Westministenders: Can you tell your Rs from Elbows?

[RedToothBrush]

This week Mark Sedwill has resigned (or was he pushed?) and David Frost (chief brexit lead) was appointed National Security Adviser in a move that enraged Theresa May. The former prime minister felt that his appointment was unprofessional and that was a political appointment not an independent one and that he lacked experience. Of course in terms of national security we still haven't had that report on Russia and I don't believe The Intelligence and Security Committee has yet been named (not sat since Johnson was appointed as PM).

We have passed the deadline for extending transition and we have now apparently said that negotiations on the end of transition will finish at the end of September.

The bill ending Free movement of people has been signed, amongst much fanfare by the Conservatives saying they have delivered on the Referendum promise. However we might have up to 3million Hong Kongers who we are willing to allow into the country which might not go down too well with those who were unhappy with 'unrestricted EU immigration'.

We also have the demonstration of utter incompetence, outsourcing and lack of coordination and communication from central government and local government in the covid-19 crisis. A national scandal that isn't being properly reported by the press and leave you with the very large question of who is this government serving? If its contract with Deloittes over testing didn't require them to report positive tests to Public Health England, what was the point in the testing? How can this be consistent with 'The Government’s new approach to biosecurity will bring together the UK’s world-leading epidemiological expertise and fuse it with the best analytical capability from across Government in an integrated approach.' and will provide real time analysis and assessment of infection outbreaks at a community level, to enable rapid intervention before outbreaks grow.?

The growing feeling that Brexit is being exploited by this government for personal interests and those of big business at the expense of the general public is one which was feared and grows harder to argue against by the day.

Maybe each of NI, Scotland and Wales would be independent and apply to join?

red Those political-cooperate connections are shocking

@Paragraff

I don't think the EU would accept the UK minus England as being the UK though?

Forget the EU now. This is trying to look centuries ahead. The EU is a bit player in that vision.

(Waits for gasps from remainers thinking I've gone native ....)

"The 2003 Estonian European Union membership referendum took place on 14 September 2003 to decide whether Estonia should join the European Union (EU). Just over two-thirds of voters voted Yes and Estonia joined the EU on 1 May 2004"

NI & Scotland together could make a decent claim to be the UK

@LouiseCollins28 Peter Foster is the public policy editor at the FT. A journalist. Certainly not threatening! Warning more like.

I've just noticed the brexiteer/idiot son/french holiday home Twitter thread has been resurrected. Still not sure how true it is, but here's some closure on it. mobile.twitter.com/archer_rs/status/1280444544371372033

How government blindfolded frontline public health experts fighting Covid’s next phase

Manchester Evening News reporting on how
detailled testing data is STILL not being given to local public health authorities:

Sheer idiocy

Local public health officers / environmental health officers are trained for contact tracing and know their local patch

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-government-blindfolded-frontline-public-18566511

.... But for the experts tasked with out-running the virus, it isn’t enough.

They don’t need to know roughly where the people are; they need to know exactly where they are and who they are.

This is precisely the information they would have during an outbreak of any other ‘notifiable’ disease -
in other words any communicable illness, such as TB or meningitis,
where cases in their area have to legally be reported to them.

Despite them apparently being owed that information legally, it has not been forthcoming.
....
The normal procedure is if there is a notifiable disease,
that the director of public health in the relevant local authority would be given all of the data, including patient details.

“So this system that is running is not consistent with the way we’ve always handled notifiable diseases.”

To put it even more succinctly:
of course public health directors can be trusted with patient data. It’s their job.

Looks as though pub landladies/lords will be a more significant component of contact tracing than the outsourced testing bodies. Very Dad’s Army, very Brexity. Hooray.

DW suggested making smaller pizzas (we have different tastes) so a half tray each for dinner & lunch might be an idea.

You don’t need separate pizza trays - you just need to do different toppings on each half of the pizza and slice accordingly.

@SabrinaThwaite

DW suggested making smaller pizzas (we have different tastes) so a half tray each for dinner & lunch might be an idea.

