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.

The Most Patriotic Of Us All is to cut 900 UK jobs now he has a cheaper workforce www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/23/dyson-to-cut-600-jobs-in-uk-as-firm-blames-covid-19 and lead Tory donor who valiantly tried to make ventilators out of the goodness of his heart

I did like this ...

@BigChocFrenzy

UK govt look so amateur Any business run like this would have gone bust - and maybe with its directors sent to the klink

If you were working class or middle class I think thats the mindset you would have of dotting your i's and crossing your t's in the hope of making a success of it but the current bunch of cunts Tories seem either well shielded from the consequences of any failed 'business' model or blissfully unaware of any consequences at all

I live in a fairly Brexity area (in England) and lots of people are wearing face masks. Numbers seem to be increasing daily. Now in Wales for a few days and almost no one is, despite this part of Wales being packed with MC English people, most of whom I suspect would wear one at home. It really does seem to be one of those things where one does what other people do.

Johnson turns to shadowboxing in tussle over EU deal

https://www.ft.com/content/c5415b31-2b77-4a30-882f-4ba8badc8756

The question is why the UK flattered to deceive,
choosing not to actively engage on fisheries and state aid
despite clear overtures in public and private from Mr Barnier that the EU was prepared to get creative in key areas,

including protecting UK judicial sovereignty from the European Court of Justice.

EU officials and diplomats always expected that these talks would go down to a crunch in September and October.
It was the UK that resisted this idea, but having squared up for the fight in June it then spent three weeks prancing round the ring shadowboxing in July.
Brussels is perplexed, to put it kindly. 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

There are a number of possible factors at play here.

First, coronavirus and the all-consuming intra-EU discussions on a Covid-19 relief fund and the next seven-year budget cycle:
this meant that the UK was unable to get the attention in the major EU capitals it had hoped for.

Second, there appears to be an ongoing block in cabinet on the state aid question,
and the extent to which the UK will have to submit to something that looks quite like the EU regime,
even if the question of judicial sovereignty can be finessed.
The jury is still out on this.

Third, the UK’s ambition to have a “quick and dirty” trade deal signed with the US as possible leverage in the EU talks seems to have run into the sands
.....
That second retreat on a US trade deal speaks to the hard domestic choices that come with repatriating international trade politics as the UK finds itself the piggy-in-the-middle between the world’s two global trade hegemons.

That tension is reflected in the heated Whitehall battles between the agriculture department (Defra) on the one hand,
and the business department (Beis) and international trade (DiT) on the other.

Increasingly, the government looks cornered

• feinting and retreating in Brussels and Washington, while playing for time in London as it tries to hatch a workable escape plan

..... The UK is relaxed, bordering on complacent, over the time it will take to operationalise any deal, arguing that Mr Barnier “can agree this stuff in a week” if he really puts his mind to it

• a view that both alarms and irritates Brussels, as Mr Barnier made plain today.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/preventing-next-pandemic-fraction-cost-covid-19-economic-fallout

The cost of preventing further pandemics over the next decade by protecting wildlife and forests would equate to just 2% of the estimated financial damage caused by Covid-19,
according to a new analysis.
< probably still won't be done >

Two new viruses a year had spilled from their wildlife hosts into humans over the last century,
the researchers said,
with the growing destruction of nature meaning the risk today is higher than ever.

Have just ended up shouting at the telly cos they showed one of the shit
Lets get going Brexit ads by what passes for our Government

Lowest paid workers still being screwed - Sports Direct sweatshop:

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/23/sports-direct-undercover-minimum-wage-mike-ashley

“Time where a worker … is not working but is required by their employer to be available at or near a place of work for the purposes of working is treated as working time for national minimum wage purposes, even if the worker is simply waiting to be given work, is ‘on call’ or ‘standby’.

@Tanith

Carole Cadwalladr tweeted earlier that responsibility for Government use of data has been transferred to the Cabinet Office:

Dominic Cummings has just taken charge of all Government data. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it's actually going back to the Cabinet Office a mere 2 years after it was transferred over to the Dept of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. It was the Government Digital Service's data science dept, and now apparently it's "weirdo" enough to appeal to Dom.

This BBC report is from 29 June
so I hope those 25,000 trace & trackers have improved since then

The taxpayer would have got far more for their money if public health officers had been hired, i.e. professionals instead of giving out Grayling-style contracts to Serpo & co to hire & barely train amateurs.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-53220180

The government says the system has contacted 114,000 people who may have been exposed to the virus.

But the vast majority of these were found by existing public health teams.

An investigation by BBC Panorama has discovered that 98,000 of the contacts were traced by only 870 public health officials.

The local officials work for Public Health England and are experts in contact tracing.
They are responsible for managing more complex cases, like outbreaks in schools and care homes, which often reveal larger numbers of contacts.

At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, a report written by Public Health England for the government's SAGE group of advisers called for a ten-fold increase in contact tracing capacity.
Public Health England has told Panorama that the number of public health officials has only been increased from 380 to 870.

< even 10 years ago, the UK had 10,000 public health officials, but reorganisations and cuts ..... >

I don’t think track and trace has improved enough to make it functional since the end of June.

Especially in the hot spot areas where they are struggling to get anywhere near 80% of contacts. I think the guardian had a piece this week. And I think the figures are being propped up by the local authorities doing extremely well and the National bits that got outsourced doing really badly.

New Zealand beat Covid-19 by citizens trusting their leaders and following advice, a new study has shown. 80% of people surveyed said they adopted frequent hand-washing behaviours, while 9 out of 10 said they practised social distancing. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/24/new-zealand-beat-covid-19-by-trusting-leaders-and-following-advice-study

Probably because even if you didn't agree with their policies, they were trustworthy. When you have our shower of shite, knowing what to believe is far more difficult.

bylinetimes.com/2020/07/23/britain-is-back-on-the-road-to-the-brexit-cliff-edge-is-anyone-even-driving-the-car/

The newly-published parliamentary Russia report is an appropriate place to begin exploring: partly because it exposes the Conservatives’ indifference to (or subversion of) the national interest, but principally because it emphasises just how essential Brexit has become to the body politic.

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) did not confirm that Russia had interfered in the 2016 EU referendum; merely that the UK Government had not even asked the question. In other words, Brexit is so crucial to the operation of the British state that the legitimacy of the vote does not actually matter. It is not only worth sacrificing our economy, but potentially even our democracy.

At its most basic level, Brexit and the Conservative Party have fused. Their destinies are interlocked. Brexit is the Government’s sole policy and sole ambition. The problem is that it has absolutely no idea how to achieve it.

knowing what to believe is far more difficult

I listen to what Nicola says (as translated by Janey Godley - you were telt indeed)

Looks like the news agencies are taking on the role of Public Health campaign for masks now as they realise wearing a mask incorrectly could actually spread the virus www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/explainers-53517968/how-not-to-wear-a-face-mask

Out of interest, are any of you commenting on Leaver's status when they are about agri/big pharma? Friend shared a petition today to keep NHS off the table. She always defends Leave, although says she voted remain, and has said it has been being privitised for years anyway... Struggling not to say it's too late and this was what they called "Project Fear". No petition is going to change the direction we have to go in now thanks to the ref.

I saw this on the 48% Facebook group complaining about the uselessness of the new Government ads "preparing" businesses for No Deal the end of transition.

"I find the notion of a new start horrible. A new start is what you want when you end up in a place worse than when you started, it implies that you have taken a terrible decision to end up where you are. This is exactly the opposite to how I feel. More subtly the new start message plays into Boris Johnson psyche, he is the exponent of the tabula rasa, the blank slate. Every day he thinks the sins of yesterday are forgotten, ignored, wiped away so for him the new start is the perfect solution. It is the hedonistic idea that prevents long term thinking or responsibility for consequences. What a piece of shit

(My bold).

I thought it was very perceptive. BJ has no concept of consequences as he's never had to deal with them

Evidence includes continuing to get jobs even though he's been sacked for lying and children he doesn't even acknowledge

.

Have just ended up shouting at the telly cos they showed one of the shit
Lets get going Brexit ads by what passes for our Government

I have complained to the ASA about this Ad. Specifically the 'seize new opportunities' line. There are no new opportunities for me to 'seize' only opportunities taken away. Advertising, or in this case, public information advertising should be accurate. I have asked for that line to be taken out.

It only takes two minutes to complain.
www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html#:~:text=make%20a%20complaint%20by%20completing,complaints%20via%20this%20email%20address.

ASA Complaint also submitted
www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

Je Suis - I was talking to my brother yesterday (he's in NZ) and they have the problem that they are in winter - with the normal coughs and colds. But the government want you to get tested with anyone of a whole lot of symptoms. But people aren't, because of the belief in being Covid free and it couldn't possibly be Covid...... which leaves them quite vulnerable.
My brother said - winter has really only just arrived (he's in Auckland) and with the virus seeming to thrive on cold damp environments this is the time they need to be very vigilant.

KenDodd thanks for the link. I've also put a complaint in about it. Usual misleading propaganda from the useless tools in govt.

Thankfully I was able to calm my soul a little by having a laugh at the What Nicola Says YouTube videos. I may have fallen down a Janey Godley rabbit hole for an hour

@mrslaughan That's interesting but he does sound aware, unlike many here, that a second wave is likely. I wouldn't really know what to do if I thought I needed testing, I'd have to google it to find out, so I bet they have better PH campaigns over there if they are encouraging more testing. We've swapped the useful advertisements that might save lives for Brexit propaganda here

FrolickingLemon
ListeningQuietly

Please share link as well. I'm sure it won't make any difference but the complaints about the KFC talking with your mouth full AD made the news, it's be great if complaints about government lying in advertising made the news.