Westministenders: Brevid

[RedToothBrush]

The government have FINALLY started to treat no deal brexit and covid as one entity in terms of fucking the economy.

On the one hand you have one camp who think they can sneak No Deal through as a consequence of Covid. On the other you have people who realise that it might be quite a good idea not to doubly screw your entire economy and to continue to be able to import medical supplies freely.

We now no that No Deal Brexit will involve passports to get into Kent and 7 mile queues of trucks because this has passed the lips of Gove. Y'know one of those who has been denying this for the past 4 years and presenting it as 'scaremongering'.

We are now firmly into the end game where businesses have to make plans based on the government plans and technology. Y'know the ones that aren't complete yet despite it only being 2 months to go.

Johnson has today done an interview about covid restrictions in the NE in which he got all the detail wrong. Its almost as if he forgot the lines he was instructed to recite and have no fundamental understanding of what rules he's putting into place to control the lives of the population.

As we lurch into October, there is speculation of full local lockdowns being brought in to try and deal with the spiralling number of cases which have to be the result, in no small part, of a dire lack of local testing facilities in the North of England. Meanwhile we've got The App finally. The one that doesn't work and the police and many health care staff are being advised not to use cos its so bobbins and will lead to them constantly isolating needlessly. Thats just something the rest of us have to contend with.

The feeling is that Cummings is up for No Deal. Johnson has been brainwashed into it, which lets face it, isn't too hard given how hard of thinking he is. However there is a growing sense that Johnson may now bottle it and declare victory in the jaws of defeat. That might be a premature hope.

We await the answer and the all important question of whether Christmas is indeed cancelled - that is for everyone who hasn't already cancelled it due to financial hardship...

A summary of the last week in Tory land.
I’m not sure if I want to laugh or cry

twitter.com/russincheshire/status/1310615097216315392?s=21

Pmk with a picture of the hedgehog the day she came back from the sanctuary

Thanks, red 💐

So this Facebook post - name excludes is a dear friend of mine. I have spoken about here before. She is early 40's and previously healthy.
Her story is one we should be talking about more - but seemlingly the media and government aren't interested. Enough of the adult population effected with complications/long term effects like this - the effect on the economy will be huge.

And then you have Fuckwits like Lord such in such in this tweet - who think just because he's a "lord" he knows what's he's talking about ..... but he doesn't have the foggiest because his wealth and privilege protects him..... and it makes me so angry I feel I may self combust. The UK is completely screwed - it needs to get past this feudal system that gives these toffs privilege beyond their ability.....

twitter.com/gabrielscally/status/1310867623152963590?s=21

So that's my rant for the day

So if BJ stayed in the NE for a couple of weeks, his ignorance of his own law would get him fined ?
(interesting that a "fat chance" and a "slim chance" mean the same rhing)

Now we can sympathise for the poor sods everywhere who are confused about the rules - and who do face fines

Sobering, MrsL
but the denialists and the "it's just flu" brigade on MN will minimise or refuse to read such accounts

Pmk

Bobbins indeed, RTB. That thing isn’t going anywhere near my phone, as I very politely told the text message that I received telling me to install it. And the ads on the telly

That twitter upthread says that a report said that only 10% of us are expected to use the app.

Anyone know where thats come from?

I think I've seen something say that it needs upwards of 50% to make any difference at all, but again I can't remember where I've seen that.

.

Ugh that Ford news is so depressingly predictable.

June 2019;
"Nearly half of Ford's European job cuts will be in Germany."

"US carmaker Ford said Thursday [2019] that it plans to slash a total of 12,000 jobs across Europe as part of a previously-announced restructuring."

"That means nearly half–5,400–of the planned job cuts by the car manufacturer are in Germany."

"The firm said it plans to close or sell six plants in Britain, France, Russia and Slovakia in 2019 and 2020."

"Group chief executive Jim Hackett announced last autumn a massive restructuring of the American firm, aiming to save $11 billion and turn Ford into a more "agile" group with faster decision-making processes."

www.thelocal.de/20190627/nearly-half-of-fords-european-job-cuts-in-germany

July 2019 "Ford to close Bridgend factory by September 2020"

"Stuart Rowley, the president of Ford in Europe, said the closure was prompted by the US carmaker’s global cost-cutting drive"...

“This action has nothing to do with Brexit,” he said. “If Brexit had never happened would it have been a different decision? The answer to that is no.”

www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/06/ford-to-close-bridgend-factory-in-september-2020

The "app" really annoyed my briefly on Saturday. And it's not even installed.

