Westminstenders: How many Dead Cats Do You Get In A Thunderstorm?

[RedToothBrush]

It never rains. It only pours.

What I wouldn't give for a bit of old fashioned drizzle right now.

4 years on and we are facing a torment of calamities. Brexit, serious political instability in the USA ahead of an election that Trump will refuse to lose even if he does, trade deals with the rest of the world put on 6 week deadlines, anger within the commonwealth, a sick weak dependent PM on the back foot and ill briefed, rampant growing corruption in the Tory party, woke nut jobs out of touch with reality, councils on the brink of bankruptcy and the whole covid-19 crisis.

Apparently Theresa May has just handbagged Gove over the appointment of Frost as NSA. Anyone watching? (I'm at work)

And then an SNP MP asked a question about "this Dominic Cummings government" and Gove let it go

I agree to a certain extent DGR - but I am surprised the self serving Tory MP's aren't starting to get fidgety with nervousness.

And yes Theresa did handbag Gove - but what's her standing in the party now? Will enough other MP's think"she's right - what the fuck are they doing?"

I'm being treated to an episode of Captain Underpants at the moment alongside a torrent of WhatApp messages telling me some people in dd's class are now teaching their children trig (Y4)...

Agree @JeSuisPoulet - the C19 crises has told us (what we already know) this government can’t be trusted to not make a shambles of Brexit. Also tend to agree with DGR - what about those of us who saw it coming.

"Clap for bankers" eh ?

And since he seems willing to paraphrase The Godfather I think it's now fair game to talk about taking him out like the gangster he thinks he is. Maybe one of his praetorian guard could have a firearm mishap ?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-says-britain-should-22276672

Boris Johnson says Britain should clap for bankers in the same way they do for NHS nurses.

And he wouldn't promise to give NHS staff a pay rise as part of his 'new deal' plan to recover from coronavirus.

The Prime Minister revealed his plan to build his way out of the crisis today in a speech in Dudley - promising to tear up planning regulations and invest £5bn in infrastructure projects.

But despite hailing the speech as containing "a lot of government intervention" - he said: “My friends - I am not a communist.

Clap for bankers ?????

ODFOD

"the up planning regulations" eh?

Oh FFS. Tear up

That doesn’t sound good from a climate change perspective. Most successful challenges to infrastructure projects are based on planning regulations and if they are substantially torn up the government will be able to go ahead with damaging and maybe wasteful infrastructure projects.

Cough cough.

@CeciledeVolanges

That doesn’t sound good from a climate change perspective. Most successful challenges to infrastructure projects are based on planning regulations and if they are substantially torn up the government will be able to go ahead with damaging and maybe wasteful infrastructure projects.

Don't worry. Fuck all will happen.

The housebuilders of the UK haven't spent millions on donations to the Tories just to see their cozy money machine have a spanner thrown in by people being able to swerve having to buy new houses.

As supporting evidence I submit every other initiative there has been in the past 15 years to address the "housing crisis", and how well they have done. There might be a portaloo in Dundee that was built as a result.

Anyway, team Boris doesn't believe in climate change, anyway.

www.thenational.scot/news/18551000.english-independence-49-tory-voters-england-back-idea

IN what could be a seminal moment for the future - or lack of it - of the United Kingdom, a shock new poll published today shows that Conservative supporters in England are split down the middle on whether they want the Union to continue.

The independent YouGov poll organised by YesCymru, the non-party campaign for an independent Wales, suggests the end of the Conservative and Unionist Party is nigh, given that a massive 49% of Tory supporters want independence for England.

(contd)

As supporting evidence I submit every other initiative there has been in the past 15 years to address the "housing crisis", and how well they have done. There might be a portaloo in Dundee that was built as a result.

Gentle reminder that housing is a devolved matter and that Dundee is in Scotland

This was from an Audit Scotland report on affordable housing that was published in April this year.

https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2020/nr200409affordable_housing.pdf

Covid may have delayed some of the building but up until then, they had already build over 30,000 affordable homes (over 20,000 for social rent) since 2016 and were on track to complete the promised 50,000 homes by 2021.

Jason

That should come with a warning - I nearly spilled me beer!!

Covid may have delayed some of the building but up until then, they had already build over 30,000 affordable homes (over 20,000 for social rent) since 2016 and were on track to complete the promised 50,000 homes by 2021.

While I take your point about housing being devolved (notes to be even more pernicity (sp ?) in future) my point was that when there was a proper housing crisis in the late 1920s-1930s, or after WW2, then millions of houses were built. Which is why where I grew up in South Harrow looks almost identical to parts of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Anyway, it's all moot. Successive governments have been captured by the building industry. Absolutely no danger of supply ever being allowed to match demand ever again. How else can you keep house prices inflated to ensure the landlords profit ?

