stepping stone to the US. You tend to find with dictators they wash each others hands.

And why dont we breed our own brightest and best? I know, because we dont want to invest in them. So bloody wrong.

For "Best and Brightest" read massively overpaid fin services chancers who gamble with other people's money.

And why dont we breed our own brightest and best? I know, because we dont want to invest in them. So bloody wrong.

History tells us that the more educated the population gets, the more likely they are to vote the wrong way.

The Holy Grail of Toryism, is to rule the intellectual classes with a fist of iron, whilst using them to maximise the profits you can extract from the lower classes who will do as told.

Our current Lords and Masters have decided the best way to do this is to become Fortress Britain and ship in the brains needed, safe in the knowledge they can't vote, and can be just as easily shipped out if or when they become a little uppity.

It's a frequent trope to accuse those in power - or those behind them - of not studying history. It's more a case that they have studied it, but reached rather different conclusions about what it tells us.

And upping the ante in the cynicism (not to say tinfoil hat) stakes, I'm wondering if the current COVID pandemic panic is intended to discredit the WHO for the next one, which happens ?

Which candidate do you think will give the Tories the most trouble?
Sadly DH plans to vote for Rebecca Long Bailey - welcome to the Labour party being consigned to oblivion.

Starmer the least worst and not actually brain-dead or thick as 4x2 option.

For deputy, vote Dawn, just for a laugh.

Starmer and murray

I despair of DH, I really do. I was trying to persuade him to go for Starmer but he's having none of it.

Peregrina
Starmer is the only one of the three capable of holding the Tories to account.
Wrong Daily thinks Corbyn was right
Dandy does not know what she reads

LQ - that is what I think, but he is deaf to any arguments!!! Should I be divorcing him? He will not be allowed to forget it, if R L-B gets in.

I assume your dh is either a full on momentum loony/corbynista or hates women.

:(

...or a closet tory!

He was a Tory when I married him, more that 40 years ago - I managed to move him away from them, but now he's gone to the other extreme! A Corbynista rather than a woman hater, I would say.

Then I think there's not much you can do...
It's like a cult :(

I think the covid-19 crisis works to Johnson favour in many respects. It will solidify calls for more borders, whilst economic pressure can be blamed on it.

The brucy bonus of covid-19 is that everyone else gets fucked at the same time, in different ways so the economic disaster that is brexit might be somewhat mitigated by everyone else's headache.

In terms of supply chains it will focus minds if (when) we have shortages in China. A trade deal with somewhere far away is more risky than one with close by.

A panic situation gives opportunity for authoritarian measures to be brought in (and then never reversed).

(I note the US are having an election this year, it would suit trump to have a reason to suspend / delay it...)

Restrictions on gatherings and encouraging home working means Johnson won't have to meet the public, journalists or perhaps even turn up in Parliament. Also no protests allowed as they are public health risk.

The issue is what happens if we have panic buying though. I can well see some people caught out so there is potential for riots or a wave of crime out of this. Again all helpful for an authoritarian crack down...

On the bright side, no deal planning will come in handy and we might have need for those stockpiled body bags...

Agree rtb

A handy diversion if BJ tries to get around the NI protocol - but Barnier won't be diverted, even if the UK public is