Every paper in the supermarket had a wrapper (I wonder who paid ?) around every copy urging the reader or purchaser (not necessarily the same person ) to download it.

It also needs access to GPS somehow, otherwise it won't know where it was that you crossed paths with the unclean. I suspect that's the bit that gave the police the heebeejeebies.

"The argonaut octopus has a penis (actually a sort of tentacle filled with sperm) which can detach and swim away by itself to search for a female, who can save the penis for her future use - therefore, Brexit is Great!"

@TheElementsOfMedical

"The argonaut octopus has a penis (actually a sort of tentacle filled with sperm) which can detach and swim away by itself to search for a female, who can save the penis for her future use - therefore, Brexit is Great!"

Octopods are amazing creatures. We have a lot to learn from them.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p074zc8s

I thought a cat encounter with a squirrel (taken from my bathroom window: the squirrel kept walking along the garage roof towards the cat ) was particularly appropriate to PMK

I have to disagree with DGR : "Weirdly, I actually don't have a massive problem with Boris not knowing the minutiae of the current guidelines. It would be akin to expecting a CEO to know what version of software their servers are running."

If we're going to use a metaphor, it's more akin to a CEO of an IT company not even knowing that the company needed to use computers

But seriously, it's not rocket science ....and funny how other leaders are able to recite the restrictions for their respective areas of responsibility - including areas of local lockdown (I'm thinking particularly of Nicola but I get the impression that Mark Drakeford and evening Arlene Foster are on top of the detail). Yet BJ doesn't even give the electorate the respect of learning the detail of what is a major effect on their day-to-day lives just because it doesn't apply to him .

And he didn't even have the grace or honesty to apologise for getting it wrong : he just said he "misspoke"

Testing children needs to be targeted more at those with keyworker parents
e.g. teachers, NHS staff

(FT paywall) NHS hit by staff shortages due to lack of Covid tests for children

https://www.ft.com/content/8c5f27ac-000d-432f-ab98-40fb59317d9a

The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine told the Financial Times that doctors with families were having to take time off work if their children had been sent home from school, either because they were sick or because a classmate had Covid-19 symptoms.

“The children are not being tested, or there is a very long lag between getting them tested and results being returned,
so there are large numbers of staff having to remove themselves from work, and often isolate for two weeks,”

said Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.

“That is having a huge impact on our ability to staff intensive care.”

PMK with our second cat's niece/nephew, born 5 weeks ago.
I keep nipping over to the neighbours' to look at the kittens, in an effort to remain sane by blocking out everything else but cute bundles of fur.
Weary thanks to all.

Which option will Sunak / BJ / Cummings choose - borrow more or tax more ?

Easier to break manifesto promises, after they've already broken the one about the "over-ready" WA

The financial hole has been dug seriously deeper by Covid, so at least there is a good reason to break pledges that cost money

FT: Sunak will struggle to meet Tory election pledges, warns IFS

https://www.ft.com/content/6563448b-6041-4206-96da-9b730b0347d5

Spending review offers stark choice of big rise in borrowing or tax rises
....
Rishi Sunak will struggle to deliver the Conservative election manifesto promises without “borrowing a hell of a lot more or raising taxes”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Aw, she/he is lovely
and with cats, the "gender reveal" can come later ....

Since BJ got confused about the rules
and Cummings certainly was
..... I hope the fines are only imposed after a warning and explanation, except for obviously illegal stunts like large raves

Did even the most paranoid and pessimistic Westministender suspect before the ref that we might see passes for Kent and even around other ports like Hull ?

I know you'd have had to keep quiet then because of cries of Project Fear, but did anyone dream of this level of disaster ?

@RedToothBrush ?
You suspected things the rest of us came to much later

I confess the current status wasn't in my worst scenarios; even No deal seemed ridiculous - I assumed no govt would be so irresponsible and incompetent to risk it

Now the best hope is for a bare bones tariffs & quotas deal that is little better than No Deal

Mind you, the idea of a British PM reneging on an international treaty only months after he signed it,
after he praised it in his manifesto and GE
was also beyond the bounds of possibility to me then

BigChoc
Did even the most paranoid and pessimistic Westministender suspect before the ref that we might see passes for Kent and even around other ports like Hull ?
Me.
I even put it on Facebook before the vote.
It was utterly predictable if a good trade deal was not reached
past experience of lorries on back roads trying to dodge "Stack" and thus checks further out

listening I'm impressed
Did people then make rude comments about the menopause ?

But reneging so soon on an international treaty ?
That was surely beyond even your beady eye, back in June 2016