You don’t need separate pizza trays - you just need to do different toppings on each half of the pizza and slice accordingly.

Except DW likes hers thin and I like mine thick. And I really am not going to mess around trying to get that in a single tray.

Now the idea has been floated, I'm sure we can come up with something.

What's mildly annoying is that when DS lived with us, we had some small round trays for him to cook/reheat his shop-bought pizzas on. And despite the fact my last months magazine subscriptions take up more space, we binned them. (DM was an inveterate hoarder, as is DF, but DW is quite strict ...)

All first world problems I know.

meanwhile did I hear The Donald has been claiming the US is doing so well because of TESTING ? Or something like that ?

Except DW likes hers thin and I like mine thick. And I really am not going to mess around trying to get that in a single tray.

Of course you can, in exactly the same way you were planning to use two separate half sized trays.

As a comment on the thread says this may be a hoax. I can't believe as many as 45% still trust this shower.

I wonder how they built that up ?

[quote catsingangs]I've just noticed the brexiteer/idiot son/french holiday home Twitter thread has been resurrected. Still not sure how true it is, but here's some closure on it. mobile.twitter.com/archer_rs/status/1280444544371372033[/quote]
www.indy100.com/article/fake-brexit-thread-eurostar-rs-archer-9599401

Fake

Very funny all the same, and more entertaining that Mary Wakefield's fictitious article was.

He's a good writer, I wonder how many stories like this are happening in RL. A prolific leaver friend on my FB recently posted a petition to protect our farms from American imports. All I could think of was be careful what you wish for.

I sort of have a little sympathy for those who voted Leave back in 2016, because most people probably thought we would go for an EEA type arrangement. I have none for those who put the Tories in back in December. I have even less for those who are still going on that Corbyn would have been worse. I don't think anyone could have been worse than Johnson/Cummings. The unelected Cummings, don't forget, for those Brexiters who whined about unelected Brussels bureaucrats - unelected Westminster ones seem to be OK.

Enjoy, listening !

Gyms and indoor pools to reopen on 25 July

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-gyms-indoor-pools-and-leisure-centres-in-england-to-reopen-from-25-july-12024995

RTB there was a pub in Whitstable doing similar, passing full pint glasses out of the window and letting punters sit in their garden on benches and all along the sea wall about a week before the cases began in earnest in Kent. As far as I know they've not even had a slapped wrist but a few Trip Advisor reviews were pretty ragey.

BCF yes, as we knew, Public Health this is not. Deloittes' Doo-Doo I'd be tempted to rename it.

I also suspect Wales would join NI and Scotland to make UK then England really can be independent! just surrounded

RTB there was a pub in Whitstable doing similar, passing full pint glasses out of the window and letting punters sit in their garden on benches and all along the sea wall about a week before the cases began in earnest in Kent. As far as I know they've not even had a slapped wrist but a few Trip Advisor reviews were pretty ragey.

There's a bottle shop near us that did the same. We are friendly with the owners.

They told us the deal was that their legal responsibility was to sell in closed containers and after people left the premises it was no longer their problem as they had complied with off-licence laws. So it was plastic pint pots with lids. They were very antsy about it when people were in the shop. It was sailing close to the wind but technically the right side of the law.

The issue with local restaurants was open container at bar in licensed premises. Not the sale of alcohol itself.

I also suspect Wales would join NI and Scotland to make UKthen England really can be independent!just surrounded

And to help the English feel much safer perhaps we could build a wall to keep all the nasty forriners out, depending on how it's phrased I bet they would fall for it hook, line and sinker

As far as I know they didn't have lids, but I wasn't there so they may have.

I just logged my daily update into the Kings COVID Symptom Study and found out that cases are no longer declining in UK with over 23k suspected cases around the country (this news is dated 9th July).

@JustAnotherPoster00 as long as JCB "won" the contract I'm sure it will have legs

As far as I know they didn't have lids, but I wasn't there so they may have.

May have been why they were served out the window. They were not open nor being drunk on the premises....

Bigchoc
I've already packed my swimming bag
Just need to shift my Lockdown weight gain yeah I know, I know