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.

Peregrina
You could tell him that if he votes for RLB you'll have to identify as a man and tell all of his friends
Childish but amusing

Redtoothbrush
The US electoral calendar does not budge. It did not budge for WW2, it will not budge for a foreign disease.

Yep, even Trump can't cancel the November election

Besides, he is likely to win anyway

Peregrina - the usual MN advice in those circumstances are LTB

PMK

John Grace 😂😂

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/24/priti-patels-ineptitude-is-exactly-what-boris-admires-in-her

this is the woman who responded to a terrorist incident by declaring war on counter-terrorism.
On three occasions.
She has turned her lack of ability into a piece of performance art.
.......
Most ministers might have a sneaking suspicion they are heading off the rails, when the first four Conservative MPs to stand up to praise their intelligence and attention to detail
are the notorious screw-balls Iain Duncan Smith, David Davis, Owen Paterson and John Redwood

But Priti was in her element.
Her coup de grace was her insistence that the British people had voted for massive staff shortages in the NHS and social care.
And if people were determined to die or grow old in squalor then she was proud to be delivering on the will of the people.

Back in No 10, Boris could only applaud.
This was the Priti he knew and loved so much.

Colour me surprised:

Over the last decade health inequalities have widened overall, and the amount of time people spend in poor health has increased since 2010.

#Marmot2020 confirms an increase in the north/south health gap, where the largest decreases were seen in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in the North East, and the largest increases in the least deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in London.

#Marmot2020 highlights that our health is not just a matter of how well the health service is funded and functions, important as that is. Because health is closely linked to the circumstances in which we are born, grow, live, work and age, large funding cuts, under the banner of austerity, have had an adverse effect. Deprived areas and areas outside London and the South East have experienced larger cuts.

Marmot 10 year review report from Institute of Health Equity points the finger at austerity hitting life expectancy for the poorest.

www.instituteofhealthequity.org/the-marmot-review-10-years-on

Yet people in the Red Wall voted for the Tories. I wonder if they really did hate Corbyn so much that they wanted to see the NHS destroyed?

I suspect that the people I hear on the radio who proudly declare that they voted for the conservatives for the first time ever and will never vote labour again may change their mind over the coming years. They've been played big time.

Then let's hope that Labour elect an effective Leader. They've squandered the past 4 years, when they could have been slaughtering the Tories.....

Yet people in the Red Wall voted for the Tories.

I saw on TV people in a food bank saying they were going to vote Tory! I just don't know what they'd have to do before people stopped voting for them.

I totally agree that Labour have squandered the last four years Peregrina.

The EU wants to insist on a chlorinated chicken ban.

As far as British Consumers are concerned, I think that food standards are something that matter and would welcome this ban.

I can just see how Johnson and Co will play this - nasty EU won't give us a deal.

BBC report into Housing. I’d no idea the Beeb did things like this!
Very interesting. Although I’ve not read it all (it’s long) even the subheadings are worth a look.

I suppose it could rile the government (and turn them more anti-BBC) in as much as it clearly describes the negative results of recent policy, and failure to deal with the problem, but it’s just telling the truth, isn’t it?

And as housing is such a crucial issue, it’s important to get this read widely.

news.files.bbci.co.uk/include/newsspec/pdfs/bbc-briefing-housing-newsspec-26534.pdf

As far as British Consumers are concerned, I think that food standards are something that matter and would welcome this ban.

Not just consumers, but exporters.

After all, if there's a chance that UK chicken (for example) could be below EU regs, then who would trust any chicken that comes from the UK ?

And I can guarantee the very first thing to go would be clear labelling regulations, to make sure consumers can't do anything drastic like not buy US-standard chicken.

Also it's hard to see McDonalds and KFC making it a selling point they don't use US chicken ...

I wonder how many devoted carnivores that have resisted the onslaught of the veggie-vegan brigade might be reconsidering in the face of chlorinated chicken ?

Johnson's toxic Whitehall

Read on though - it might not be quite as easy as they want to get rid of senior Civil Servants that they disagree with. Priti Patel put a cap on the amount of payoffs such people would have received when quietly being put out to grass, so now they are more likely to dig their heels in.

Johnson and Cummings rail at the elite, but what are they if they are not the elite?

It’s ironic that Brexit - the intended hammer blow to the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels - should be the thing to highlight the fundamental importance of unelected bureaucrats, whose objective advice and political impartiality has never been more crucial.

DH and I will be voting for Starmer.

Haven't made up my mind about the Deputy though. It certainly won't be Richard Burgon or Dawn Butler, who is advocating the suspension of anyone who disagrees with the leadership

twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1231249349969137664

Maybe Ian Murray, as he is the most pro-EU of the lot.

www.ianmurraymp.com/european-union/

There are four of us voting for Starmer in our house - though I have to say I find him a bit dull.

I'm thinking of voting for Ian Murray for deputy. DS1 is voting for Rosena Allin Khan. He had been thinking of Angela Rayner but has changed his mind during the campaign. DH and DS2 haven't decided yet, but Burgon certainly has no fans here.

We're all a bit unsure about putting down 2nd place choices. I can't see the point in the leadership election as the only way Starmer wouldn't make it to a 2nd round would be if RLB wins on the 1st round, in which case 2nd choices wouldn't come into it anyway. At least I think that's how it works, with your 2nd choice only being counted if your 1st choice has been knocked out? Must check up on that.

I'm voting for Nandy and probably Rayner. maybe Khan. Hoping for RLB in a prominent position in cabinet though. Her green industrial stuff is excellent.
Starmer is also good and will be happy if he wins

I can't vote for Nandy or Rayner after the 'trans liberation pledge' debacle. If they had the guts to apologise to WPUK and LGB Alliance maybe.

Don't really understand this stuff about Starmer being dull, he's serious and a grafter which makes a great contrast to Johnson.

People might tire of Johnson and his flippancy and make Starmer look like a PM in waiting. It looks like an uphill battle to see Labour winning any time soon, but with any luck there will be a complete collapse of the Tories and it will become difficult to find people who voted for them.

EU have published their negotiating mandate:

www.consilium.europa.eu/media/42736/st05870-ad01re03-en20.pdf

It'll be moot if BJ does not have GB-NI checks ready for 1 January

• the EU will know by about end July if he intends to fulfill the WA, because that is the latest to start building up the necessary systems

The Sunday Times claimed that the new attorney-general, Suella Braverman,
might be rolled out to justify the govt's attempt to bypass checks on goods sent from GB to NI
AND
that she was appointed because her predecessor as AG, Geoffrey Cox - a Brexiter - was unwilling to do this,
because it would be justifying breaking the terms of the WA, an international treaty.

WA Article 5
might have been written by Barnier with BJ in mind.
It states:

"Good faith

The Union and the United Kingdom shall, in full mutual respect and good faith,
assist each other in carrying out tasks which flow from this Agreement.

They shall take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from this Agreement
and
shall refrain from any measures which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of this Agreement."

There are four of us voting for Starmer in our house - though I have to say I find him a bit dull.
I firmly believe that he is keeping himself on an INCREDIBLY tight rein until the day he can tell Momentum to take a long walk off a short pier.