Westministenders: Reployed back to No Deal Planning

[RedToothBrush]

Now Covid-19 is over (yeah I know right) lots of civil servants who were switched from brexit no deal planning to covid-19 planning have been switched back to their original remit.

For some reason this doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

We've also seen yet another doubling down on the EU not being flexible and how they need to make a deal. And lots of rhetoric about being serious about no transiton planning.

Remember we have something of a deadline looming at the end of next month.

So before we are even out of this crisis, the government have lost interest. Today's press conference was an eye opener - Van Tam openly said that the time taken to get test results was too long and wasn't good enough yet and meant track and trace wasnt still operational despite it being such a crucial factor in being able to go into the next phase as planned on 1st June.

Another deadline we won't make - the Manchester Nightgale still has patients and the local authorities in the NW are going mental. So the government is playing more silly buggers over blame and villianising the evil workshy teachers. Noting the government guidance for teachers on how to teacher children at home says fuck all and the guidance on reopening schools makes a Theresa May dog ate my homework style document look positively well thought out, in terms of practicality. (Not even going to touch on the question of whether its safe - the whether its workable one is more important).

I guess that means things are getting back to normal at least.

A recession looms, but workers rights are now fair game and fully in the government cross hairs - as we see from a lack of PPE for the 'heroes' and the attacks on the teachers. As well as the carers who were sold down river. That'll be the ununionised carers...

Taking back control.

There is an element of Karma here too. Having spent the last 5 years psychologically whipping the public up into a froth over every minor indiscretion over EU and magnifying it, he is now on the receiving end of the black and white mentality he has helped to create.

Tricky once you've incited the mob

- colour me surprised

Coronavirus: PM says it was 'reasonable' for Cummings to travel 260 miles during lockdown http://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-labour-demands-explanation-after-reports-dominic-cummings-broke-lockdown-rules-11993051

Cummings is allowed to do it because he's not an expert.

You forget.

Times editorial today.
"Where's the PM ?"

"Its the prime ministers job to provide leadership. Yet he has been largely missing in action ... "
"He has made only one statement to the House of Commons since the crisis began."
Apart from two PMQ's, he has attended no press conferences, and given no interviews. "The first requirement of good communication is to show up. Mr Johnson needs to show up."

Am furious they say it was for childcare and therefore fine! As a single parent, my main concern about getting sick was whether my child would be taken into isolation alone. If I had known a jaunt around the country to deposit her onto anyone willing to look after her in another household was fine...

Oh and his nieces also came into contact apparently. More people keep on being added to the long list.

Lots of tory press seeming less than thrilled with BJ and Co atm.

As for MH...hell mend him! He will learn, the hard way, once BJ lets him take the blame/flack for the UK covid-19 response.

I thought there was some twee story about this child (named Ceddy iirc) feeding his parents soup? Yep - there was. Math

Well administering Ribena - but same level of twee.

The same Mary W*kefield (wife of DC) piece included this advice to single mothers and other double-COVID parents ; 'get out the doctor's kit and make it your child's job to take your temperature.'

I'm confused now though - because if your family looked after your child while you were ill why on earth would you then publish tips for other families on how to cope in a national publication? Just to ask a disingenuous question. Why would you do that?

On the plus side we could easily deposit Johnson and Cummings onto a deserted Scottish island for a few months and no-one would bat an eyelid at their absence. Even whilst using the Brexit Bus and blaring out "Rule Britannia" up the M1.

I am so tempted.

Continuing test cockups ... local authorities not being able to access the data seems an obvious flaw ...

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchester-still-doesnt-know-18288943

Public health officials and local leaders still have no idea how many people are testing positive for Covid-19 in Greater Manchester, due to continued chaos within the national system.

Health boss Sir Richard Leese said there were an ‘enormous number of people’ being tested at locations such as Manchester Airport and the Etihad
about whom the region has no information whatsoever.

He said they don’t know who they are, where they work, or whether they have tested positive.
As a result there is a 'crucial gap' in the region's ability to fight the virus,he added.

The data issue has now been dragging on since May 44_ and
stems from the two separate testing systems currently in operation.

One involves tests carried out by the public sector,
which are then processed in NHS laboratories - such as at the Manchester Royal Infirmary - and fed back to public health officials,
who use them to track the pandemic’s pattern here and plan local infection control.