Successive governments have been captured by the building industry

do you mean bought?

I forgot to mention a chat I had with a friend who works in a local hospital. We were discussing how horrifying opening pubs and cinemas etc was particularly in relation to air con. She said that in her hospital they have turned the air con off due to the risks and it got up to 40 degrees in the hot weather last week. It strikes me as interesting that hospitals know to do this due to research yet cinemas and large chains are apparently unaware...

Again, as predicted.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/job-interviews-british-citizens-europe-brexit-a9593066.html

British citizens living in the EU are increasingly being refused job interviews because of their impending Brexit loss of free movement rights, MPs have been told.

Representatives of British in Europe, an umbrella organisation representing the 1.2 million British people living on the continent, said the loss of rights was “already real” for many people living abroad.

UK nationals have free movement in the EU until the end of the transition period in December this year, giving them the right to live work and study abroad.

But EU employers are anticipating the end of those right, which will make it harder for Britons to do some jobs that involve cross-border travel.

“We are seeing people refused interviews for jobs because those jobs require the freedom to travel across the EU,” Kalba Meadows, a steering group member of British in Europe who lives in France, told the EU Future Relationship Select Committee.

FT now reporting that the govt has been fiddling the covid figures.

Published stats only include "pillar 1" tests (done by NHS); pillar 2 (private labs) testing is missing and is in some cases accounts for up to 19 out of every 20 positive cases.

No wonder the good folks at Leicester town hall have been looking puzzled. The data was there, but wasn't being shared with them.

the government will be able to go ahead with damaging and maybe wasteful infrastructure projects

HS2 anyone? Completely useless now "Zoom" has arrived to actually allow WFH to work effectively.

FT now reporting that the govt has been fiddling the covid figures.

Surely not ? Oh, on second thoughts, how is this news ? It's been discussed here for weeks.

Re housing, Cameron was held over a barrel by building companies who refused to build on land they owned because the coalition wanted sustainable homes. I've posted on here before about this years ago as it really jars; was so beneficial to the environment as well as people living in them for health. IIRC the decision to ditch it was supported by over 2/3 of the large contractors who complained that there was no public market for sustainable homes, new techniques were needed to comply with the regulations (fitting air heat pumps for eg which are easier to fix than boilers - ergo cheaper for the home owner along with the better insulation dropping heating costs) and their profit dropped by 3%. Note, this wasn't that they didn't make a profit, just a little less than they were used to. As soon as Cameron was in on his own he ditched sustainable homes and they started building boxes, to much fanfare that Cameron was "tackling the housing crisis" or rather perpetuating the global view that UK homes are some of the worst for value for money in the western world

It will be interesting to see what impacts there are on housing

• lack of builders
• lack of demand for student lets
• extra demand due to marriage breakdown
• no money due to job losses

Personally I think right to buy and help to buy should be abolished with a cliff edge of 1st August.
And that planning application renewal should be abolished the same day.
Bring the price of development land right down and let people build their own eco homes over the next few years
cut the big companies out completely

Re housing, Cameron was held over a barrel by building companies who refused to build on land they owned because the coalition wanted sustainable homes.

All I know is, when DW and I vaguely thought about moving, and did a tour of local new builds (14 in all, most of which weren't accessible, but that's another story) then part of the sales pitch was that houses would only be released at a rate of so many hundred a year over the next 5 to 6 years in order to ensure the prices remained "stable".

When you can fuck around like that, there isn't a housing "crisis" plain and simple. Same as when all the grain is locked up in silos and dribbled out at so many tonnes a week to ensure prices remain "stable" then there isn't a famine either. Just some greedy cunts gaming the market.

One of my deep loves of history comes from (as with travel) realising people are the same wherever and whenever they are. The historical record shows that upon becoming Emperor, Claudius (when not invading Britannia ) ordered infrastructure changes around Rome and Ostia including building silos to prevent the grain merchants price-gouging as they had been up till then with the associated public disorder ( panem et circii ). I particularly like Claudius as from his knowledge of the Imperial archives he could confront the contractors with their previous bids to Augustus and ask why they had doubled ....

Surely not ? Oh, on second thoughts, how is this news ? It's been discussed here for weeks.

FT has got the data ... graphs are shocking.

I am inclined to think that this is incompetence and just generally not giving a shit about providing good data to the public and local authorities, rather than deliberately hiding stuff.