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.

Yep, a useful scapegoat
However, even within Schengen, countries can put up national borders in an emergency
just as we have seen - in China, Italy etc - they can within their own country

Paywall down on the McCrone report (from 1975, about "Scotland's Oil") in the National

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17461406.this-is-what-westminster-doesnt-want-you-to-read-the-mccrone-report-in-full/

Makes you wonder what analyses are being hidden about the impact of Brexit, that will only be discovered via FOI requests if they still exist decades years in the future

Here's a description of McCrone - a well respected economist who did two major reports for the Government - only the 2nd of which (on teachers' pay and conditions) was made public (you could argue that the first one, on the oil, was also acted upon - by ensuring that it was kept secret )

https://www.facebook.com/100001464392178/posts/2854764214582364/?d=n

As an aside, the time that teachers have set aside during the working day in Scotland is still referred to as "McCrone time"

Net non-EU migration has reached its highest level since 2004 with an estimated 240,000 more people moving to the UK than leaving last year, government figures have revealed.

Although EU net migration has fallen since the Brexit referendum, non-EU net migration has gradually increased, the ONS said.

Hmmm. Perhaps we should have a referendum to leave the planet...

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/migration-immigration-eu-highest-level-brexit-ons-figures-work-a9362531.html

Although EU net migration has fallen since the Brexit referendum, non-EU net migration has gradually increased, the ONS said.

We have one Leaver who thinks that this was what the Immigration policies were all about. Those who were taken in by Farage's breaking point posters, those who put up notices telling people that they need to speak English, or Priti Patel who would discriminate against her own parents - they all think differently.

I was living in China during the SARS crisis and considered at that time that if it had taken off to any extent in the U.K./Europe that it would have been a much worse crisis. Not so much because of the NHS which was in better shape anyway then but because people would not submit so readily to the discipline of hygiene measures, such as hand washing, proper effective mask wearing, isolation and quarantine. If we do get local transmission are people going to be willing to go into isolation / quarantine, and if not, forced to? We still don’t know enough about how this is transmitted but it seems to be more easily transmitted than SARS (though I doubt we know the truth of the number of SARS cases in China, even now. Doctors were whistle blowing the same apocalyptic scenes from all over China to Hong Kong outlets at the time and on a trip to Shanghai before it hit Hong Kong we were warned something very nasty was going round). On the plus side these are seen as winter bugs and it is warming up in Asia already. SARS broke officially in February, was at its worst in March and April and lost its virulence in late April /May. Once it did strike, the coverage in the U.K. media was very different to our experience there. If you lived a few miles from any cases and their contacts then with sensible measures there was no need to panic. Expat friends in Hong Kong and China are feeling the same balance of risk / no need to go into full panic this time, even those who have retired to Northern Italy.

Of course the SARS crisis was a massive economic hit, and it took longer for people to have the confidence to resume economic activity at the same intensity. However it was also a restart in that businesses came together and rethought their marketing strategies, became more responsive and creative. I am not sure how many went under but there were certainly businesses of all sizes, some international, that were more effective / profitable and robust afterwards. Of course this was not against a background of having already shot themselves in the foot economically. This is like shooting ourselves in the foot and then getting flu 🤔

Remember IDS getting a squeaky bum over experts all of a sudden ?

Here's the current state of play in the UK "expert" market :

www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/27/sophos_selloff_stopped_by_bike_scheme/

Today was meant to be Brit security biz Sophos's last day on the London Stock Exchange following its £3bn purchase by a US venture capital company.

But there's been a bump in the road, a stick in the wheel, because Sophos was a member of the UK government's "cycle to work" scheme – which offers staff loans to pay for bicycles and related stuff like lights, helmets and panniers.

The trouble is that the bike scheme is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. So anyone taking control of Sophos needs to clear its obligations under the cycle scheme with the FCA. And someone took their eye off the ball and didn't spot this. This will likely be a textbook example of due diligence, the process that sees hordes of overpaid junior lawyers and accountants poring over every tiny detail of a business before going ahead with a merger or takeover.

(contd)

TL;DR thanks to a failure of a lot of very well paid "experts" the sale is delayed. (See also "we forgot to add VAT to the Olympics bill").