But results from the second set of testing,
which is carried out through a government process at various locations - including Manchester Airport - before being processed at private laboratories,
have not been reaching local authorities since the first week in May.

Did Cummings drive to Durham non stop?
Or did he and his family stop for a wee break en route
and thus bring COVID into a whole motorway service area or two?

Were the staff warned that they had all been exposed ?

Did Cummings and his family ensure that they cleaned all surfaces after potentially contaminating them ?

If I owned the services I'd be checking my CCTV and suing him.

PM set to shrink Chinese firm’s involvement to zero by 2023 after caving to backbench pressure

One of many problems BJ is hiding from in the hope they go away:
Keep current valuable UK trade with China, or get a USA FTA - or fail at both .....
[[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/22/boris-johnson-forced-to-reduce-huaweis-role-in-uks-5g-networks
www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/22/boris-johnson-forced-to-reduce-huaweis-role-in-uks-5g-networks]]

The mooted retreat will delight the White House which has been relentlessly campaigning against Huawei,
but is likely to provoke a hostile reaction from Beijing, which has believed the UK was open to inward investment until now.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/22/uk-has-too-much-at-stake-to-confront-china-over-hong-kong

In the view of Nicolas Veron, of the Brussels-based thinktank Bruegel,
it is almost as if the UK, weakened after Brexit, could become a site of competition or testing ground between China and the US as they each seek the UK’s allegiance.

It's the continual stream of "... not as I do" from those telling the plebs what to do

The rules at the time Cummings travelled were:

1. shopping for basics
2. one form of exercise a day

3.travelling to and from work, but only where absolutely necessary, 4. people should not meet family members who do not live with them

People with second homes were expressly told not to go there.

lonelyplanet
But the rules for people who were actually ill and they still are were
STAY AT HOME
Its not tricky
but he's a thicky

I'm struggling to understand why someone visiting their own home, not meeting anyone and without symptoms should loose their job when 2 adults and a child clearly and knowingly with symptoms (and with a positive test days later) travel across the entire country to another household (or 2 depending on whether his sister lives with his parents?) probably stopping to use services en-route, don't.

It makes me really livid. I know an elderly woman who is dying of cancer. She has spent the last 3 weeks in hospital then a nursing home. She doesn't have Covid neither does the home. Her daughters, complying with the rules cannot be with their Mum in her remaining days.

If normal citizens follow the rules and can't say goodbye to their lovely Mum -tax payer funded advisors should be sacked for flouting the rules.

It's hard to explain but this woman is lovely, so kind, she never had much money despite working hard in manual jobs. She would put £5 in an envelope for my children even though she had so little.
The timing of her death is such that despite her kindness to everyone -she is dying alone. She doesn't have the virus and neither do her daughters. But To.comply.with.the.rules. she is dying alone -after a life of kindness to others.

It is so unfair.

Splendid

I am puzzled as to why it's come out now. Is it because at the time the Guardian and Mirror got wind of it, Johnson was in hospital, so they knew if they had spilt the beans then, the story wouldn't have made the headlines? But now it's a good time, with a Bank Holiday coming up, and people wanting to get out and about?

It stinks to high heaven, but Cummings will get away with it and carry on shitting up our lives. Because he's one of the anointed prophets of patriotic Torylicious Brexitannia, and therefore there will be special reasons (to be disseminated to the susceptible by means of simple slogans) why his actions were not just excusable, but somehow admirable.

Since we haven't had Brexit Bingo for a while, here's a handy Cummings Bingo sheet for Westministenders to play around MN

With Gove, Raab and Sunak all tweeting the No.10 line (i.e. Cummings threatening them), we really must keep the pressure up. They really mustn't be allowed to get away with this.

Going back a few posts to the Huawei thing - it isn't good to be wholly dependent on one supplier for anything, but can the Americans replace what they offer? Which of us have an American made mobile phone? I don't, I have gone through Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and now Huawei in the last 20 years.

And of course, with Parliament off on their hols, yet again, there are no PMQ's for Starmer to hold Johnson to account. Johnson must be hoping and praying that it all dies down in a few days, and he can get on with waffle and piffling.

So back when it all kicked off, London was the epicentre of the outbreak, but then the North-East suddenly became another hot-spot...

I seem to remember they blamed it on coarse and vulgar locals taking their whippets for walks and queueing for chips.

Maybe we now know who the superspreader was?