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.

Perhaps the EU likes to be prepared. It hardly matters - now that we are out of the EU, it's irrelevant. Cummings/Johnson want to be 'world beating', so why didn't they steal a march on the EU that they hate so much? Or failing that, why didn't they ask their pals in the US to supply us.

A huge proportion of them hate any recreational drug and strongly believe they are the cause of most of society's ills (not poverty - no!) and people who take them in any form should have HARSHER punishments, not be given it on the NHS.

Why? Didn't a whole raft of the Cabinet admit to drug taking?

That parkour link
I need brain bleach. The white socks and pasty legs. The standing too close despite being Health Secretary. The desperate attempt at the end to look like he knew what the professional was talking about...

So after a series of debacles, including the 2012 Olympics farce, now fraud ....
the government will never use GS4 again ?

Being allowed to avoid prosecution is not a promising sign:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/10/g4s-fined-44m-by-serious-office-over-electronic-tagging

Security firm G4S has been fined £44m by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as part of an agreement that will see it avoid prosecution
for overcharging the Ministry of Justice for the electronic tagging of offenders, some of whom had died.

The SFO said G4S had accepted responsibility for three counts of fraud
that were carried out in an effort to “dishonestly mislead” the government, in order to boost its profits.

It's not about the cabinet though, they want to curry public favour back after the COVID fiasco... They have gone to another typical emotional trigger for their supporting group.

"they want to curry public favour back after the COVID fiasco.

That will take a fucking big squirrel
... on a lot of illegal steroids !

I feel like we are in some Boy Scout Team Work weekend, where each member of the pack has to pretend to take on a role and wear a "professional hat". Hancock clearly has no idea what he is doing or what even constitutes for a public health campaign amongst so many other things I cannot be bothered to list, Cummings is pretending he knows all about CBD after reading some medical journal on psychosis circa 1990 so he can wind up his toy army again, Grayling is going to scare spies into submission presumably by giving their names to the Russians over the telephone directly and no one is apparently sorting out the shit on the doorstep of Brexit.

.

BCF yes, but your mask stats back it up. I said at the start of this when we discussed masks that men won't wear them and Leavers less likely to because of authoritarianism. We know that is the main link to leave voters. We know they hate cannabis and would rather pretend, like Trump supporters, that COVID wasn't such a big deal or that Boris did the best he could have and but Corbyn. They are searching for ladders like this so that their world doesn't fall apart right now - they've been acting weirdly online for several weeks while they start to clock what Brexit is really going to look like (see food standards petitions etc).

As they say - that MP is not a happy bunny.

However, he does have a point; they have had four years to sort this out. Or at the very least, the one year since Johnson became PM and knew that he was going to go for No Deal.

Not saying it is going to work by the way, but we have seen similar things pulled off where we are all sitting here thinking WTF so, on the balance of how 2020 is going...

How long can it last though?

It's actually very interesting watching the psychological switches being wrenched upon by Guv'nor Cummins.

I have to say, I'm havingdarkly happy thoughts about the Ashford fiasco. The lady Leaver I had to stop talking to last year after she went a bit loopy telling me that I was a terrible parent for taking dd abroad (IT'S NOT SAFE!) lives literally 12 minutes away from it on Google Maps and guess where she works? Thought it was going to be Dover that got screwed, didn't she!

I'm evil I know, but honestly it couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

That parkour link shock.The standing too close despite being Health Secretary.

The clip is dated July 2018.

East Kent and customs clearance is the sodding great Brexit Achilles heel.

People do not realise how incredibly vital it has been that Lorry drivers were deemed "international key workers" and have been free to move anywhere if delivering groceries

unlike the tens of thousands of cruise ship crew who have effectively been prisoners for the last three months

BUT
that ultra smooth flowing of lorries made easier by the lack of tourist traffic
comes to a shuddering halt at the end of the year
and as operation stack has shown us again and again
the only way to stop lorries using back roads is to block them with police cars 24/7

so the groovy J10a / M20 plan
will involve putting the whole of East Kent (around 1/2 million people) under a permanent police blockade

that will go well

Did the MP for Ashford vote for Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement?

It will be a blardy nuisance, if you need to go to the Channel ports, but this is what the Brexiters wanted - they told us they knew what they voted for, and anyone who voted in a Tory MP back in December should definitely have known what was on the cards.

The sheer number of tory MPs who are only just now reading the QA that they voted through must be shitting themselves....

WA even

Ashford MP is Damian Green
misogynist
anti brexit
www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10241/damian_green/ashford/votes

BigChocFrenzy
It's not just a US FTA to worry about wrt food standards, environment etc:
Because as Josie Cohen PAN UK‬ Pesticide Action Network tells me...

I would grow your own - report from PAN (Pesticide Action Network) Europe;

April 7, 2020 -
"Business as usual for pesticide cocktails in EU food."
"One third of the food consumed in Europe contains residues of two or more pesticides, according to the annual report published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)."

www.pan-europe.info/press-releases/2020/04/business-usual-pesticide-cocktails-eu-food

Yeah sorry, this has actually really made my not great day, end well.
I keep getting flashbacks to things she used to shout at me regularly and can't stop chuckling.

I know, I live near there too. Just not quite that close. Plus I haven't just spend the max the bank would loan me on an extension with the personal assurance that Brexit would magically double my house price

But Corbyn.....

JeSuis
How many artics will try the hill up to Stone street

Stop it!

I keep thinking how cross she got when there were temporary traffic lights on her way to work. The last time she got so pissed off she reversed over a tree stump and nearly pulled her exhaust pipe off the car trying to storm off in a huff

Oh and the snooker table put under a canopy outside right next to the main road there...

Sorry. This is the woman who said I obviously wanted to kill my child because I had a dog, so (no, she has no actual MH conditions and is rather worryingly a psychology teacher).

Poulet
Dibs on the old Capel road with the back rout to the coal mine at Womenswold

but joking apart
having worked in customs clearance
the 10a option is beyond insane
AND
will not deal with the queues to get lorries into France

Have they gone for this because this was the only parcel of land immediately available, or is it just the usual Government cock up?