What was it Wellington said when he saw the list of officers on the British side ?

"I only hope the enemy is as scared as me when they see those names ..."

Priti Patel who would discriminate against her own parents

I’m not trying to defend Priti ‘Ugly on the Inside’ Patel, but I keep seeing this and it’s nonsense! Her parents were refugees, fleeing from Idi Amin, not economic migrants, so the new immigration system has nothing to do with their situation.

I already get the sense that the UK is behind the curve and being less responsive and effective in policy and communication on coronavirus. This is important and will have consequences.

DH has pushed for his work to develop a policy for when Coronavirus hits London. The office manager apparently went all "well the government advice" - to which my husband apparently responded about it being propaganda and as intelligent individuals they needed to look how the situation was developing around the world.

I think the advice and the "the NHS is well prepared " is complete bullshit - and if people can't see past that ..... we'll I guess that level of thinking is what has given us Bozo.

On another front NZ has still banned travel too and from China and my Bro tells me there are 30000 enrolled Chinese uni students waiting to move down for the start of the semester next week - but can't. That will have an economic hit.

Queen - I know that is what she is saying now .... but I thought the timings of their arrival doesn't match up against that? She's not past a little bit of re-writing history...

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-laws-parents-home-office-brexit-a9343571.html

I’m not trying to defend Priti ‘Ugly on the Inside’ Patel, but I keep seeing this and it’s nonsense! Her parents were refugees

Were they bollocks:

In the 1960s her parents immigrated to the UK and settled in Hertfordshire, several years before President Idi Amin came to power and expelled Ugandan Asians in 1972

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priti_Patel

You don't need to apologise.

Priti Patel who would discriminate against her own parents

I’m not trying to defend Priti ‘Ugly on the Inside’ Patel, but I keep seeing this and it’s nonsense! Her parents were refugees, fleeing from Idi Amin, not economic migrants, so the new immigration system has nothing to do with their situation.

If that were true, you'd hope that she'd vote to protect the rights of child refugees at least. But of course she didn't even do that.

I will apologise, because even though I know that the woman is a nasty piece of work, I didn’t think she’d lie through her teeth about something so easily disproven

We really are screwed with this lot in charge, aren’t we?

They assume 99 % of people won't find out, because surely noone would check on such blatant lies that are easily disproved .....

and they keep repeating the lies, because facts are so booooring to read

Oh FFS... ? From the Guardian ...
Government document reveals plans to ditch EU arrest warrant?

Ahhh I see we are replacing nice well trained needed EU nurses and carers with criminals- is it to save on justice/ prison costs etc ?

arrest warrant

Government document reveals plans to ditch EU arrest warrant?

Presumably because it involves ECJ oversight ?

More like ECHR oversight knowing this lot.

So if Priti Patel's parents had not come here until expelled by Amin, she herself would have been born in Uganda. I wonder if she has realised this when she tells porkies about them being refugees.

So if Priti Patel's parents had not come here until expelled by Amin, she herself would have been born in Uganda.

Basically yes. But it gets so much worse than that ...

I wonder if she has realised this when she tells porkies about them being refugees.

The real refugees were kicked out with 48 hours and the clothes they wore. (I know very well, as my friend at school was one of them). So Priti is shitting all over their ordeal too. Which feels wrong in so many ways.

Mind you, the clues were all there. "Priti" in Punjabi means "Privileged one".

The Gift That Keeps On Giving, the briefings are blaming Chris Grayling for the Heathrow decision.

Makes you wonder what else he will turn out to be to blame for?

Conovirus? Floods? Coming last in Eurovision?

John Crace @johnjcrace
Gove has just committed govt to recruiting and training 50000 customs officers within months

Now.

What could possibly go wrong here...

Well it does give the economically inactive more choice. Pick sprouts? Look after old people? Become a customs officer? So many opportunities in Brexit UK.

order-order.com/2020/02/27/election-donations-revealed/
Election donations revealed

Interesting.

Lib dems raised more money than Labour.

But Tories way ahead of Labour, lib dems and brexit party put together.

Gove is living in cloud cuckoo land. A recruitment drive would take about six months at the earliest. As for the staff; it depends on what level, but at least a year for a fairly basic grade staff member, two to five years for those more senior.