Westminstenders: Pah International Law. Who needs it?

[RedToothBrush]

I mean its not as if trade deals and human rights are relevant is it?

(sorry eating my dinner so must be brief)

I've just googled, there are 33 million Irish Americans. That's a lot of voters to piss off.

I don't think he's courting votes he wouldn't normally get. I think he's ensuring he doesn't lose those he has.

Which is why populism descends through to fascism ....

Same way that Blue Wall will need to be courted - but at the expense of traditional Tory votes. Or so you'd think.

Reckon 2 week national lockdown at October half term. That way schools will onlynl lose a week.

I am wondering how this will affect the Tory party in the long run. Johnsons is doing a good job of shredding their reputation on law, order and economical sanity. There's also only so long you can bang on about Brexit before people get bored and ask "yes, but what are you doing about XYZ?"

On top of that, Stamner is appearing as more traditional conservative than Johson ever could be. Tony Blair, Mk2?

A national lockdown will not work.
People's finances are too fragile
as is their mental health

and FWIW I'd be pretty pissed off if I was locked down
when this area has had consistently low cases and tests and admissions for MONTHS

surely those areas that can keep working SHOULD keep working

closing schools destroys parents' jobs remember

Unlike Thatcher, Major, or May, Johnson really doesn't give a fuck about the Tory party.

In fact, if he ripped off his mask and said "aha, I was a plant intended to ruin the party" it would come as little surprise.

After all, if you're trashing the UK, the Tory party is insignificant collateral damage.

Remember who Boris' handler is ...

DGR
Corbyn was a Tory mole
Johnson is a Putin mole
its all such fun

Not as expensive as Brexit or the International Space Station,
but someone must have told BJ that HS2 would create bridges:

the HS2 vanity project

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/18/hitachi-nuclear-test-hs2-huge-projects-politicians-wasteful

If I were starting a business school I would offer an honours course in vanity infrastructure.

In April, Boris Johnson finally issued “notice to proceed” on the most lavish construction project in Europe,
Britain’s new railway, HS2.

Its value for money was plummeting even before coronavirus, at just £1.20 for every £1 in cost,
and possibly heading towards 70pp^.
.....
From now on it will be charging British taxpayers over £100m a week for the scheduled 20 years of the project.

It’s not just people finances @ListeningQuietly, it’s the whole economy and society.

I was reading a thread about schools and parents ‘lying’ about their dc symptoms. Wo talking about the lack of tests, putting the whole family in self isolation will mean no income for many people. Or a real pittance that means they won’t be able to pay their mortgage etc...
In countries where unemployment benefit is more realistic, or sickness payment is 100% of the wage (at least to start with), people take less risk when they have to be off like this.
Same with companies etc....
It’s the whole structure of the society that is too fragile to allow some resilience to kick into place in a case like Covid (or Brexit or any other unplanned event like worldwide recession and so on)

HS2 I live along the line. It's a colossal expense that serves to get people to Birmingham 20 mins earlier, to a station that doesn’t yet connect to anywhere else. With remote working becoming more widespread its a horrendous waste of money. Give everyone high speed broadband, save on carbon footprint and leave an AONB alone.

"I am wondering how this will affect the Tory party in the long run. Johnsons is doing a good job of shredding their reputation on law, order and economical sanity. "

Isn't that one of the aims of the Dominic Cummings/Aron Banks contingent? They hate the Conservative Party and want it trashed.
More and more, it looks as though Brexit was just a means to an end. The real aim was to wreck the EU. In that respect, Brexiters have failed. That's probably why they are still so angry.

I'll happily settle for Tony Blair Mk2 in preference to Boris Johnson Mk1.

I'm convinced the Hitachi projects cancellation was a direct response to the Internal Markets bill. It's a massive project that needs political and financial stability over a period of decades. It's painfully clear that not only is the UK unwilling to provide that. It's unable to provide that.

The next shoe to drop will be the UKs credit rating on the international markets. Which is an extra kick in the balls for those who have suffered under austerity, since the biggest driver of austerity (so we were told) was to enable the UK to keep it's AAA rating.

Amal Clooney: Lawyer quits UK envoy post over Boris Johnson’s ‘lamentable’ Brexit bill

Media freedoms envoy says Internal Market Bill ‘threatens to embolden autocratic regimes … with devastating consequences all over the world’

Amal Clooney has quit her role as UK special envoy in protest over Boris Johnson’s government’s “lamentable” decision to break international law with its new Brexit bill.

The prominent human rights lawyer submitted her resignation as special envoy on media freedom to foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Friday.

“Very sadly, it has become untenable for me, as special envoy, to urge other states to respect and enforce international obligations while the UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself,” her letter stated.

Ms Clooney warned the government’s Internal Market Bill “threatens to embolden autocratic regimes that violate international law with devastating consequences all over the world”.

And, citing the president of the Bar Council of England and Wales, she cautioned that undermining the rule of law that “this country is built on … will fatally puncture people’s faith in our justice system”.

