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.

and potentially scary / messy aftermath if Biden wins:

Trump refuses to say he will accept result of election

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/jul/19/donald-trump-coronavirus-covid-19-us-politics-live?page=with:block-5f145d5c8f0852a9868ec27a#block-5f145d5c8f0852a9868ec27a

Disturbingly, he then refuses to say he will accept the result of the election.

“Can you give a direct answer you will accept the election?” asks Wallace.

“I have to see ... I have to see.
No, I’m not going to just say yes,”

BCF
The USA has a clear constitution
Trump can say what he likes
if Biden is declared winner then Trump is out of the White House and no longer Commander in Chief.
The US security system will cease to obey him from that moment.

Have the Telegraph just woken up? The story about hauliers not being able to get permits is not news. We mentioned it on these threads about a year ago, if not more.

But that was Project Fear, and probably under May who I think would have made more efforts on issues like that.

Agree, I thought that the lack of permits is common knowledge? (Amongst those who have half an eye on it at least, which I imagine is the problem)

At least a year ago, likely more re limited number of haulage. I think they are now realising that it is actually going to happen. I'm sure they can cut a few jobs in the Tele and just pinch "fearmonger" press from 2 years ago; no new research needed!

listening Trump seems to have most of the police and the DHS on his side
and probably the Supreme Court, which Republicans have carefully packed over the years - they concentrate on that, plus tax cuts for the rich

I read a US article (maybe NYT or Vanity Fair) postulating that Republicans in some states that Biden wins could refuse to certify (?) the electoral college vote, so that there is no overall winner,
after which it would end up before the Supreme Court, who might rule that Trump remains POTUS

• makes "hanging chad" seem trivial !

I hope the writer was just suffering anxiety

Track & trace needs improvement

• in particular, to be able to use shoe leather when need be:

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/19/test-and-trace-failures-risk-exponential-coronavirus-case-growth-in-england-official-warns" target="_blank">http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/19/test-and-trace-failures-risk-exponential-coronavirus-case-growth-in-england-official-warns

Dominic Harrison, the director of public health in Blackburn with Darwen, said
the national tracing system was only managing to reach half of those who had been in close contact with a coronavirus patient in towns with high infection rates in the north-west.

In Blackburn with Darwen, where officials are battling a “rising tide” of cases,
only 44% of 799 close contacts of someone with coronavirus had been successfully contacted by call handlers,
according to Harrison’s analysis.

In Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale and St Helens, fewer than half of the at-risk people had been reached.
....
The analysis highlights a fundamental problem within the national test-and-trace system,
which was awarded to private companies including Serco
and run alongside centralised testing in the Lighthouse laboratory network set up to support the fight against Covid-19.

Close contacts of an infected person will be reached by text, email or called up to 10 times by contact tracers.
However, if they do not answer or return the calls, there is little else the test-and-trace system can do.

Without named patient data, councils are unable to direct a door-knocking exercise that would be likely have more success.

Burnham said the issue was further compounded by the fact that
many people in the poorest communities “simply can’t afford to self-isolate” and that this may be contributing to the low contact success rate.
He has called for the government to increase statutory sick pay, from £95.85 a week to a level equal to earnings,
and extend it to all workers, including those on zero-hours contracts.

Astonished to see people referring to pensioners using S1 forms as health tourists. It's a horrible right wing slur anyway, but it's particularly inappropriate in this case, as pensioners who access heathcare via an S1 are by definition legally resident in their host state (because otherwise they wouldn't be able to access healthcare in this way - they would use their EHIC).

I've been paying relatively little attention to Brexit as I'm too busy at work - and tbh it's all got a bit boring now. I see that max fac/alternative arrangements are being dragged out of retirement, and even a thread about the Vienna convention on twitter today.

Expect Article XXIV of GATT to be exhumed again .....

BCF - the 85 babies testing positive. Well there has been a discussion about the severity of the illness related to the amount of exposure to the virus (viral load?) maybe there is just so much circulating in the community, that children, who were believed to be less effected by it, are infact contracting it?

If that's the case it really does not bode well for England in September when schools re-open.

