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.

Johnson has no choice but to support Jenrick because he supported Cummings

Predicted - by me - on these threads a month ago.

Forget a lame duck prime minister. We have a lame duck government. No one can be sacked for anything.

If I were a cabinet minister, I'd be maknig hay while the sun shines.

I wonder if someone could literally get away with murder ? I'm guessing yes.

The Early Years Alliance has published a report on the impact of Covid-19 for Early Years settings, entitled The Forgotten Sector

It gives an accurate catalogue of the constant changes and lack of funding. What it doesn't make clear is that, despite all these financial losses, we are still expected to pay many of our costs: registration fees, memberships, insurances, extra cleaning etc. For example, we have been told to carry on paying insurance, even if we're closed and in spite of insurance companies refusing to pay out claims for loss of earnings that many were insured for.

I noticed that the Trump thread had some furry tree rodent activity the other day.

LQ we have a visiting sparrow hawk that cruises the gardens, but I think it goes for the smaller birds rather than the wood pigeons? Haven’t seen or heard our peregrines this year though

That's fewer than 4 successful contacts per employee

I noted that yesterday at PMQs, and I thought that Starmer missed a trick by not pointing that out.

We have a lot of red kites. Also a lot of wood pigeons. Occasionally the heron stops by.

Sabrina
Yup the sparrowhawk takes sparrows and starlings mainly

The Peregines have had a good year - round here they go for street pigeons rather than wood pigeons

Goshawks are what we need LOTS of hopefully the driven shoot estates will go bust and stop persecuting them

But the kite and Buzzard action is SPECTACULAR this year
the kites have had a fab time eating deer carcasses on the hard shoulder

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

Much easier to replace a dead child than a prize racehorse.

Dickens acid "decrease the surplus population" did not take years of deep meditation to appear in his mind. It was probably a headline in one of the days newspapers.

Peregrina
Many years ago I was working in an industrial estate in Henley
went to the burger van to get lunch
chap in front of me put his burger on the table and turned to get his drink
red kite swooped down and stole it
flipping heck they are big up close
burger van man laughed so hard, gave another free burger

Kites eat squirrels too

I am treating the WM government as you would do an addicted family member. They will need to hit rock-bottom before anything useful will be salvaged. Based on past Tory behaviour, Johnson will flounce out and his seat will be taken over by Gov. I would imagine they will hold off calling for an election for as long as possible.

Herrick won't be forced to resign but he will be quietly demoted in the next reshuffle.

Young people will vote with their feet. They don't have job prospects, mortgages or families to tie them down. If we go through a Depression, we will lose a generation of our best qualified to overseas countries and our least qualified to the mental health crisis.

For me, the UK is on a time limit. My kids are still young but I don't want them reaching adulthood in 10 years time with no prospects. If nothing has changed within the next five, we will move. Both myself and DH are in technology and we could move countries without sacrificing jobs. I know I am not the only one in my circle who are thinking about this.

We have lots of buzzards too, although they get a lot of hassle from the local crows. I’m seeing more red kites about this year as well - they are big, but not as big as the sodding huge herring gull that grabbed a slice of pizza out of my hand a while back.

Seeing the red kites being fed at Rhayader is quite an experience.

Same, ABC. We've options and transferable jobs. Would be sad to go though.

I just discussed what TheABC said with DH
and yes, we'll sit tight till the youngest one graduates and then if things are not better will join the brain drain
we even worked out where we can afford to move to

We even have the puritanical notions of morality appearing in the young again, based on belief rather than studies of behaviour

^This is exactly what I'm seeing happen with my DD and her friends. Scary almost in that trying to discuss anything within the family that questions this belief system is instantly and angrily dismissed. Yet, these beliefs are being fuelled by vloggers with particular agendas using SM to disseminate and amplify... based on what? Just personal opinion and v little insight into their own motivations.

Anyhow, I am utterly relieved that DD has dual citizenship and so has options.

@ TheABC

Been there down that re corporate jollies overseas. Usual suspects Hong Kong, China, Singapore, UAE and USA.

Far East is still amazing in right spots eg Tokyo and Seoul if you are in the right skill set sectors.
Sydney is where I know some fellow parents have experienced recently (medics) and Auckland but possibly too insignificant for most sectors as many of the bright ones are here or Aus.

I was for short periods in California - loved it great lifestyle but I understand if you are serious big hitters in tech you need to be your own brand and startup these days to make the cut. It was less complicated and competitive back in the day!

I still have faith in Brextania but open to suggestions!!! Thankful to mobile tech to be a digital capitalist normad (just don’t have as many beans in the pot anymore!). The UK needs those with a bit of intelligence and enterprise to repackage what we can offer and bloody sell sell sell! So many UK corporations making a nice comfortable earner worldwide and forgetting their roots!

Saw some squirrels again when I was out on my run this morning

I'm doing my bit for Brave New Brexit Britain.

I have 10 years worth of unparalleled studies on breeding the perfect dandelion. My application for a research grant was rejected when I originally suggested it, but a quick find-and-replace with Taraxacum Brittanicus and I was £100K better off.

I may not be taking Brexit as seriously as some would like.

I am absolutely livid about Robert Jenryk. It is the most blatant corruption I have ever heard of. I try not to email my nice Tory MP too often, but I can definitely feel a rant coming on.
How dare they?
I’m quite enjoying the dramatic pretensions of Tufty, can see where it’s going tho. Seems an enthusiastic hyperactive little chap.

I'm COVID antibody negative, haven't had symptoms at any point, but have worked in COVID zones daily since the beginning of the pandemic with variable amounts of PPE

Just for interest...

We're also talking about leaving the country, which I have never considered before ever - I am extremely english in my head

I am absolutely livid about Robert Jenryk. It is the most blatant corruption I have ever heard of.

You need to hear some stories from Italy and Sicily then.

On antibody testing I don't think it's very useful practically yet. Useful for research. Shouldn't be used for testing numbers either!

www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2420

That's good news squid. My NHS friend who had a positive test seemed to recover very quickly and with little issue. She doesn't work in a hot area though so I imagine her viral load was quite small. Where would you go? Tradition seems to favour the antipodes.

I regularly see up to 6 buzzards and three kites (2 adults plus juvenile) soaring above me as I sit out in my garden.

Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director for Scotland, who is a great communicator (and straight talker ) was very good at explaining the shortcomings of antibody testing last week at the press briefing. He'll probably be at the press briefing again tomorrow as he usually seems to do Fridays (sometimes more often but I don't recall him on earlier this week).

And yes, the Scottish Government is still doing daily Covid press briefings , led on almost every occasion by Nicola - which usually last an hour, including c45 minutes of press questions. (They have however stopped the weekend briefings.) The only week days they don't do the press briefings are Wednesdays, when it's FMQs or when she is making a major new policy change (like last Thursday) when she will make the statement to Parliament at Holyrood. Even in Holyrood though, she'll start FMQs/the statement with the updated daily figures.

At least I assume a juvenile as it wasn’t around last year.