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.

dontcallmelen totally with you on the immense loathing of this utterly disgusting government.

Sympathies to everyone waiting for NHS treatment . The state of NHS and social care is immensely depressing.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/10/two-metre-rule-scrapped-time-new-school-year/

Boris Johnson plans to scrap the two metre rulee_ by September at the latest so that schools can reopen fully for the start of the school year, The Telegraph has learnt.

The Prime Minister has indicated to ministers that he is preparing to change the rule, possibly bringing it into line with the World Health Organisation standard of one metre,,_ within weeks.

Doesn't surprise me.

I haven’t got a problem with 1 metre, so long as hand hygiene, face coverings, cleaning etc.
I do have a problem with all the other lies, misinformation, dissembling, etc., etc.

MIL also had a twice cancelled hospital appointment today. DH takes her and for once had no trouble parking, and she was seen quickly.

a "bastion of Peace and Freedom".

Since when has the word 'freedom' or the concept of 'freedom' been a thing in the public discourse of the UK? It's such a peculiarly American cultural reference (and Christian fundamentalist at that).

Is it possible American TV has permeated consciousness to such an extent that there are British people who believe the Bill of Rights extends to Britain too?

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.

Louise
When American products arrive in UK supermarkets, it won't be 'essentially the same product' in a different package just as it isn't the same product/different packet in the US.

Regardless of affordability, the EU tin of beans you buy has been grown in a field that has never been doused with RoundUp and the bean plants themselves have never received regular doses of other Monsanto toxins.

When you are faced with the equation 'carcinogen-free = unaffordable' everything looks a bit bleaker for the have nots.

@midwestsummer, I have an engineer friend who owns a kitchen design company. He has a lot of thoughts on people who live out of their freezer and microwave but pay $$$$$ for a Viking range in their kitchen.

I had the same sort of question you did from my landlord when my oven's igniter packed it in a few weeks ago. She was astonished that the oven was used almost daily.

Worth watching - David Allen Green on why it’s worrying that the Government is using SIs to avoid scrutiny of poorly thought out policies:

It is not so very surprising that Johnson and co want to scrap the 1m rule or tell dentists it's time to go back to work without warning etc

They can frame reopening UK inc. as good for the nation, but anyway you look at it, Johnson will be desperate for this pandemic to leave the news given how ineptly the government have handled it and its world beating death statistics.

Throw in the double fact that most of the cabinet have had covid and recovered so believe themselves immune and that the vast majority of deaths are in the 70 yr plus category, which is not old, but they just won't care.

It's not just DC, but all of the cabinet seem on the ruthless narcissistic side, and at some subconscious level won't think the deaths of older people are such a loss. We've seen that thinking on MN. The younger vulnerable people are perhaps ignored because the numbers are fewer (collateral damage?).

Plus, many of the unaffected 60 and unders want this to be over, also understandable to a certain degree if their lives haven't been touched by Covid, and resume 'normal' life now. Will be interesting to see what happens if / when there is a 2nd wave. And most of my epidemiologist friends think there will be one.

And most of my epidemiologist friends think there will be one.

I'm really hoping and praying for a vaccine soon, unless the disease just fades away on it's own a vaccine is the only way out I can see. Well, apart from just let it rip through, bury the dead, and carry on. If Oxford get a working vaccine, I bet the Tory press will be all hailing Boris. The headlines will be 'Boris's Vaccine', he will take all the credit regardless of the fact it was nothing to do with him.

Mind you, I do think it's time dentists opened for those who do need treatment. I have a check up appointment in a few weeks and I wonder what will happen, with it. I would be quite happy to delay it, if they are working through a backlog of people whose treatment was suspended.

I was just reading the Hitler vs Churchill thread. On there, there is a quote ‘Winston Churchill is a bastard’ and it was noted that the tide had turned against Churchill.

It made me think of the graffiti squid posted the picture of -" Boris Johnson is a knob."
Exactly the same sentiment, and most fitting for a man who would be Churchill.

I have a knob and I resent the Churchill remark.

It isn't that dentists shouldn't open, but they should have been consulted! The amount of Covid-related deaths amongst the health care staff is unbelievable. So unappreciated (clapping just doesn't cut it) and yet putting their lives on the line. So many have lost their lives to this virus. Just bloody awful.

