Westminstenders: Operation Shock and Awe

[RedToothBrush]

The government is launching its get ready for the end of transition campaign which has been dubbed a 'shock and awe' campaign.

In this campaign we will learn all about what Brexit means and what amazing opportunities lie for having increased customs and borders, beaucracy and increased costs. Bet you are all really excited and looking forward to this.

We will also get a 'Farage Garage' in Kent to cope with these wonderful opportunities in traffic jams. This will be something that businesses throughout the country will be super excited to plan for in their socially distanced Zoom meetings or across warehouses with their face masks on. And banks will be delighted to see an uptick in applications in CCJs and debt reconstruction plans.

It will be a super fun time for the under 30s who have zero hours contracts, worked in retail or hospitality. Or should I say 'worked'.

Meanwhile the right to a jury trial has been binned due to 'long covid delays' which are shorter than they were several years ago. The NHS isn't getting the funding it expected, and waiting lists are longer than ever with no way to clear them. The plan to build more hospitals seems to have disappeared with the Nightingales. Many councils are about to go into insolvency and be taken over by accountancy firms. The civil service is being dismantled and conservative loyalists with no experience being put in charge of important functions of state. Communications with the press are being 'streamlined' to make them incredible of holding power to account and only able to repeat government public announcements.

Anyone looking forward to Christmas? When you write a letter to Santa remember to add 'visa application form', 'a sleeping bag for use at Dover', 'tinned tomatoes' and 'packets of seeds to grow your own' to the list.

Just caught up with the Russian Report in the Guardian. To be honest it doesn't look great for Labour if Russia is seen to be leaking anything to them. The fact they did and it took ages to be picked up shows how cynical the country has become and even then, with the negotiations clearly saying we are selling NHS to US the country still votes Tory! Russia must be as baffled as us!

So, the story being spun is that the Russian interference was in favour of Labour? And us clever Brits couldn't be bested and voted Tory anyway, despite Russia's best efforts?

re TikTok

I was teasing my two (15 and 13 on Sunday) about making a video for it.
They said it would be social suicide for them. (they are ASD so socialising isn't a strong point anyway but apparantly TikTok is very popular with what they call the 'maniac' kids.
I was joking (wouldn't know how)
Fortunately they wouldn't go near it as I agree it is a dodgy set up.

I've not looked into it at all tbh (ex doesn't let his kids on it and I suspect they were his excuse for being on there at 40 ) . Atm dd is happy enough to tell everyone we share a bed (usually at the least appropriate moment) so she wouldn't be easily shamed by me atm she asked me to cut her hair super short last weekend and is genuinely overly thrilled with the slightly wonky "pixie" bob she has ended up with too

@OldLace , sorry, odd question and completely off topic, what do they mean by 'the 'maniac' kids'?

I've always struggled to find a way to describe the (apparently 'normal') people who seem to be able to have fun and make friends without thinking about it, and seem to go over the top showing their 'enjoyment'. Is that what they/you mean?

UK government orders halt to Randox Covid-19 tests over safety issues

If you have any test kits, check they are not Randox

Another dodgy fast-track contract that has produced dangerous crap ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/16/uk-government-orders-halt-randox-covid-19-tests-over-safety-issues

Care homes and members of public told to immediately stop using kits produced by firm
....
Randox had been awarded the contract under fast-track arrangements.
These enable public bodies dealing with the coronavirus to urgently award commercial contracts without asking other firms to bid for them.

Randox employs the Conservative politician Owen Paterson as a £100,000-a-year consultant.

The former cabinet minister and leading Brexit supporter has been a consultant since 2015.

Of course, if you had fuck all faith in the UK government to start with (raises hand) then this doesn't affect you in the slightest.

@smallaxe

cheifly they mean the kids who run riot in school (many, it seems)
but yes, also probably those kids who are easily popular / mix well / it all comes 'effortlessly' too as well. Being ASD it doesn't do to them sadly.

but there is much value in being the quiet observer i believe.
And it keeps them off popular social media (they scorn FB et al too) which is all good afaIcs.

cheifly they mean the kids who run riot in school (many, it seems)
but yes, also probably those kids who are easily popular / mix well / it all comes 'effortlessly' too as well. Being ASD it doesn't do to them sadly.

A word from the experienced, “maniac kids” may not be exactly the right term but those who are “popular” certainly cross heavily on a Venn diagram with “attention seeking with self esteem issues” . They tend to come together to form themselves into exclusive groups which set norms of appearance and behaviour and sycophancy to each other (a need for a mutual admiration society) . I don’t think that having a child who establishes their identity in recognition it isn’t what they want to be is at all a bad thing. Particularly in girls’ schools the skills it requires to get into the popular group are not what gets you on in the real world, and are only ever going to benefit you again in a women’s prison. The pupils in the popular group are not the ones who have gone on to the most successful careers / lives. There is a higher prevalence of mental health problems including eating disorders (increasingly common in boys too) and underachieving (by which I don’t just mean in material terms)

The inbeweeners and geeks are the ones who go on to good things....

I'm watching Mrs America on iplayer and been wracking my brains as to who Phyllis Schlafly reminds me of. Finally the penny dropped this afternoon at the end of episode 6; it's Theresa May!

Meanwhile

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-border-wall-texas-twitter-fisher-industries-a9614921.html

It seems some Trump supporters - dismayed by the lack of movement on The Wall being built, took it upon themselves to start the project privately (in the best traditions of American entrepreneurial spirit).

