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.

People asked to bump elbows in place of handshakes and hugs with those outside of their immediate family

How on earth can you hug from 1m+????

You shouldn't be bumping elbows or shaking hands and definitely not hugging, if you are correctly following the advice and social distancing anyway!

My thoughts exactly red

I haven't hugged my mum in 4 months...not even when her sister died.

This govt are criminally negligent in the idiocy of their advice.

Pipkin
Any ESF money sent out to councils becomes part of the divorce bill
so Whitehall are likely to drag their feet
because of course Brexit itself was in January

Any council expecting the Tory Party to actually fund the regions is utterly deluded - its never happened, it won't start now

Pipkin, Jesus Fucking Christ.
Tempted to circulate that in real life on my FB page. I have a fair few Brexit-y "friends ". My local area FB pages are rammed full of Brexit-y, anti-mask twats too.
I refer back to my previous "fuck 'em" and thank posters from yesterday for their kind enquiries.

You shouldn't be bumping elbows or shaking hands and definitely not hugging, if you are correctly following the advice and social distancing anywaY

When we've called round to see DS, he's already bumping elbows - all the kids are.

You need to stop and think how a social ritual that has been with us for centuries, if not millennia can be so easily supplanted.

You then need to stop and think some more what the implications are for other social conventions. In particular the ones that make people vote Tory. At which point you might believe that the bums in Westminster are squeakier than they let on.

And won't the new form of social greeting eventually be an outstretched right arm slightly elevated above the shoulder ? A nice clear unambiguous movement that shows clearly the giver is observing social distancing ?

It could be matched with a complementary gesture of raising the right hand, palm outstretched fingertips up to be parallel with the body.

If I have a chance I'll see if there are any demonstrations on YouTube. Surely someone has thought of these before ?

Bellini
Its not even as if its a new story
www.local.gov.uk/about/news/lga-almost-ps1-billion-european-social-fund-risk-being-sent-back-brussels

The UK / EU border will just revert to being exactly like those withe the rest of the world

Except the crazy gang have been telling us for the past 5 years that trading with the eu would be no more difficult after brexit than before - which is why believers don't know which forms to complete.

In 2019, UK exports to the EU were £300 billion (43% of all UK exports). UK imports from the EU were £372 billion (51% of all UK imports). All of that trade, or that which survives, will be significantly more complex in 2021 - many corps (and HMG) just don't have systems scaled to handle the increase in "paperwork"

@ListeningQuietly

Pipkin Any ESF money sent out to councils becomes part of the divorce bill so Whitehall are likely to drag their feet because of course Brexit itself was in January

Any council expecting the Tory Party to actually fund the regions is utterly deluded - its never happened, it won't start now

Ah, I didn’t know that - thanks!

Frankie
Ever since the December election its been abundantly clear that it would be a hard border.
If hauliers have kidded themselves into thinking otherwise, TBH more fool them.

No idea where the HMRC staff will come from
let alone the freight forwarding clerks (Gove's magical 50,000)

The combination of Mojo and Brock and Stack will be interesting

@DGRossetti

You shouldn't be bumping elbows or shaking hands and definitely not hugging, if you are correctly following the advice and social distancing anywaY

When we've called round to see DS, he's already bumping elbows - all the kids are.

You need to stop and think how a social ritual that has been with us for centuries, if not millennia can be so easily supplanted.

You then need to stop and think some more what the implications are for other social conventions. In particular the ones that make people vote Tory. At which point you might believe that the bums in Westminster are squeakier than they let on.

And won't the new form of social greeting eventually be an outstretched right arm slightly elevated above the shoulder ? A nice clear unambiguous movement that shows clearly the giver is observing social distancing ?

It could be matched with a complementary gesture of raising the right hand, palm outstretched fingertips up to be parallel with the body.

If I have a chance I'll see if there are any demonstrations on YouTube. Surely someone has thought of these before ?

You could put the finger of your left hand under your nose to signify breathing too. I think that would be a particularly British thing to do.

The spread of Council insolvency seems to have increased its R rate.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-53411427
Council agrees raft of front line cuts to stave off bankruptcy

This time Luton.

