Westminstenders: Where are we now?

[RedToothBrush]

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Just that.

Don't really want to reflect more than that right now.

I spent a year working in NZ in the 70's.
Even way back then NZ firmly had their attention focused on the Pacific region for their future.
It was a devil of a job to get more than a 3 month Visa, and no work permit.
Ironically, nowadays the tourist Visa is for 6 months, but there is a strong movement in NZ to change their flag to the silver fern on black, removing the Union Jack completely.
Can't say I blame them really, considering how shoddily we treated them on joining the EU.

@DGRossetti that's a really interesting fact about Concorde, thank you. Ds will love it!

If you see it in a museum ( It belongs in the air, not a museum ! ) then look carefully at the engine intakes. There are bits missing that were quietly "reclaimed" by our intelligence services as being too good to lose.

Part of the phenomenal engineering challenge of Concorde was to slow the air feeding the engines from supersonic (3000 km/s) to subsonic (.32 km/s) in a few metres. That's the bit NASA admitted would have stumped them. (Rocket science - especially when you don't need to fly your rocket with 100 paying passengers twice a day) is actually rather humdrum (dons hard hat).

Another trivia fact, from one of our customers who worked at the airport (and sneaked us in to have a look - this was the 80s) was the carpets didn't fit. Or rather didn't fit at sea level. But in the air the friction caused the plane to ... er, grow !.

Enjoy !

(Incidentally, the US also cracked the air intake issue with the SR-71. And slightly differently. But I sense it's the supersonic equivalent of the Teller-Ulam design - still highly classified in detail).

Ironically, nowadays the tourist Visa is for 6 months, but there is a strong movement in NZ to change their flag to the silver fern on black, removing the Union Jack completely.

Only yesterday, I had a post from "Republic" noting how few New Zealanders had a clue as to who their head of state was. Not sure how happy they would be if they found out ....

@prettybird - I meant to ask what your thoughts are.
The Julia Gillard interview is interesting and I think NZs trade partners by siz e would be very similar

When we were there (74-76), there was a lot of bitterness towards the UK for having prioritised the Common Market over the NZ farmers. They were still in the transition process and negotiating special access to the EEC.

My (dairy) farmer friends said however (on a visit over here a few years ago) that in many respects it was the best thing that had happened to their industry as it forced them to modernise (note: not lower standards ) and to look elsewhere for markets. They didn't see any great rush to re-build UK sales - and certainly not to open up their markets to UK imports.

I also recall that back then UK immigrants were seen as obstructive, bolshie bastards who just cause trouble with industrial relations (that might also have been to do with Piggy Muldoon being in power and hating trade unions ).

I might only have been 13-15 when I was there, but we were a very politically aware family

DGR - I am really surprised about that - was it credible numbers?
The Irony from BJ's speech is his comment about sharing a head of state with Australia- which has quite a strong movement to ditch the Queen.... much stronger than NZ.

I am not sure what the point of his little infomercial was or how he is viewed in Australia, but I know he didn't go down well when he was in NZ. I think tolerates is a good way to describe the views on him . I know a number of business types who were invited to functions , where he spoke.... they weren't impressed , and were asking me how on Earth he ended up in that position (I was in NZ not long after his visit), I can imagine their surprise he has ended up as PM.

I think part of the problem is the Etonian humour- it just really wouldn't translate, added to the fact I think he is perceived to be talking down at you..... anyway fun and games....

DGR - I am really surprised about that - was it credible numbers?

www.republic.org.nz/latestblog/2020/6/16/media-release-poll-result-2020

So it's hard to see that translating into a warm and fuzzy feeling for "the old country".

What Brexiteers manage to forget (which is odd, given how much space they must have in their heads where the brain should be) is that these "commonwealth" countries were also subject to large amounts of non-British immigration in the past. So just because they speak English (after a fashion ) doesn't necessarily make them English. And as such, their populations may be slightly more ambivalent to the UK than you'd expect ?

I guess making assumptions based on language is pretty aking to making assumptions based on peoples colour ....

Anyone who likes facts (and Brexiteers too for that matter) can have a dekko here, if they like ...

