Westminstenders: Prepare for what we said would never happen

[RedToothBrush]

I think that there may be a run on tinned tomatoes and pasta coming. Pizza will no longer have mozzarella in 2021.

On the plus side turnips are in season.

So Hancock say that the 60 mill still on the table for Manchester and door open for them to come and discuss ( beg) to see if they can get more than 22 mill.

The government is now threatening to take back control of transport for London.

I think we all know where this is all headed by now.

Destroy any form of opposition or institution in anyway way possible.

"The government is now threatening to take back control of transport for London."

What sparked that bit of spite by them ?

Channel 4 just reporting that the gov did v similar with Lancashire. Lancashire dropped and dropped and dropped , government then said take it of leave it once they were £5m apart , they would only get a 1/4 of the government's last offer ....take it or leave it.
Same negotiating strategy as with Manchester..... and we wonder how we're ending up with no deal....

Yep Hancock just said he will talk with the different council's in Greater Manchester and if Andy Burnham is willing with him too.
So picking off the boroughs starting with the Tory ones. Bastards the lot of them!!!!!! I cannot stand the Government I really can't!
( Apologise for language). They want to demand Andy Burnham. Keep their fking voters I have never despised a Goverment so much! ( except Thatcher's).

Demean not demand fking phone.

Well, this government just keep outdoing themselves!

Channel 4 just reporting that the gov did v similar with Lancashire. Lancashire dropped and dropped and dropped , government then said take it of leave it once they were £5m apart , they would only get a 1/4 of the government's last offer ....take it or leave it.
Same negotiating strategy as with Manchester..... and we wonder how we're ending up with no deal....

Wtf are we going to do? They gonna grind any opposition into ground. I wanna cry😭

@TokyoSushi

Well, this government just keep outdoing themselves!

Tokyo have you seen the latest on Warrington. After the government have completely ignored them whilst simultaneously saying how necessary it is for T3 in neighbouring Liverpool and Manchester and having rates as high as West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Nottingham and the NE (who apparently have agreed deals) , Warrington have piped up and said 'erm excuse me, our hospital is rather full, maybe we should be talking to you too'.

Its a joke. It really bloody is.

Wtf are we going to do? They gonna grind any opposition into ground. I wanna cry

Its worked elsewhere in the world. Destroy the concept of the truth and win.

Of course no one in government would have any understanding of this having never lived through this happening in one of these countries....

Nope.

You can see why they have been so crap at negotiating with the EU over Brexit

This govt only know how to bully - which won't work with a more powerful opponent -
or to crawl - which is traditional UK strategy for the USA

Yes @RedToothBrush I just saw! It's literally like we don't exist! It seems we're going to have to put ourselves in T3 as nobody else is going to...

I had a response from Charlotte Nichol yesterday (I don't bother with Andy Carter even though he's actually my MP) who said that she expects that we'll go into T3 pretty soon if our rates don't come down.

It would certainly appear that we're going to have to go to them though, because they ain't coming to us!

Andy Carter is an absolute donkey.

But he may get Warrington a better deal than G Manchester... Precisely because hes a blue donkey.

Im not surprised the council want t3 now with Liverpool on one side and Manchester on the other.

This weekend the whole county will be invaded.

@TokyoSushi

Yes *@RedToothBrush* I just saw! It's literally like we don't exist! It seems we're going to have to put ourselves in T3 as nobody else is going to...

I had a response from Charlotte Nichol yesterday (I don't bother with Andy Carter even though he's actually my MP) who said that she expects that we'll go into T3 pretty soon if our rates don't come down.

It would certainly appear that we're going to have to go to them though, because they ain't coming to us!

The con MP has just mentioned Warrington numbers to Hancock ... yes he is worried about numbers in the borough and talking to leaders blah blah.

From what I hear, your MP might like to start by making sure Hancock knows exactly where Warrington is.