Yesterday:

John Stevens @johnestevens
EXC: Richard Desmond gave Tories £12,000 two weeks after Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick unlawfully approved his £1bn property development

Billionaire property developer Richard Desmond gave Tories £12k two weeks after his plans got the go-ahead from Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick

Today:

John Stevens @johnestevens
Understand that Robert Jenrick is refusing to answer Urgent Question in the Commons this morning on this

Junior minister Chris Pincher is being sent in his place

Housing minister Simon Clarke on Sky News earlier insisting Robert Jenrick is a “good man and a good minister” who has done nothing wrong

Unclear why he doesn’t want to answer Qs in the Commons if nothing to hide

Timeline of what happened 👇

November 2019: Jenrick & Desmond sit together at Tory dinner 🍽️

14 January: Jenrick overrules Planning Inspectorate & local council to approve £1bn Desmond development a day before £40m charge came in 🏘️

28 January: Desmond gives Tories £12k 💸

Robert Jenrick has since admitted approval was "unlawful by reason of apparent bias" and it has been quashed

Labour's @SteveReedMP is demanding that he release all correspondence relating to his decision

Confirmed: Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is a no-show in the Commons

He has sent junior minister Chris Pincher to answer Qs on his unlawful approval of £1bn Desmond development & the £12k Tory donation two weeks later

Labour's @SteveReedMP says the sequence of events "raises grave concerns about cash for favours"

Ha, just imagine the stink there would be if Robert Jenrick's behaviour had been carried out by a Labour Politician.

Is there still an issue with PPE? It's hard to know with the fast changing events but now hospital staff are being made to wear masks I certainly hope they aren't still suggesting reusing old PPE...? I suspect now China have recovered enough to ramp up production again and the worst of our first wave is over we aren't having the same supply issues.

I had a missed appointment in the week I decided to lock down early - just a hygienist appt - I would not want to go anywhere and sit in a waiting room full of people if there wasn't an emergency.

The single bubble is suiting us well at least and we are including Grandpa in ours which dd is delighted about. Won't be much in it for me other than extra cooking and cleaning but it does mean the load of home educator and entertainer will be lifted a little!

Sabrina thanks for that link. I am so glad Starmer is opposition at the moment for this very reason. I suspect our trade deals will be full of such loopholes and poorly thought out legal clauses for exemptions etc and I fully expect him to be going through post Brexit legislation with a fine tooth comb and pointing out important changes to liberties and standards.

Waiting to hear if Ds (Y10, ASD, SEN) can go back next week or not.
The week before Schools 'shut to most' he was sent home as he was displaying quite severe seizure like activity. I was told that School could not keep him safe and to see my GP who was reluctant to refer him as he believes it's 'just anxiety'. Ds Psychiatrist intervened (he has one as still on sleep meds, so needs one to prescribe as under 16) and said he thought not and more specialist assessment needed. I had a letter from one of the nearest big-city hospitals yesterday to say GP had referred to wrong place so referral would start from scratch. School now 'not sure' if they can keep him safe given SD and 'was I happy to let him go in?'. I asked what sort of hours they were talking about (as rural, I'd have to drive him, and have a younger child too, so, eg once a week for a morning is fine, every day is not) and they 'don't know yet'. Also 'don't know' if he can see his usual teachers, what he'd be doing, where his books are.
It's a buggers muddle alright!

Argh, sorry that should really be on an education thread I think.

But, still, it's all to do with the bloody Govt's mess.
The School IS hopeless. But the Govt is worse!

It does resonate with me though oldlace. I have been told (by parents) that the school plans to get year 10s and 12s in from the 22nd but have not been told anything myself as a teacher ! I do think a lot of school leaders model decision making on our government's style and approach...

@Piggywaspushed

I think this particular School is hopeless (mainly due to the lack of appropriate contact for a SN / SEN child over the last 10 weeks, plus the one thing they sent home was for a course he isn't even taking!)

but, yes, clearly the Govt have given contradictory advice and asked schools to do things that are not logistically possible and then left them to take the flack from parents. I hope it will be better by Sept.

What do you think @Piggywaspushed?
(it's crazy that parents have been given info that you as a teacher haven't been given? how does that work? is it m'ment at your school?)

John Crace thought that Starmer failed to land many blows in yesterday's PMQ's. IMO that's partly because it's his personality, and partly too, it may well be that he knows Johnson feeds off a belligerent approach, and can't cope with steady, calm and measured questions.

A world view ...

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-10/johnson-relaxes-u-k-virus-rules-saying-two-households-can-mix

...
The ongoing business closures are now a grave threat to the economy, according to analysts. The OECD warned the U.K. economy could shrink 11.5% this year. The slump is almost twice as much as what’s expected for the global economy, and the 9.1% for the euro area.

Against this backdrop, Johnson now needs to contain a conflict between scientists and some government ministers that has spilled out in the open. Even as the premier sought to close down the discussion of what he’d got wrong, his medical advisers said learning lessons now will be vital to countering a potential second wave of the virus in winter.
...