There will be many more to follow.

The spread of schools going to 4 and a half days a week, with Friday afternoons looks likely to increase too.

RTB
It will get much worse ....
I was talking to a gang of Local Authority officers this morning ...
one was saying that due to closing all their leisure facilities, they will run out of annual budget by mid November
so will be burning through reserves from then until the next precept arrives on 12th April .......

@paragraff - I have made donations to the good law project ..... they are pursuing it and been on the case.
I have made the donations, but with these slime balls nothing ever seems to stick, so I don't have much hope..... but I think we just have to try....

"How on earth can you hug from 1m+????"

It is noticeable that a significant number of people are not keeping to SD all the time, even if they did earlier

• MN indicates that some refuse on principla

It has always been the case that compliance is far from 100% (and in fact a lower % suffices, alrhough not optimal)

That advice is a nudge to keep more distance

"The UK / EU border will just revert to being exactly like those with the rest of the world"

Some UK importers will be used to that;
some who have only imported from the EU won't be

UK exporters will not be used to that at all,
because they have never had to cope with EU import requirements before:

The EU rules and regulations have changed massively over the last 48 years, since the UK joined the Common Market

The EU rules and regulations have changed massively over the last 48 years, since the UK joined the Common Market

... and it's hard to understand why people simply never stopped to think this. The very definition of moving forwards is that you move away from where you were.

The goods vehicle queuing / traffic system, to help avoid creating Dover / Calais logjams, is completely new

I read there will be an App for HGV drivers ... and that it will be delivered on an unsoecified date by EOY

Haulage firms naturally said they need it in advance, so their drivers can hold it in their hands and receive training.
Otherwise, they won't be ready on 1 Jan 2021

Should we assume that an enormous amount of money is going into various top politicians' bank accounts? The massive PPE contracts to small sweet manufacturers etc is basically stealing public money in as large amounts as possible as quickly as possible, isn't it? So are they likely to scarper abroad with the plunder soon?

I read there will be an App for HGV drivers ...

No disrespect, but that's doomed to failure.

Just a personal note, but following on from my comment that God is gathering His Own, I was upset to read that Mythbuster Grant Imahara died suddenly over the weekend. One of the good guys - we need people like that to push for science and push again, rather than let an orange beach ball of a man deal in superstition and ignorance.

@DGRossetti

I read there will be an App for HGV drivers ...

No disrespect, but that's doomed to failure.

My suspicion too !

Matt Hancock 'worried' about 'debilitating' long-term impact of COVID-19

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-matt-hancock-worried-about-debilitating-long-term-impact-of-covid-19-12028821

"I am concerned there's increasing evidence a minority of people

• but a significant minority -

have long-term impacts and it can be quite debilitating.

In my career I have had occasion to work with a constellation of drivers. Salt of the earth and all that, regardless of where they come from (and that will be the first "app" issue - drivers than can read English well enough to use it). However they are not the most patient, nor subtly minded of professionals.

One job I went on site for, I was amused to note the weighbridge barrier was just a length of guttering downpipe slid over the arm. They stopped repairing it after the 5th driver just went through after the weighbridge software took 3s instead of 2.

Another job we had to integrate the weighbridge to the order system as the drivers arrived on site (steelworks) and rather that find the right order, just picked up the easiest. The final weighing spotted differences in weight and held the driver for a check.

A former boss was a logistics director for P&G. His mantra (long before "House") was drivers lie.

The old joke about the scientist, the engineer and the technician (exact jobs vary) springs to mind ...

This ones broken, and I've lost the other two

^"I am concerned there's increasing evidence a minority of people

• but a significant minority - [] have long-term impacts and it can be quite debilitating.^

Not quite sure why he's concerned. It's not like he has to do anything about it ...

I wonder how the Tories will carry on their demonising of the disabled and vulnerable, if Covid swells their ranks ?

Watch out for the "it was their own fault" narrative coming to a right win rag near you soon.

"I am concerned there's increasing evidence a minority of people - but a significant minority - have long-term impacts and it can be quite debilitating.

Doesn't he have to worry because he caught it himself?