Childish but my Darling Daughter just shared this video with me.
The Irish Border will never be the same again
www.tiktok.com/@paulfinegan69/video/6884935255577398529

Tom Forth @thomasforth
Just to cheer everyone up, a quick reminder from me that cuts to local government are continuing, as they have for the past decade, during this pandemic. It's just the usual day to day local government, stuff like social care and bin collections, so few care. But it's happening.

At the start of the pandemic the UK government told local government that it would cover their costs. That pledge has not been honoured. So local government, especially in cities, is doing what it is has to do even, with the largest council tax rises it is allowed. Cutting jobs.

Here are the 617 jobs Leeds are planning on cutting. There is nothing they can do about it if central government doesn't step in. There is no money. They're raising council tax by the maximum allowed. Cuts during an economic contraction. Economic madness.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-leeds-54530235?__twitter_impression=true
Leeds City Council could axe 600 jobs

The best way to see the scale of the cuts to local government is in headcount. Continuing to go down. While of course central government headcount continues to increase, the highest since 1999, possibly the highest it's ever been.

(if anyone has a very long-term history of central government headcount for the UK I'd love to see that).

Oooh, excellent. We have central government employment for the UK since 1949. And yes, today, the UK's central government is the largest it's ever been. Also the largest in Europe.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/compendium/economicreview/april2019/longtermtrendsinukemployment1861to2018

It's a great victory for the right-wing think-tanks and lobbying groups who (while either lying about their motives or unaware of what they were achieving) have continued to achieve the massive expansion of central government, which they are then paid more to lobby.

I realise now that the first graph doesn't show what I've stated. It still may very well be true, but it just shows that central government is the largest proportion of all government it's ever been. It may have been larger in count in the past. I'll look at that in an hour.

pepperwort!

Tom Forth @thomasforth
I got the data back to 1949. Central Government in the UK has never employed more people than it does today. Local Government employment is at its lowest since 1963. The public corporations, central and local, are almost all gone. There was a war. Westminster won. Completely.

I am not making an anti-London point. I am so sick of any criticism of centralisation in the UK being turned to that point. Greater London, the city and its people, is one of the biggest losers from this. I use the word Westminster, if that angers you, suggest an alternative.

Would anyone now like to hazard a guess as to why there is such north south divisiveness???

The con MP has just mentioned Warrington numbers to Hancock ... yes he is worried about numbers in the borough and talking to leaders blah blah.

That might be news to the council who asked via the local paper to start talks at about 4pm today... They clearly hadnt been engaging prior to that. The council said at the weekend it was ladt monday they spoke to london and donkey boy himself said on sunday he last spoke last Tuesday.

I guess that's mildly better than being handed someone else phone with text messages on in the middle of a press conference, i suppose...

RTB
Headcount is not always the best metric due to technological change
but I know from briefings by LA chief execs
that between 2010 and 2012 fat was sliced
then muscle
and now bone
and Adult Social care bills rise at around 6% a year even when CT rates are capped at 2% + 3%

@ListeningQuietly

RTB Headcount is not always the best metric due to technological change but I know from briefings by LA chief execs that between 2010 and 2012 fat was sliced then muscle and now bone and Adult Social care bills rise at around 6% a year even when CT rates are capped at 2% + 3%

Maybe not, but maybe computerisation is actually part of the problem. Plus central government figures are going up despite computerisation...

DH said that his gym (in Warrington) was unbelievably packed today, it's one of those gyms where you can use any in the chain. Assume it's people coming over the 'border' from T3 Merseyside where theirs are closed...

You know the G Manchester restrictions dont include closing gyms like the Lancashire ones, don't you?

So fuck knows what the government thinks scousers do in gyms that they dont so elsewhere!!!

@TokyoSushi

DH said that his gym (in Warrington) was unbelievably packed today, it's one of those gyms where you can use any in the chain. Assume it's people coming over the 'border' from T3 Merseyside where theirs are closed...

Not the one which has the covid test centre in the car park???