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.

For the sake of the American peoples lives I hope Europe bans Americans entering because of Covid figures in USA perhaps it will then get through to the thickest man on Earth Donald no brain cells Trump.

"if you go or attempt to leave I really feel it should be voted on by all Brits"

I totally disagree
Not just for Scotland but wrt any country in the world wanting independence from another

Votes on independence never include the votes of those from whom a country wants to escape !

That requirement would have stopped many former British colonies gaining independence (without violence)

It would have stopped Ireland in the early 20th century gaining independence (for at least 26 of its 32 counties)

fwiw, I hoped in Indy #1 that Scotland would stay, but I now don't take sides or have a preference:
Scotland has been treated too disrespectfully over the last decade
The 2 issues of Brexit and Trident are particularly striking.

I've explained on many previous occasions why Scotland being an independent member nation of the EU involves self-determination and independence, because we actually would have sovereignty as the UK never lost as when it was a member of the EU and would have a real say, whereas Scotland has had its sovereignty taken from it under the current UK set up, because we don't have a voice that is listened to in WM.

I'm not going to engage any more as these are arguments that we've discussed many times on these threads. Feel free to read back.

I've been observing for some time now that U.K. boosterism is rather heavily dependent on ignoring the present in favour of the past.

Yes, the new squirrel is both tiresome, insulting and definitely barking up the wrong tree on this thread. If only the Brexit Arms still existed, they could enjoy their drink there instead. quality of writing implies standards at Oxbridge are poor which isn't surprising when half the students get to buy their way in on Daddy's coat tails

I have 3 remaining tomato plants and a bed of flowering rocket. Everything else died in the freeze after our hot week)

Ah that was an interesting week in the Toothbrush household. I too, since it was the first time I've ever done gardening, and because we started from complete scratch this spring after moving last year, was a little over eager. I planted everything out on first Saturday in May. We improvised with Amazon packaging instead of garden fleece.

Anyway:

I missed this from a couple of days ago

amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/22/britain-nearly-went-bust-in-march-says-bank-of-england?__twitter_impression=true
Britain nearly went bust in March, says Bank of England

Laying bare the scale of the national emergency at the early stages of the pandemic, Andrew Bailey said the government would have struggled to finance the running of the country without support from the central bank.

Asked in an interview with Sky News what would have happened had the Bank not intervened, Bailey said: “I think the prospects would have been very bad. It would have been very serious.”

Poor guy. Took over from Mary Carney on 16th March and that happened!

Tonight via the huffpost:

That’s why perhaps the most telling bit of today’s lobby briefing was when the PM’s spokesman said that Nightingale Hospitals will remain on ‘standby’ for months to come. This was part of the government “working closely with the NHS to prepare for the winter months”, itself an apparent acknowledgment of Chris Whitty’s warning that this virus will be with us into next year. If the council frontline fails, at least the field hospitals will be on hand. Which somehow didn’t seem that reassuring.

When the next election comes round will Johnson pretend that the Nightingale hospitals amount to the 40 he was going to build? What about the 50,000 nurses?

This is assuming that there is an election and that he and his cronies don't decide to cancel them.

Bigchoc thank you for asking, but the short answer is no, not fully recovered. What seems to happen is recovering, then my immune system takes a hit (often work related) and symptoms reactivate. This is not the immunity I was hoping for. Sadly. More like the virus goes dormant or latent, not completely gone.

Btw, DH said just the other night he wondered how much far right members had infiltrated US police forces and if this was behind / part of their disturbing trend to attack journalists. Probably also a result of Trump's continuous attacks on the press. Not to mention how the Seattle police arrested the protester who filmed one pepper spraying a 7 year old but doing so two days later...

Sorry to hear that, DrBlackbird 💐
You are one of the unfortunate 1 in 20 COVID sufferers who've found the bugger has bitten deep and won't let go fully

2 months after his lockdown breach, a much dodgier new scandal involving Robert Jenrick,
but looks like the govt has buried it
(maybe in the same cellar as that report on Russian influence on UK politics)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/24/robert-jenrick-to-release-all-relevant-information-in-planning-row

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, is under pressure to resign after newly released documents indicated that
he “insisted” a planning decision for a £1bn property development should be rushed through so a Tory donor’s company could reduce costs by £45m.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-53172995

Labour said it showed "discrepancies" in Mr Jenrick's account of events.
But Downing Street said Boris Johnson now considered the matter "closed".

