Westminstenders: The Tunnel or Bridge

[RedToothBrush]

Apparently negotiations are in the black hole of the EU tunnel or should that be on the back of the fantasy of the Boris Bridge?

Another week closer to complete meltdown.

I'm guessing that our world beating customs solution will be based on blackboard and chalk.

@ListeningQuietly

It's also worth noting that as it stands the question above - and responses to it - are a complete and utter waste of everyones time and efforts anyway. Although this is the Brexit forum, so it kind of fits. Ha ha

That's not me being cynical, this time. Do we even know if a "circuit breaker" would work anyway. I know it sounds like a Good Idea etc etc. but absent any actual evidence it would work then what the fuck is the sense in asking the population that voted for "Boaty McBoatface" their opinion on such a matter.

Slap on the wrist to YouGov and others for not adding that fact to the preamble to the question. But then their mission statement is not to provide clarity to the media and public, but to provide clickbait stats for their Tory mates.

I posted too soon by accident, my toad in the hole needed to come out of the oven. I meant to add that the difference between Tory and general opinion was basically nil, and that is what should be worrying Johnson.

my toad in the hole needed to come out of the oven.

Ooo err missis !

@TheMShip

I posted too soon by accident, my toad in the hole needed to come out of the oven. I meant to add that the difference between Tory and general opinion was basically nil, and that is what should be worrying Johnson.

Oh, first thing I saw. However it does now give Boris a whip hand over the party. Not that I can see him using it. If there is any word less associated with Boris than "firm", I'd like to know it.

Mmmm Toad in the hole - did you make onion Gravy ?

And yes, I share your cynicism
because, in the words of Donald Tusk
Please do not waste this time
but the UK did

Some good news from abroad:

Greece: Leader of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group jailed for 13 years

If only I could hope Trump would be tried for similar

https://www.dw.com/en/greece-leader-of-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-group-jailed-for-13-years/a-55273388

A Greek court on Wednesday handed a 13-year jail term to the leader of the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawnn^, Nikos Michaloliakos, for running a criminal organization under the guise of a political party.

Six other former senior members were sentenced between 10 and 13 years on similar charges,
and 11 former Golden Dawn lawmakers were sentenced to between five and seven years in prison for being members of a criminal group.

Golden Dawn has been blamed for organizing multiple, violent attacks targeting immigrants and left-wing activists.
Most were carried out in Athens.

The landmark ruling is the culmination of a five-year court casethat involved more than 50 defendants convicted of crimes ranging from illegal weapons possession, murder and assault.

Wishing I could upvote MShip for toad in the hole, yummy!

Ask Gino though and it should be "sausage in the hole!"...bigger

@DGRossetti

my toad in the hole needed to come out of the oven.

Ooo err missis !

Was delicious, with leftover onion and red wine gravy from Sunday's steak & haggis olives from the farm shop butcher.

That's been one good thing to come out of lockdown. We're buying more local, higher quality stuff. But we're lucky, we can both WFH, I'm in a very secure job and DH was not furloughed. Living in a generally deprived area of our city, we are painfully aware that eg some of DS's friends' families have struggled. There's not much we can do since the usual things you'd do like offering childcare are not allowed due to household mixing, and I've been close to burnout again, I can't take on any more mental load. I've increased our monthly food bank direct debit, but that does little to assuage my conscience.

Well that got depressing. Time for a glass of wine and turning off devices.

Was delicious, with leftover onion and red wine gravy from Sunday's steak & haggis olives from the farm shop butcher.
OOh, shall have to suggest that my butcher gets back into beef olives. They are lush.
We are choosing to eat less meat but guaranteed British and better quality.
My butcher does a mean line in stewing and slow cooking meats which are perfect for winter.
And VERY cheap.

I'm listening to Macron being interviewed, announcing curfews in a whole series of towns and measures that are intended to try and allow the economy, education, etc. to carry on while restrictions are in place.
Say what you will, the man can string a whole series of well constructed sentences together, knows his brief and says a lot of the right things.
"It's hard being 20 years old in 2020. These are people who're experiencing unprecedented sacrifices..." "I don't want to blame people, but we need to make an effort for a few weeks." "Mayors know their towns better than anyone and are best placed to decide how to apply rules." Says WFH is rough for some, not for others, that blanket closures of workplaces are unreasonable and that common sense should prevail.

The contrast with some other leaders is quite striking.

Mayors know their towns better than anyone and are best placed to decide how to apply rules.
UKs failure summed up in one sentence

"the man can string a whole series of well constructed sentences together, knows his brief and says a lot of the right things."

Unfortunately that reasonable minimum seems unobtainable in the current Tory govt

There are a few bright sparks on the back benches though
Would I be naive to hope for one of them to replace BJ next year, rather than Raab, Gove or JRM ?

Toad in the Hole is a big favourite in our house too @TheMShip

Toad in the Hole is a big favourite in our house too @TheMShip

Dominic Cummings has up to £50,000 unpaid council tax bill ‘written off’

Ordinary plebs have the bailiffs in for a few hundred quid

https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/14/dominic-cummings-has-50000-unpaid-council-tax-bill-written-off-13418936/?ito=cbshare

Hmm, I seem to remember when this was "Project Fear" - Grant Shapps admits UK-EU flights could be grounded in the event of no deal.

They can claim it's a Covid measure

• it would even be a useful one

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-54541367
Teacher bursary cuts: 'My teaching dreams have been destroyed'

Yesterday, the government announced it was cutting all teaching bursaries (non-repayable government grants) for arts, English and humanities subjects in England from 2021.

There are still bursaries available for subjects including sciences, languages and maths, but the amount offered is falling by as much as 50%.

People wanting to teach languages and classics will now get £10,000, while biology teaching students will get £7,000.

Student teachers argue they have little time to work outside of their training so bursaries help pay for living costs.

The plans to cut bursaries for certain subjects has also been criticised by education bodies.

The government says the changes take account of "both recruitment to date and the future need for teachers in each subject".

Well I think after this year...

Covid patients to be released to care homes.

Carehome story...

Hmm, when I did a PGCE a long time ago there were only bursaries for science and maths at secondary level as far as I remember. Maybe they offered them for languages - I don't remember. The reason being that there was no shortage of candidates for primary teaching or the humanities at secondary. It didn't help in our case - most of us dropped out either during the course, or shortly afterwards....

To add to this - they would be better spending their efforts on retention. It was pretty dismal that most of us had dropped out either during the course or within two years - including me.

Who knows what the pandemic will do for demand for teachers? I wouldn't know what the current recruitment position is so I can't really comment, beyond a general understanding that the sciences are hard to recruit to and have clearly had some level of bursary retained. Biology jumps out at me from the graph, going from circa £25k to

Oh poor little Boris is disappointed that his self appointed deadline hasn't been met.

(We really need a small violin emoticon)

Barnier said it was BJ's 3rd unilateral deadline, so not a fixed one