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.

Me too peregrina

Paragraff dd also already wants to leave. She asked for French tuition last year because she wants to move there when she is older to be a virologist (!) and has kindly said I may live in her Chateau - although she has also specified I will have to get a job "serving coffee or something" so I can stay in the country . Got to love her enthusiasm.

Well, if anyone is in doubt as to whether we are siding with US or China in our post-Brexit desperation for trade...I think we have our answer. I don't think China are going to take this well somehow.

forgot link www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/20/china-urges-uk-not-to-go-down-wrong-path-of-hong-kong-sanctions

P.s if anyone has any amazing lockdown b.day ideas please do share. Dd is 9 in a couple of weeks and I may be panicking slightly that I am loosing track of days, not to mention nothing in particular planned!

The problem with China, is the knuckle dragging Brexiteers simply won't understand that the sovereign UK has to back down. And while I wouldn't put it past Johnsolini to blame Remainers, there's only so long that can play out.

Of course on the other side of the dilemma will be a very cross Trump, if the UK doesn't stand up to China.

Meanwhile, for all the joy at employers realising the benefits of remote working, how long till they twig that once you have setup for remote working, you don't need to employ UK staff if you can find overseas staff at a 1/10th the cost ?

Both my kids plan to emigrate

But the Brexiters have no qualms about surrendering sovereignty to the USA. If Trump fails to win, that might change a bit, of course.

"a very cross Trump"*

who will probably be out of the White House in 6 months - and only limited power from November - unless Putin has some really clever tricks still up his sleeves.

@ListeningQuietly

Both my kids plan to emigrate

... listening 💐 Probably best for many enterprising youngsters with talents in demand You can retire abroad to be near them - but encourage them to choose the same country !

@BigChocFrenzy

"a very cross Trump"*

who will probably be out of the White House in 6 months - and only limited power from November - unless Putin has some really clever tricks still up his sleeves.

Who knows ? We may yet get to see if the Kennedy Green Beret urban legend is true ....

Guardian reporting Chief Nurse was banned from briefing after refusing to support Cummings.
Not 'stuck in traffic'

Two of my children have left already.

Presumably van Tam was banned for exactly the same.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-20/brexit-negotiators-in-tense-standoff-dashing-hope-of-swift-deal

When Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a video conference with the leaders of the European Union last month, officials on both sides came away optimistic that a deal on their post-Brexit relationship was in sight. That confidence is evaporating.

Informal meetings between the U.K. and EU’s chief negotiators since then have failed to make progress, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Privately, EU officials say their attempts to compromise haven’t been reciprocated, while their U.K. counterparts retort that the bloc’s concessions haven’t gone far enough.

(contd)

I feel failing to get a deal with the EU will be the first in a long line of deals where someone might realise we really don't have much to offer worldwide. FFS.

I have to thank P. J. O'Rourke for bring Eric Hoffer to my attention ...

americanconsequences.com/why-mass-movements-make-a-mess/

I particularly liked:

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.

But it seem there could me some shadows of what drive Brexit in there ...

Chief nurse was dropped from briefings after refusing to back Cummings

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/20/englands-chief-nurse-dropped-from-covid-19-briefing-after-refusing-to-back-cummings-ruth-may

England’s chief nurse has confirmed she was dropped from the Downing Street daily coronavirus briefing after refusing to back Dominic Cummings

Ruth May said that in a trial run for the 1 June briefing she was asked about Boris Johnson’s chief adviser’s decision to drive his family from London to Durham during lockdown while his wife had suspected Covid-19.

After she failed to back Cummings, she said, she was told she was no longer needed for the televised press conference taking place later that day,
and she was never given an explanation why.

on 30 May, England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam answered a question about Cummimgs lockdown jaunts:

"In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear.
In my opinion they are for the benefit of all.
In my opinion they apply to all.”

< haven't heard much from him or the Chief Nurse since, all because of Cummingsgate;
2 experts dropped - during a crisis - to save embarassing a dodgy SPAD >

I hope my teens will emigrate. Preferably in Europe
I’m struggling to see what sort of future they have in the U.K.

The advantage of being a. Citizen of nowhere is that you don’t have to stay either.

Another hint at who is really running the country BCF.
And for the record I managed to type that as "cuntry" and almost left it...

Russia report to be released on Tuesday after nine-month delay

I was wondering if it might be a damp squib after all ..... but then I considered the effort BJ has made to block it
Of course, he probably hasn't bothered to read this report either !
but I expect Cummings has

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/20/russia-report-to-be-released-on-tuesday-after-nine-month-delay

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.

Louise, many Western governments downplay their role but the fact is that no allegedly free market exists without the state and most states are hugely interventionist. They already do have a stake in private business and many businesses are not viable without state support. From, for example, US Defense Department research and procurement programmes creating a huge market, financed by public funds, for the emergence of new technologies in aircrafts, space, electronics and communication equipment (including Siri) to trillions spent on tax credits and subsidies (including billions for fossil fuels, plus agriculture, airplanes, R&D, pharmaceuticals, exports, housing, car industry etc to name but a few). Amazon has received hundreds of thousands in US state subsidies.

www.opensecrets.org/search?q=State+subsidies

You only have to look at the billions Cummings is giving to his friend's private business and the Tory donors to see what is going on with state involvement already! We've even opened pubs from 6am in a pandemic for their mate Tim Although I think SpecSavers got a surprise boost rather than a back scratch. Deloittes and Serco get public health jobs with data filled contracts that don't actually help with health but boost their address book and ability to target customers and help the Tories win elections. Look at the global trade standoffs at the moment, big companies funded by governments for infrastructure that usually own a host of subsidiary companies. If you are worried about political corruption from business you are about 10 years too late!

Pay rise for (some) Public Sector workers.

Genuine recognition of what they are worth, or a Tory bung?
However, if the Tories did really start splashing the cash on the public sector, it would be an about turn away from being in thrall to the hideous right wing.

A pay rise but explicitly no new money

So what will have to give in order to find the funds? Numbers, books, supplies?

Hmm - well Telegraph and the Mail headlines both claim the Russia report says that the Kremlin 'tried to influence the Scottish independence referendum but didn't meddle in Brexit vote'.

But in the full article Mail says '...expected to say not enough was done in Whitehall to establish what role Russia played in the June 2016 vote...'

Telegraph article says Putin allies have been trying to 'gain respectability' through contacts in Westminster.

As we know most people get their 'news' from the headlines.

So the line we're supposed to swallow here is that Moscow interfered in IndyRef + in 2019 general election (by leaking document used by Labour). But the Brexit result is clean. And the wash of Russian money into the Conservative Party doesn't even need to be mentioned.

Riiiiiiiiiight....

FWIW I've always thought that the ISC Russia report has no smoking gun. IMO it has been sat on because of evidence about foreign meddling in elections/ referendums - and the Tories wanted to play the 2019 vote under the same rules because it suited them.