'We don't want to give Marxists doe': texts between Desmond and Jenrick

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/24/we-dont-want-to-give-marxists-doe-texts-between-desmond-and-jenrick

Did the squirrels speak English as their first language, and did they have Kool Aid moustaches?

...we still have the basic DNA to pull us through these forthcoming and current dark times - surely!!!

Nothing beats an ounce of pluck.

BCF, my cat is quite a good hunter and has a taste for geckos. However she also has a huge plumed tail (not unlike a squirrel, albeit a right-thinking one, obv), which is a bit of a giveaway. The older cat is less camouflaged but streets ahead, as her girth shows...

I've now understood FrankieStein's doe allusion and am .

As a child growing up in Edinburgh, I was taught never to feed any squirrels, Sassenach or otherwise, lest they then run amok.

Interesting how leaver language has evolved isn't it?

Easiest trade deal in history
Oven ready deal
New albion
Independence Day
Taking back control

And now we are at:

It won't be as bad as the black death
And
...we still have the basic DNA to pull us through these forthcoming and current dark times - surely!!!

...its almost as if they know what a disaster it will be!

Funny, that.

Erm, we had Brexit as the Black Death about 3 years ago! One argument in favour of that is that the genes from the 40% who survived promoted healthier stock for future generations.

In truth, we don't know how resilient people might be. Once the apologists, who have drunk the Kool Aid, leave the scene, there might be a genuine move for change.

Post office cutting 2000 jobs as profits drop 30%.

Johnson has no choice but to support Jenrick because he supported Cummings. It doesn't matter what comes out. If he ditches Jenrick he looks like he favours spads over ministers which could cause a mutiny. But this could be very damaging to his reputation to support a MP who sorted something so a housing developer didn't have to pay millions to the treasury when there is a housing shortage. Of course this in its self could cause unrest in the party for being seen to support corruption.

Pretty sure he will stick by Jenrick so it will be down to whether Jenrick decides to quit or not.

This article is from 5 June so might already have been posted, but warrants reading again if you missed it as nowt has changed since then (if anything it's got more entrenched)

"But the assumption that the Coronavirus crisis has shown that English exceptionalism has run out of steam is, I believe, wrong – as this is not the real problem. The real problem is of an ubiquitous imperialism, which continues to pervade our institutions and culture and has seen a political revival in Brexit Britain."

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/05/beyond-exceptional-the-etonian-english-imperialism-at-the-heart-of-a-deadly-covid-19-crisis/

pmk

Something I find unendingly fascinating is how the victoriana legislated to outlaw cruelty to animals BEFORE cruelty to children.

I find this knowledge particularly interesting when I put it side by side with Lord Ashcroft's passion for ending big animal hunting in Africa and Carrie Symond's mindless tweeting about how we should all be nice to animals and the Royals with their campaigns about elephants and rhinos.

I think we have returned to an era of similar mentality, particularly with the deserving poor and undeserving poor narratives and how conservative (small c) attitudes to hard work have risen. Together with this growing inequality and gap between the richest and poorest and the general invisibility of the poorest.

It does make me think about how the social gains of the 20th Century are reversing and disappearing almost without people realising its happening.

We even have the puritanical notions of morality appearing in the young again, based on belief rather than studies of behaviour. And the importance of how you display this morality to others in your social circle.

and it's still the National NSPCC,
but the Royal RSPCA and RSPB

Dido Harding and her organisation have recruited 25,000 workers,
who - in total - have identified and contacted 87,000 people who have agreed to self-isolate

That's fewer than 4 successful contacts per employee

The Young (well Uni Age) that I interact with are feeling unbelievably depressed at the moment.
They are not universally angry yet but its getting close
If the recovery emphasis looks backwards, not forwards, the straw may break the camel's back

Its going to be a long hot summer

oil and gas still cool

Erm - really? Someone missed the news that BP has just written down its assets by $17.5 billion.