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.

I've just bought a fire pit....for roasting 🐿 on

Cracking

Dear lord. At least they know it’s failing?

Ian Dunt
@IanDunt*
Replying to
@IanDunt
Interesting job ad. Department of Health looking for a 'Senior Delivery Manager' for test and trace operations. £2,000 a day. "Experience of turning around failing call centres" a must.

mobile.twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1319315964597600259

They really have money to burn. I imagine they have someone lined up for the job and want to pump out as much money to him as possible.

Greek How very cynical (and completely accurate )

Someone in the replies pointed out the job has been “online” for 48 hours and the deadline is tomorrow. So yep. Hardly a fair chance for any non-Tory crony to rake in the £2k a day.

Won’t feed hungry kids. Will funnel any amount of money into a badly thought out crock of shite.

(Sorry Greek I am agreeing with you and think if you are being cynical it’s very well placed! I read it back and it looked like I was snarking at you I’m too tired to internet today!)

.

I like the look of the Future....

Um, hello, Wessex is the future
britishcountyflags.com/2013/09/20/wessex-flag/

DGR i struggle to work out whether im Mercia or Northumbria at the best of times because the historic border is a little bit fluid over time.

You've now thrown a spanner in the works by suggesting I could become Welsh too. Not to mention Manchester City Centre being in Wales is just plain odd. I hope that freedom of movement agreed with Northumbria of that could become somewhat problematic.

My covid problem has been restriction borders and now you decide to throw some new fangled map to add to my anguish of recent months, which has turned me positively barking.

We were talking a wee while ago about what was the oldest border: thought I'd contribute with the age of the Scottish border. It was formed in 1237 and with only two small alterations - sorting out the "Debatable lands" near Carlisle in 1552 and England fully annexing Berwick in 1746.

The only issue I see with the border and Scottish independence is that Berwick might not want to stay with England

I’m happy to be Welsh, or Northumbrian, whichever I turn out to be living in! I don’t suppose there’s any legal basis for reinstating those borders is there?

@prettybird

We were talking a wee while ago about what was the oldest border: thought I'd contribute with the age of the Scottish border. It was formed in 1237 and with only two small alterations - sorting out the "Debatable lands" near Carlisle in 1552 and England fully annexing Berwick in 1746.

The only issue I see with the border and Scottish independence is that Berwick might not want to stay with England

Has everyone overslept?

So there is a border in the Irish Sea

Moving timber to Northern Ireland from GB
The European Timber Regulationss_ will apply in Northern Ireland.
From 1 January 2021, you’ll need to show imports from GB have been legally harvested to meet the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) due diligence ruless_.
Businesses must follow these regulations from 1 January 20211_ when they import timber from non-EU and EEA countries.
To show you’re importing legally harvested timber, you’ll need to carry out due diligence. Use the due diligence checklistt_ to make sure you:
• gather information on the timber - its species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and how it complies with relevant laws
• assess the risk of illegally harvested timber entering your supply chain
• mitigate any identified risk to negligible by gathering more information or implementing further actions
Timber will be recognised as legally harvested if one of the following applies:
• it has a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) import permitt_
• it’s accompanied by a valid FLEGT licencee_
You will not need to carry out due diligence on this timber.

www.gov.uk/guidance/trading-timber-imports-and-exports-from-1-january-2021

Sybil Ruscoe asking all the right questions about trade deals at about 8 min in (Farming Today)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nm0w

Why can't all interviewers manage this type of persistent, polite, uncompromising questioning? She's got an interesting broadcasting history as well - had to google for spelling and find she presented TOTP for a while!

I haven't heard Sybil Ruscoe's programme, but weren't these the sorts of questions that interviewers should have been doing four years ago? Instead the Brexiters/Tories got a free pass, and we have ended up in this mess.

@Peregrina

I haven't heard Sybil Ruscoe's programme, but weren't these the sorts of questions that interviewers should have been doing four years ago? Instead the Brexiters/Tories got a free pass, and we have ended up in this mess.

I think that's been the most depressing this about this entire episode. There's been such a lack of interest in how Brexit would actually work in any area. It's like the thought-terminating cliches around "transwomen are women!" in which a well-intended but fundamentally woolly idea about being nice turned into an entire programme to reshape society, law and language but no-one was supposed to ask about how any of it was intended to work or what the consequences might be.

No wonder we are now in a second phase of surging corona virus with no working contact tracing or regional public health. The political direction was all about getting the public feeling safe enough from from the virus to go back to normal, not actually thinking through and implementing what was needed for them to actually be safe.

@Singasonga spot on!

Spot on @Singasonga

And it's not like the advice wasn't there....
I have listened to independent sage from the beginning, and the advice has always essentially been the same...... problem is journos would prefer to have a plumber opine on what we should be doing rather than someone who is actually qualified ..... but meh... experts....

Whoever made the following clip did a brilliant job...

twitter.com/mi6rogue/status/1319525341615017987?s=21

@DGRossetti
@prettybird

Re Berwick-upon-Tweed and 'wanting independence from England'

I live in BoT.
There is much discussion about the 'free prescriptions, free Uni' etc
that 'those Scots' get over the Border.
There was quite a bit of discussion about it at the time of the last IndyRef.
In reality, 50 miles deep either side of the border is very similar.
Same folks (same surnames sometimes) same employment, same type of land / geography, similar history = hardy Border Folk.
North of Newcastle (or at least the Cheviots) and south of Edinburgh (or at least the Pentlands) was a homogeneous area at times historically. (tho I know the eastern end well, the western less so)

The local MP, Anne Marie Trevelyan, is not popular locally.
There are some dyed in the wool farmers who vote Tory, and some well established gentry (parts of the Borders still feel feudal) but there is also poverty, low wage employment and fear for the future.
She is loathed by most and 'Westmonster' feels very far away.
'Fort Berwick' has long felt forgotten and ignored.

Farming Today has been a consistent voice of unbiased sanity for the last four years, which is why I've posted links to many episodes.
It's also the accompaniment to my morning exercises, so I listen to it most days. The change immediately afterwards to the pompous, grating, whiny, self-important non-fact-checking style of the Today presenters is particularly painful. (I do exempt Justin Webb from much of this criticism.)

This is very good.

twitter.com/larryandpaul/status/1319345275593347077

Twitter - or more specifically Marcus Rashfords Twitter feed is enough to restore faith in humanity today. Small local businesses and councils all over the country volunteering free meals so children do not go hungry over the holidays . Amazing to see and tells you how wrong the Tories got this.

@mrslaughan

Twitter - or more specifically Marcus Rashfords Twitter feed is enough to restore faith in humanity today. Small local businesses and councils all over the country volunteering free meals so children do not go hungry over the holidays . Amazing to see and tells you how wrong the Tories got this.

The Tories will be congratulating themselves on how the kids will still get free meals without the Government paying for them.

I’ll leave this here: