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.

As somebody who worked out on site all over the place right through te first three months of Lockdown
I can see

• lots of people doing two days in the office three at home
• lots of "group team meetings" taking place at rural hotels over a leisurely lunch rather than in city centres
• lots of companies getting rid of their "disaster recovery" offices - proven not needed
• lots of small team meetings happening in market towns with decent transport links rather than city centres

those who NEED to work face to face still will
but a lot of useless travel time will go by the wayside

On another thread, someone noted the UK productivity paradox ..

I wonder if removing the useless travel time - and the fact that all of a sudden "business" can happen whenever, rather than a rigid 9-5, could see it increase.

I have a feeling it's remained stubbornly where it is as a result of an uncoordinated, but somehow innate decision by the workforce that their employer is only ever going to get X% from them, no matter what.

DGR
Fab article in last weeks Economist about the productivity paradox and the fact that the ONS is bringing out new figures that take better account of the effect of the internet
and much of the paradox vanishes

@ListeningQuietly

DGR Fab article in last weeks Economist about the productivity paradox and the fact that the ONS is bringing out new figures that take better account of the effect of the internet and much of the paradox vanishes

You'll forgive me for not trusting anything that comes out of the UK government at the moment, I'm afraid.

I was not aware that the ONS had been discredited.
THey have certainly hauled ministers up for misusing their numbers over COVID
and their data on the impacts of Brexit is sound

@ListeningQuietly

I was not aware that the ONS had been discredited. THey have certainly hauled ministers up for misusing their numbers over COVID and their data on the impacts of Brexit is sound

Funny you say that, the coverage I saw was scathing about the ONS screwing up its calculations on telecoms. Implications for inflation as well as productivity.

amp.ft.com/content/abc14c66-fb78-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a&ved=0ahUKEwi07I353tTqAhXTh1wKHeG9BZQQyM8BCE8wCA&usg=AOvVaw1s9rcRqOgoHjE4nTlJVEpO&ampcf=1

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/07/14/can-dodgy-data-explain-the-uks-productivity-problem/&ved=0ahUKEwi07I353tTqAhXTh1wKHeG9BZQQxfQBCDMwAg&usg=AOvVaw3HnKJyt3yZ61674aKBymas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/07/14/can-dodgy-data-explain-the-uks-productivity-problem/&ved=0ahUKEwi07I353tTqAhXTh1wKHeG9BZQQxfQBCDMwAg&usg=AOvVaw3HnKJyt3yZ61674aKBymas

Sorry fixed FT link

www.ft.com/content/abc14c66-fb78-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a

TheMShip
The old data was flawed and the Economist article was pointing out that National statistics bodies have been scrabbling around trying to fix it.

The LSE article is a comment on the Economist article.
I cannot see the FT article

I'd not call that "scathing" more an acceptance that adjustment is needed

In terms of working from home, our directorate has a big underspend because no-one is travelling to meetings. I'd like two days in, three days at home, but we have been told it is unlikely anyone will be going back until at least Christmas. The office I work in is now COVID planning central, and clinical staff will get priority. I've invested in a decent office chair for working at home and it's fine. It will be a bit lonely once DD1 and the fostered teen are at uni and DD2 is back at full time school, but I'll adapt.

@JeSuisPoulet

I think for a lot of women socialising nearer home will be far harder. So much more is being asked in regards to childcare on top of work, I think men will "find time" to go to the pub while women will largely "find time" to do the extra housework and care roles. As per Invisible Women, it was noted that work enables women to escape the home life but not the actual work that is involved therein.

This.

I don't work, and my big problem is childcare and struggling with socialising.

I've met a lot of parents of children in DS's class and tbh after a year they fall in 4 camps: the ones who DS isn't friends with and I don't know, the clingy hangers on who I now know to avoid, the ones who have a rod stuck up their arses and the ones who have no time.

Dh socialises more through volunteering and tbh I get on well with them but it's his thing primarily so I'm often the one stuck with the childcare. He got to do the volunteering in the first place cos I was doing the childcare.

They've kept me sane during lockdown - we've become a lot closer as a result - but without it I wouldn't have had contact with pretty anyone at all since March.

Totally agree red

Since having dc I've worked at various times - always nmw - and only ever pt to fit around childcare and dhs work travel commitments.

I've just applied for a pt job wfh for a non profit organisation. It'll be interesting if I get it...

