Westminstenders: Just another DEADline

[RedToothBrush]

Today is the last scheduled day for talks with the EU.

We have til 30th June to ask for a transition extension. We won't.

That leaves us starring down the barrel of a no deal exit, when we still could be in a covid-19 crisis and the US may be in turmoil given recent events and the coming election...

It's not a pretty picture.

What food people buy should be up to, well, people.

Really?
Well I wish whoever it was who fancied the bat soup had chosen differently.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/10/tory-councillors-accused-of-racist-posts-on-social-media

It blows my mind that these people think this shit is ok

My personal feeling is that every statue that is taken down will ultimately serve to whitewash the continuing exploitation and colonialism that is going on right now, in the present.

I really hope I'm wrong but ... we'll, we're all supposed to be celebrating a massive 'win', and congratulating ourselves on a massive social revolution at exactly the same time that Amazon end the Covid risk pay for their workers.

Obviously, I hope for an anti-racist world - I mean, even Alok Sharma can say that - but ... we're in the middle of a huge power upheaval here and I just don't feel it's going 'our' way.

🤷‍♀️

I feel like such a grinch typing that.

I feel I shouldn't.

But I honestly can't rid myself of the feeling of deep despair.

cat

Me either cat

JustAnotherPoster00

It was interesting to see how much damage and how many votes Labour lost in the last election over antisemitism. Compare this to how little fuss there was or votes lost over racism in the Tory party.

Btw I don't think racist comments by elected Tory officials will lose them votes, just look at Boris Johnson and what he's said. I can't imagine a member of a different political party becoming leader after saying such things. Apart from parties like UKIP, BNP etc.

I noted when I read Bercow's autobiography that he said he hadn't been on the receiving end of any anti-semitism from Labour MPs, but that he had from Tory MPs.

I don't doubt that there were anti-semites in the Labour party. I do think that it was whipped up to help to destroy Corbyn, but that lovable Boris of the picanninies and the watermelon smiles got a free pass yet again.

@prettybird

On the BootCamp thread, the post did eventually get reinstated. I think it's an automatic filter that they must recently have installed.

Scunthorpe ?

Pandemic on the back of Tory austerity www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/10/uk-economy-likely-to-suffer-worst-covid-19-damage-says-oecd

And of course the fact our govt still hasn't implemented nationwide functioning testing that would actually produce useful data and cherry-picks the science...

@JeSuisPoulet

And of course the fact our govt still hasn't implemented nationwide functioning testing that would actually produce useful data and cherry-picks the science...

It's hard to avoid the conclusion they have just given up.

DGR - did they ever really start?

My own MP enjoys a bit of racism and stereotyping:
A member of Cabinet, the 'International Development Secretary' no less!

'The International Development Secretary sent an image of a fortune cookie showing the broken-English message “You not have coronavirus” to a group containing fellow Tory MPs.

The image, which she forwarded from another chat, also bore the words: “Just received my COVID-19 rapid test kit from CHINA! soooooo relieved!!!!!! Thanks beijing!!!!” '

@mrslaughan

DGR - did they ever really start?

I guess that could be a question that leads to a religious schizm in future. Much like transubstantiation. You'll have the "starters" - Tories that declare they started off the bigly best in the world (because they would fled to the US) but were scuppered by ... well Corbyn.

Meanwhile, the "herders" would hold as an article of faith that the UK achieved it's outstanding results as a result of Boris brilliant herd immunity strategy.

On a more serious note, the current situation is inevitably going to feed into world perception of UK, and I can imagine a few countries quietly downgrading the UKs soft credit status.

I've just scrolled back and AuldAlliance's post had indeed been reinstated.

...and it was indeed the synonym for scoff, laugh derisively that had caused the "problem".

France, Italy, Spain - the other hardest-hit European countries are also predicted to hit > 11% fall in GDP

The big difference is that they won't suffer anything like as much from the 2nd hammer of a No-Deal Brexit in 2021

e.g. Before the COVID crisis, No Deal Brexit was expected to cause a fall of 0.7% in Germany's GDP, a little more in France & NL, but a fall of >4% in the UK's

Now Germany is predicted to have a V-shaped recession, i.e. bouncing back in 2021
and probably most other countries will too, as the recession is not due to deep structural problems like e.g. the 2008 one

However, the UK's recovery in 2021 and the recovery of its exporters in particular is expected to be much slower and more painful.

The UK may end as a double CIVID world-beater:
deaths / pop and the severity of its recession

COVID

Thanks for checking prettybird.
That filter is a bit overenthusiastic, especially when there is so much to provoke derisive laughter just now.

@mathanxiety

What food people buy should be up to, well, people.

Is that how you think it works?

That if I fancy a dozen eggs from a free range chicken which spends vher life peck-peck-pecking in a farmyard I can park the old jalopy outside my local Whole Foods Market, select the eggs, and leave?

Or do the contents of my wallet come into it at any point? The price difference today between WFM eggs and Aldi eggs is $4.00, fwiw.

Do you think British consumers will like being reminded every time they go shopping that they can only afford second rate food?

Math a fair point, though you seem to be suggesting I’m naive when I don’t think I am.

I think anyone who shops in basically any supermarket in the U.K. and is confronted with “budget”; “premium” and “brand x” lines of essentially the same product is facing that situation now.

It’s a very difficult argument for me to make because I am essentially trying to ride 2 horses at once

Simultaneously hoping that some food will become cheaper post Brexit (because people with lower incomes need it to be). At the same time acknowledging that the prices people pay for most of their food, most of the time are too low, not to high and a poor reflection of the cost of making it.

German COVID-19 app

https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/german-covid-19-app-still-lacks-legal-basis-experts-say/

The soon-to-be-presented “Corona-Warn-App” would work as some sort of contact diary.
Via Bluetooth, it will register all instances where users have been close enough to each other to transmit the virus
– but only anonymous mobile phone IDs are stored, which are constantly changing.

And if someone becomes ill, all risk contacts are warned.

The app’s source code has been public for several weeks now.

While reviewers have given the app good marks,
a data protection advocate told EURACTIV Germany in an interview that despite strong IT security, privacy could be defended even better.
He is, therefore, calling for it to be regulated by a corona-app law.

“budget”; “premium” and “brand x” lines

All comply with the same high EU standards of food safety & hygiene, additives, hair & animal droppings etc
High-fructose corn syrup is ubiquitous in US food, thought to increase risk of T2
So much US food is sweetened; even bread is sweet

Organic & fair trade will be more expensive, but no proven benefit in health or safety for the consumer

Main difference is taste and to some extent nutritional content
e.g. fat content in meat, % meat, % sauce

Banning country of origin marking is a high US priority, as they insist CoO is a form of trade protection
i.e. they don't want co cerned consumers to easily be able to reject US food