Some of the companies who have had the £ 16 billion lent to them.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/brexit-set-to-cost-the-uk-more-than-200-billion-by-the-end-of-the-year/16/06/#.XupBBIS9OBY.twitter

The enormous economic impact of the Coronavirus is now being shown in jaw dropping hard data. The UK economy has shrunk by 20.4 per cent in April – the largest monthly contraction ever recorded. This is ten times worse than anything recorded during the 2008-2009 financial crash and four times worse than The Great Depression of 1931.

To compound this misery the UK is also feeling the economic impact of Brexit. Bloomberg research shows that Brexit is set to have cost the UK more than £200 billion in lost economic growth by the end of this year. This is a figure that almost eclipses the total amount the UK has paid into the EU budget over the past 47 years (£215 billion) since joining in 1973.

This should be unbelievable: track and trace won't be available until the Winter.

https://twitter.com/samcoatessky/status/1273290866631704576?s=21

But ...

And this is what is holding up the return to schools (along with a continued lack of accommodation space, teacher numbers and technology resources - none of which can be procured, at scale, without government intervention of some kind), not teachers, schools, unions or even Starmer.

It's garrotting the economy, too.

I actually cannot understand why people aren't furious with Johnson.

It's actually mind-boggling what this government can get away with.

☹️

It's actually mind-boggling what this government can get away with.

As opposed to overseeing countless thousands of needless deaths ?

Now they've realised they can openly cull the population, what - just what on earth - do you think is going to stop them.

DGR
Do you have a link for that picture as I left my reading glasses in the car

Part of the phenomenal engineering challenge of Concorde was to slow the air feeding the engines from supersonic (3000 km/s) to subsonic (.32 km/s) in a few metres.

Erm - those figures are just a wee bit out. It was more like 1350 mph (0.6 km/s) down to 350 mph (0.16 km/s).

3000 km/s is 6,700,000 mph

Erm - those figures are just a wee bit out. It was more like 1350 mph (0.6 km/s) down to 350 mph (0.16 km/s).

If only Brexiteers had paid such attention 4 years ago ...

And I was getting km/h and /s mixed up. It's not like I "forgot" the VAT on a multi billion pound project or anything.

So many people on both sides of the argument are mathematically challenged.

www.concordesst.com/powerplant.html with pictures of Rolls Royce Olympus engines + numbers

Not caught up with the thread since this morning but just read this and thought it was worth posting www.washingtonpost.com/health/could-covid-19-cause-long-term-chronic-fatigue-and-illness-in-some-patients/2020/05/29/bcd5edb2-a02c-11ea-b5c9-570a91917d8d_story.html. I think I said early on the main worry with the herd immunity "strategy" was that no one knows the long term effects and it had been linked to and MS style 'recovery'. These are the hidden risks we need to be focusing on; all of those people at home who weren't able to get a test for COVID because they weren't hospitalized (maybe just taken ill for a couple of weeks at home) and are still struggling months later.

As the article says, this is a costly impact for the NHS and obviously will further reduce productivity levels of UK. People are clearly not thinking about this longer term effect as they queue in town to get a shopping fix

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/11/former-australian-pm-kevin-rudd-calls-brexit-trade-plan-utter-bollocks

Another ex- Australian PM pouring scorn on Bozo's plan

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/17/government-to-fund-private-tutors-for-english-schools?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Fucking hell - so which National tutoring firms are Tory donors?

You'd think the thing would be to actually invest in education - classrooms so you can have smaller class sizes , more teachers, proper support for SEN pupils .... TA's.... what else is on our education shopping list

God - another ex-Australian PM

twitter.com/marieannuk/status/1273272666598912001?s=21

Looks like it won't be paid tutors or teachers:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/charities-in-talks-with-ministers-over-tuition-pilot/amp/

I mean, of course it won't be paid tutors or teachers.

It will be a pilot scheme, that crumbles in contact with reality ...

But there will be a lot of fanfare about it ...

It really is ridiculous - pandering to the shouty crowd. Anyone that has ever taught will know that it takes time, planning, and repeated exposure of tutors to pupils to obtain good outcomes. You cannot just find a load of tutors (from where?) dump them in a room full of students and say off you go. It needs a longer term plan, and sensible funding.

To be fair, 1:1 it's far easier to build a relationship.

But ... wouldn't it be a good idea to employ teachers, not volunteers?

I also strongly suspect this is going to be a pilot scheme and will disappear in months.