Significant Tory opposition to the Internal Market Bill grew after Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis made the rare admission that it would breach Mr Johnson’s own Brexit withdrawal agreement with Brussels

in a “specific and limited way”. But after a bruising day in the Commons for the prime minister, who insisted offending measures in the legislation were necessary to prevent an EU blockade in the Irish Sea but that

he had “absolutely no desire” to use them, MPs voted the bill through parliament for a second reading by 77 votes.

While the prime minister has reached a compromise with some Tory MPs for an amendment providing additional parliamentary scrutiny, it was not enough to prevent the government’s advocate general for Scotland,

Lord Keen, from tendering his resignation on Thursday.

More and more, it looks as though Brexit was just a means to an end. The real aim was to wreck the EU. In that respect, Brexiters have failed. That's probably why they are still so angry.

Not only failed, but miserably backfired, if the pro-EU polling in the EU27 isn't lying

And I'd wager that if the UK really wants to make something of it with treaty breaking a go-go, then it will only rise further.

If Boris Johnson was Trumps secret weapon to destabilise the EU

I find that New Statesman article BCF put up yesterday quite alarming. Just how far is Johnson and the Tories willing to go with this. We’ve had British politicians blaming the EU for all of Britain’s problems for decades now. One could make a fairly watertight case for that having led directly to Brexit. Still now, as Britain begins its independence, the only answer it’s leaders can come up with to serious difficulties in Britain’s administration is that it’s all the nasty EUs fault. Do politicians not understand consequences at all? I really fear that the first contacts with other nations’ fishing boats is going to lead to uproar. Potentially we could end up with armed conflicts appearing, with politicians once again riding a reactive wave of hurt national pride that they will of course claim as an act of god rather than their own connivance. I hope that I’m extrapolating way too far.

I just listened you the independent sage "broadcast" for today.
They don't believe a two week lockdown will work ...... we need to change fundamentals. That means pubs at least closing for inside service, and social distancing at school(which isn't happening) - plus a few other measures (changes to the rule of 6, to limit number of households etc). They have always been right (unhappily) about the way things have headed in the pandemic, and you could tell they are getting increasingly frustrated and concerned.

We are in the foothills of getting into exponential growth again and have about a week to turn it around..... I doubt this shit show we call a giver will do anything effective, soon enough.

Trump - in this respect no different to any other POTUS - would never put the "Special Relationship" above his own personal interests.

Trump's team with an eye to not losing the Irish-American vote:

Trump envoy warns UK against creating hard border

www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2020/0918/1165918-brexit-ireland/

The "Rule of Six" isn't called that in Scotland. I heard Nicola referring it today as the "Six Two Rule" during the ScotGov Corona Virus briefing (which the BBC is still showing ), ie Six adult people , Two households . Nice and clear - even if some people are railing against it.

....and that's before you get to the additional restrictions that are in place in a large part of the West of Scotland.

Which is an extra kick in the balls for those who have suffered under austerity, since the biggest driver of austerity (so we were told) was to enable the UK to keep it's AAA rating.
Very interesting article in the Economist last week analysing why Government debt in a demographically ageing planet is no bad thing
and that Austerity should not be repeated

We are in the foothills of getting into exponential growth again and have about a week to turn it around.....
Thing is that in parts of the country - like round here - the case load has not been above 10 per 100,000 for several months
so lockdowns and steps that trash the economy will be pointless
as COVID is barely here
but lots of business and income generation is

the measures have to be locally managed and driven to meet the demographic needs of each area

shutting pubs is pretty pointless in areas where the Mosques and Gudawaras and Temples are the focal points

Listening - you should watch it..... they are not advocating wholesale lock downs ...... and 10 in a 100,000 is a seemingly magic number. But while people can move - so can the virus, it's not guaranteed it will stay at that level.

But do remember the economy is people - so you can't have large proportions of excess deaths, lots of people sick which with this illness that can run for many weeks and months, and that not effect the economy.

There are many many things the gov could do to reduce the spread of the illness, they have pissed away the last lockdown, they are throwing millions at cronies for contracts which deliver very little benefit because they are incapable..... but we have gone over this before.

MrsL
COVID was the 21st highest cause of death in the UK last week.
Look at Figure 2 here
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest

If 500,000 people on the beach in one day early in the summer caused no spike in cases (it didn't)
I really wonder what will ....

If you look at the National map, there are no high case areas within 100 miles of here

PS The charts on this page
news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-towns-across-england-added-to-covid-19-watchlist-find-out-if-your-area-is-affected-12075241
Every local authority around mine and then around them is on page 40 or lower out of 55 .....

Lockdowns mandated from Whitehall will not deal with the local issues driving the clusters
it HAS to take into account the differences in areas

Listening - it was outside and hot..... super spreading events tend to be inside (something like 96%...) and what do brits do in winter?

Look I know I won't change your mind - it's closed to the risk, until it visits your family....

Quoting the figures of cause of death last week is totally missing the point..... which is disavows I thought you had some understanding of maths and patterns.

MrsL
I know the risk factors
but I also know that anything centralised will fail.
BigChoc has rightly highlighted that the decentralised German system has allowed appropriate reactions.

I've lost enough family members to Cancer
and know that lots of cancer treatments are being cancelled due to COVID panic
that my perspective remains much wider than today's disease