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.

Cummings thought he could get away with it

I cannot but help think that since Cummings is the defacto PM how long will the great egoist Johnson put up with this? There really isn't room for two Willy wavers in No 10.

- one source: “Did nobody consider google? Jesus fucking Christ”
This comment disturbed me i.e. if his abhorrent views hadn't been advertised, they would have been OK?

How do we know thedovelamenting was Sabisky ?

mother No, the air around the Rhine here is pretty good, probably helped by all the trees and green
Unlikely to be dust either, after so much rain the last few weeks.

The sunset might be related to the series of storms we have had ?

I suspect all these individual events that cause such outrage are intended to groom us to gradually change what we regard as acceptable behaviour in govt

Mother The planet is not doing very well.

Yes and it’s not big business which is going to force change to help the environment.

Revealed: every UK airport has plans to expand

airqualitynews.com/2020/02/18/revealed-every-uk-airport-has-plans-to-expand/

It may be left to the people to force change, either by protest, or just by flying less. It can work.

Bristol Airport expansion: Activists 'vindicated' after plan refused

airqualitynews.com/2020/02/18/revealed-every-uk-airport-has-plans-to-expand/

I am flying much less this year and I sense some others are too.

UK governments, presumably at the behest of murdoch, have long constrained what the beeb can do. The beeb was early onto the Web and had teams building world leading technology - if they had been allowed to expand as planned their income from technology licencing and global soft power would have at least halved the licence fee. Murdoch needs the beeb to be an also ran - so far he's on track to achieve that.

It's the same with the royal mail - government imposes a universal service obligation, constrains what they can charge to competitors and mandates the service they have to offer - its a miracle they have survived so far.

Ironies:

• Bureaucrats The irony of Cummings being the unelected bureaucrat in chief has already been pointed out.

• immigration The increasing number of stories of French Michelin starred chefs and 95 year old Italians potentially being kicked out... to make way for an increased number of non EU, non white arrivals is another irony.

• change A further irony is that many people voted against recent changes they voted out of nostalgic yearning for a time that never was. Yet What is being attempted is radical change to the BBC, to the NHS, to parliamentary democracy, to the judiciary, even to our genes!

• Control The irony of handing control to Trump to dictate our food and health rules to secure trading terms.

Any other ironies? we should do a list.

What mask?

Re superforecasters - gartner, forester et al have been the masters of pseudo scientific poppycock posing as forecasting for decades - and charge gullible corps silly money to do so.

The model is simple, anything they say is ~85% probability or above, 15% or below is short term and blindingly obvious to those in the field, the in between numbers are guesses, the quality of which depends on the analyst and how long he/she has been away from the sharp end - always assuming the analyst had ever been there.

I noted the superforecaster scoring was on a scale that extended "down' to always being wrong - isn't that just as useful as always being right?

Morning all. What a fine mess this country is in

In light of the Amazon reports on the BBC, the news about scrapping the licence fee begins to make sense.
Never mind Fox-style news - how do we feel about the BBC being taken over by Amazon?

Intrigued at the story of a company enforcing it's own ethics on employees via expenses ..

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51529207

I wonder if this would be enforceable through a tribunal ?

More to the point, what other "ethical rules" will companies be tempted to make employees follow ? Say regarding trans issues ?

Never mind Fox-style news - how do we feel about the BBC being taken over by Amazon?

I could see a lot of anti-Trump programmes. Bezos is none too happy with team Trump right now.

I can see a data-hungry company getting its hands on lots of lovely British data, the World Service, websites, radio etc.
A company that, unlike Fox, is also a major supplier of resources.

I can see a data-hungry company getting its hands on lots of lovely British data, the World Service, websites, radio etc.

It's already got it.

(Some) people would be shocked at how much companies they have never done business know about them. Never been on Facebook ? Then how does it know:

Your email address,
your age,
your sex,
your favourite band
your job,
your partner(s)
where you live - down to postcode
where you shop
TV tastes ...

????

Sabisky wasn't sacked by Cummings or Johnson. He quit.

He wasn't actually pushed, but we don't know how strongly he was encouraged to jump ...

As a professional forecaster for the last 30 years I find this whole superforecaster stuff incredibly annoying. Firstly adding super to any word makes you look like a primary school student and secondly these people do not have the first idea of what it takes to make good forecasts. And it diminishes the utility of forecasting in the eyes of the public.

Does it ? I've never been on Facebook. That's not good to hear.

PMK as ever thanks everyone.

Intrigued at the story of a company enforcing it's own ethics on employees via expenses ..

I don't think it's really that different from companies having, for eg, travel policies that restrict you to a specific mode or class of travel.

It's a silly policy mainly because it's difficult to police and easy for employees to get around.

From the BBC David Frost (chief UK negotiator) said the ability for the UK "to set laws that suit us" was not just a negotiating position, but "central to our vision".

Well as has been said before it's not much of a vision if the only raison d'etre is inability to share some minimum consensual consumer, worker and food standards.

It's a sort of circular oxymoron or a non sequitur anyway isn't it? If we want any trade deal then we agree to the rules, and we are therefore agreeing to laws that suit us.

...secondly these people do not have the first idea of what it takes to make good forecasts.'

What does it take to make good forecasts Misti?
I'm genuinely interested.

pmk

@dontcallmelen you always have such beautiful flowers and no clutter. I'm very envious!

@dontcallmelen probably clears the table of all the clutter and hides it, before taking the photo of her beautiful flowers.

I don't think it's really that different from companies having, for eg, travel policies that restrict you to a specific mode or class of travel

Well, yes ... as with most things, when introduced, there's 2 sides to everything. Painting crosses on refugees doors to help target aid ... I can see the logic ... and so on.

My instinctive reaction was "Fuck off" (so pretty typical).

Then I wondered about legalities, and imagine that as part of an employment contract it wouldn't be unlawful. Obviously if a company tried to introduce it afresh, there's scope for issues.

Then there's the question of what else expenses might be refused for ? Alcohol ? Hard to argue with. Milk ? Dairy products ? Anything with almonds in it ? Anything made in Israel ? Anything not made in Israel ?

I think it's the - not accidental - blurring of employee and person I dislike. Surely as an employee you are paid to do your job, not conform to someone elses idea of ethics.

Many, many years ago I had an interview with a batshit US company called "Kalamazoo" (Brummies might remember it). They were US based and their aptitude test had nothing to do with the role, and everything to do with prospective employees morals. They only hired non smokers (you had to sign a declaration). They also had a rather unhealthy fascination with how you spent your spare time. I can't remember all the questions, but there was a section about what would you do if you discovered a co worker who - despite being outstanding in their job - had smoked "marijuana" as they put it at home. I had already decided I wasn't the best fit for such a company (and you really have to wonder who would be ??????) so I ended up adding a box and writing and ticking "Mind my own business".

In my IT career in the Midlands, I ran into a few people who had worked under people who had been managers at Kalamazoo. Every company ended up insolvent - including one I worked at. Which suggests employing people for their "fit" rather than ability isn't a great business tactic.