The problem is they are Trump supporters, so by definition a Bit Dim.

Turns out it's a crap wall, and in danger of collapse.

And now the Orange one is blaming them for doing it on purpose to make him look bad.

So given the US appears to be a weathercock for the UK, how long before Boris is blaming Brexit supporters for making him look bad ?

I understand the attraction of putting them in Stoke, quite like the idea myself but York would also work and it’s further from London. Need to secure a couple of Travel Inn/Ibis type places for the duration of relocation and job done.

This is either a terrible joke or typical brexiter disregard for the actual logistics of doing something big and complex.

There is also the fact that even chain hotels like Travelodge \Ibis charge a fortune in York, a big market of tourists, student’s parents, hen /stag parties, all wanting to be in staggering distance of the centre mean in excess of London prices in peak season (hopefully 2025 will be post Covid) The latter group are especially an issue alongside other guests. Most hotels have signs defining how to behave in a hotel, no noisy parties, drunken behaviour in corridors etc. It would really cramp the style of many MPs...

Re Russian interference.

Russia doesn't support 'one side' over another in UK politics. This is a bizarre idea which i find rather baffling to have taken traction.

Putin maintains power via a divide and rule strategy. It aims to obliterate the truth by sowing seeds of doubt and mistrust.

So you get zillions of conflicting conspiracy theories and ideas put out by the state to fragment political groups and to try and discourage them from uniting to a common goal and against a common political opponent.

The same works at international level.

Putin's Russia wants to undermine the institutes and foundations of liberal democracy for its own authoritarian agenda. It doesn't give a shit whether it comes from the left or the right. It just wants to destroy logic and accountability.

Thus you would EXPECT it to try and have fingers in the pies of the left as much as the right.

And before you can say 'Seamus Milne', I'll park my argument there.

Given that our local Travel Lodge was used to house local homeless I suspect they won't opt for that choice too many news stories could link the two and re-ignite the question of just why we seems to have so many after a decade of Tory control.

DGR I think the mandatory masks will be what bite the Brexiteers on the bum with blame. I've had 2 on my fb saying shops will "loose my money" because they aren't "comfortable with wearing anything on my face" huge irony as one has giant fake eyelashes and regularly gets poison pumped into her lips

"Which makes me wonder if Trident actually works. After all, how would we know ?"

I remember my grandfather saying the same thing about the Star Wars programme in the 80s.
He worked at Aldermaston AWRE so he had more idea than most.

Reminder about the questions raised when Randox was originally awarded the fast-tracked contract ....

but of course all that was dismissed by the govt at the time:

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/healthcare-firm-advised-by-owen-paterson-won-133m-coronavirus-testing-contract-unopposed

Paterson’s work for Randox has been criticised in the past.

Documents obtained by the Guardiann^ showed last year that he had helped to lobby for Randox and another firm he was being paid to advise.

He had meetings with a government minister and officials to promote the products off^ the two firms.

and Paterson's £100k p.a. is £500 per hour

• nice work if you can get it, but sounds like he earns it

I suspect what Boris has in mind for his stay in York is along these lines, Castle Howard in the background is 24 mins from York. It has 145 rooms and the whole south wing has never been restored following a fire in 1940 .....

Well yes Emily but guess who foots another bill?

I've not seen anything on this in the papers yet though, so are we sure it isn't just a fluff to keep the Brexit voters onside/squirrel?

Many small companies export via Amazon ....
which will become a more complicated & expensive process from 1 Jan 2021:

https://tamebay.com/2020/07/amazon-fba-brexit-bombshell-efn-and-pan-european-fba-ends-for-uk.html

This will have the following impact for Amazon Selling Partners from January 1, 2021:

•	FBA offers using EFN will not be fulfilled across the UK-EU border.
•	Pan-European FBA inventory transfers will stop between the UK and EU (however, Pan-European FBA will continue to transfer inventory within the EU region, supporting your sales on Germany, France, Italy and Spain sites)
•	To mitigate the impact of these changes, you should consider splitting your inventory and sending it to a fulfilment centre in the UK and the EU, so that you have sufficient stock either side of the new customs border
•	This may require you to ship your products across the new UK-EU customs border and provide additional information as part of a customs declaration

*and Paterson's £100k p.a. is £500 per hour

• nice work if you can get it, but sounds like he earns it*

Don’t forget Paterson’s wife was Chief Exec at Aintree - Randox is a big sponsor (as in the Randox Health Grand National Festival).

Ohhhhhh GOD. Will there be no bloody end to the reign of the devious bunch of chancers, charlatans, conmen and spivs currently blagging it under the guise of a government? How much more can we take? Until they've completely stripped the country bare presumably.

Trident has “worked” round the clock everyday 24/7/365 since 1993. We know this because none of us has been vaporised.

@HoneysuckIejasmine

So, the story being spun is that the Russian interference was in favour of Labour? And us clever Brits couldn't be bested and voted Tory anyway, despite Russia's best efforts?

Yes, exactly that. That's the story they are asking us to swallow. Despite the huge donations from UK resident Russians to the Conservative party.

^^ Second what Red said about the aim of Russian interference in foreign politics being to sow discord. It matters not to them who ends up on top. It's more about causing confusion and splits of all kinds. (I'm thinking suddenly of our eloquent squirrel who visited briefly and was very interested in Scottish independence.)