Interesting Guardian article about UK government funding campaign to support UK in EU being allowed to stay after Brexit.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/19/uk-urges-eu-countries-to-ensure-britons-living-abroad-can-stay-after-brexit

Expect Article XXIV of GATT to be exhumed again .....

It already has been - see the Right Dishonorable Liam Fox and his WTO interviews - but after last time they are too embarrassed to say so (or in this case maybe just too stupid to realise that's what they are proposing).

The thing about Brexit - and it is true of all brexiters, with no exceptions (the exceptions are no longer brexiters) - is that the whole project consists of latching onto a "fact" made up by someone else and shitting that non-fact everywhere indiscriminately. Rinse and repeat. They're even running out of new made-up-shit to spread now, so they have to regurgitate old shit.

The Vienna Convention, max fax, article XXIV ... just a long line in a series of complete bollocks spouted in bad faith by lazy people.

Interesting Guardian article about UK government funding campaign to support UK in EU being allowed to stay after Brexit.

None of this will get to me or you.

Government communication project = ooh look, we've thought up another way to direct tax payers money to friends-of-Dom. As we've conveniently left it until the last minute, we won't bother with that annoying tender process.

I am sure it won't reach us Mistigri, but I guess we are fully informed and don't need it. The only thing I hope is that the BiE are on top of it and can make sure some of it gets through to the people who can use it. I think the BiE have done a brilliant job on a shoestring so far.

Astonished to see people referring to pensioners using S1 forms as health tourists. It's a horrible right wing slur anyway, but it's particularly inappropriate in this case, as pensioners who access heathcare via an S1 are by definition legally resident in their host state

Very much agree M..and for now at least there is also the "workers" S1 for those of us resident in an EU country but still managing to hold down a job in the UK... (and as a result paying tax in two countries)

The only thing I hope is that the BiE are on top of it and can make sure some of it gets through to the people who can use it. I

IIRC BIE - the only organisation anywhere that represents my rights effectively - was shut out of the process for some reason.

The S1 form is actually the complete opposite of health tourism.

I didn't know that Mistigri. Bremain in Spain are quoted though and they are the Spanish version of RIFT aren't they?

From this it looks as if BiE are involved but work on the ground happening through other organisations?
britishineurope.org/2020/03/06/uk-government-allocates-fund-to-support-uk-in-eu/

According to Carole Cadwalladr on Twitter Arron Banks is lodging a legal challenge against the intelligence committee in respect of the release of the Russia report. Apparently people are calling for it not to be "used against Brexit".
Surprised we are not.

@Peregrina

Have the Telegraph just woken up? The story about hauliers not being able to get permits is not news. We mentioned it on these threads about a year ago, if not more.

But that was Project Fear, and probably under May who I think would have made more efforts on issues like that.

Siri, what is Operation Shock and Awe?

Operation Shock and Awe is a UK government media campaign to shock the public into taking action in preparation for the end of transition.

It is a rehashed updated version of Project Fear. The main difference between the two political campaigns is that each were led by a different side in the referendum debate.

Operation Shock and Awe will be spearheaded by media outlets and individuals who previously worked to debunk Project Fear.

Meanwhile, big hat tip to the UAE successful Mars probe launch - particularly impressed to see a strong female presence in the mix.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53394737

That Richard Murphy article was amazing and terrifying in equal measure. All those words and his solutions? Some highlights

• Govts to take a stake (forcibly by the sounds) in private businesses. I should say there are a very few sectors where I would actually support this kind of approach but RM is suggesting it wholesale.

• Govt imposed rent controls (he actually says ‘state imposed’ which in my book means by force, i.e. at the end of a Police baton or a rifle) but let’s assume he means by the government.

• repayment holidays forever, who cares what people owe, they don’t need to pay it back

• rent holidays, as above

How to pay for it? To his credit, I guess, he does address this,
Print money
Raid people’s savings
End Bank of England Indpendence if they object

I'd be gobsmacked if the government followed a single one of his recommendations.

I often talk to my DCs about trying to emigrate now (they're teenagers). We've become one of those countries that the young and able aspire to leave. It will get a lot worse.