I've got invisible women on my kindle but I'm too scared to read it coz I know I'll get the rage 🤬

I admit my gym friends have kept me sane
I'll be back there the day it opens
my work is a mix of home and site
I'm lucky

My husband - waiting for the schools to get back on an even keel - is struggling much more

Please forgive this slight digression, but I know there are a fair few women here who live in the North of England. If, like me, you've enjoyed the Turkish Baths in Harrogate you might be interested in completing this survey - they're consulting on removing the single sex sessions in favour of only having mixed provision t.co/ykb5qneHkX?amp=1

Red FWIW I am the same - not working and just home with kids. Finding meeting new friends increasingly anxiety inducing and not helped by largest group of the school mums avoiding me and admitting to others (I dog walk with one) they won't ask me out because I'm single and therefore a threat. Following on that theme I had one friend I've known for 10 years suggest I was "seeking out communication" with her DH on my birthday (yes a Leaver who offered to teach me how to fix the inner-tubes) which has really hurt - she knows me better than that and I can only assume Lockdown has increased tensions already there - but at the cost of our friendship. The only person who bothered to get me anything at all for my birthday was my friend who turned up with chocs and some wine who DD then had a go at for giving me a cig! She's now working full time and juggling childcare so I won't be seeing much of her.

Even if I wanted to socialise I couldn't as no one is around. I feel terrible asking for help as it is and every time I accept it it seems to be held over me in some way so asking for childcare to go out would feel like I was asking for something to go wrong. I've also found myself looking after an empty house for 4 months in a very long and convoluted story whilst trying to update our new one, home school and keep a puppy entertained. I've managed to re-do/paint the bedroom, living room, kitchen and am working on the bathroom over lockdown which I've enjoyed but it's exhausting and I am wondering what I am doing it for; who exactly is ever going to come into my home ever again?

Sorry for long personal post - I am not working but I sometimes wonder how I could even if I wanted to! No school clubs this summer and locally run ones are all fully booked and you have to pay a full week up front even if you only need 3 days! It isn't women gaining from this from what I can see.

I also don't work, and we relocated since I stopped work so I don't have many firm friends yet. I knew a few people in the area anyway so I've got them, and the mums from toddler groups and school gate. There's a few potential really good friendships there, but I'm trying not to come on too strong!

Arborea
That is shocking and unacceptable
I'll send it to all I know round there

Arborea ONLY mixed - Disagraceful proposal from Harrogate that will discourage many vulnerable or BAME women from using the baths.
I hope it is defeated heavily, so the buggers don't try this again

@DGRossetti

Would it be fair to think a more WFH environment is better for women ?

That being the case, be prepared to see all the forces of heaven and earth be deployed to prevent and reverse it.

For one thing, it becomes much harder to distinguish between the work the highly paid menz do from the exact same work women do for a fraction of the wage. And you know that's not allowed.

For everyone, it saves time and usually money, to WFH

I'd have loved it when I was working
Sometimes it was tough fitting in what I really wanted to do, especially gym after a day's work

I liked my colleagues, but nowhere near enough to commute twice a day for the pleasure of their company

I love retirement !
My time is 100% my own

@JeSuisPoulet

I think for a lot of women socialising nearer home will be far harder. So much more is being asked in regards to childcare on top of work, I think men will "find time" to go to the pub while women will largely "find time" to do the extra housework and care roles. As per Invisible Women, it was noted that work enables women to escape the home life but not the actual work that is involved therein.

I've always been happy, as a childfree single woman - you've maybe reminded me why !

There are a lot of us who would just gain time from WFH to do more of what we enjoy

USA

John Hopkins shows a record 77,255 new cases for the USA yesterday (Thursday)

Staggering daily number
I wonder if they'll reach 100,000 daily new cases before November - maybe Trump will claim it shows he MAGA

States across the south and west are being badly hit

It's just so fucking knackering...

Yes BCF, the irony of friend thinking I was after her (frankly not even my type) husband is that I am actually acutely aware of why I don't want a man and haven't done for quite a few years!

Sadly it does mean childcare is always going to be a priority, well over the next 7 years or so (dd is 9 in August and I hope by 16 will be able to get home from school by herself at least!).

I see Johnson is saying 1st Aug for businesses to reopen (once again with zero guidance so as not to take responsability) www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/17/boris-johnson-coronavirus-workplace-guidance-confused-unions

Also think I'm missing my sick friend - she would also usually have been over for my birthday. She's no closer to finding out what is wrong but I took her some home made jam the other day which she appreciated at least.

yy @GrumpiestOldWoman . Office work is quite nice for an introvert like me. We're all adults though, it's not a wacky social type of office.

Have the Yanks started making RHD cars ? They certainly didn't a few years ago. If they aren't going to make cars for Japan, they certainly aren't going to for the UK.

Or are they talking about a tsunami of imported LHD massive 4x4s etc ?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53449399

Safety experts are urging the UK government to exclude American cars from any post-Brexit trade deal.

They say imported vehicles should meet British safety standards for accidents with pedestrians, cyclists and children.

(contd)