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.

Another gem:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34439965

Take pension benefits away while no one is looking, says Liam -Werrity-Fox.

It's funny - in a twisted way - seeing all the people that lubed the country up for Tory rule starting to realise that the probe has nails on it, and is tearing us all a new arsehole, and they are now surplus to requirements. The 1922 committee. The gladrag press. Pensioners. All starting to realise what they let the cat bring in.

At every turn. At every pause. At every outrage and at every scandal, people need to be reminded this is what they voted for.

That was five years ago though DGR. They might have got away with it if they had done it then, because they could have blamed a Labour Government - they can't use that now.

Similarly with the daft slogan Build Back Better or whatever it is - well, who has been in charge for the last ten years? Who has been busy breaking the system?

...

@Peregrina

NI will be on its knees in five years thanks to Brexit.

Would we be able to learn from German re-unification here? A very similar situation must have pertained.

.... It has taken tremendous resources and a "solidarity tax" still running (temporarily stopped 2021 to give Covid relief)

After all these years, the former East is still less rich than the West, still building infrastructure and businesses,
still more vulnerable to Putin's fascist blandishments and Nazis

Decades of dictatorship did serious long-lasting damage economically, politically and socially - and we have begun to realise that the latter 2 are even more damaging, wrt attachment to authoritarianism and ingrained xenophobia

Covid is shit
Brexit is mega shit
But bumblebees feeding on my honeysuckle in flower in October tell me that Climate change will dwarf the bloody lot within a couple of years.

New Zealand has just had the sense to elect a grown up government.
What will it take for the rest of us ?

What will it take for the rest of us ?
Invasion by New Zealand?

Just after the Brexit vote, DH reckoned the UK should invade Ireland and then surrender as a way of getting back into the EU

LQ

Totally. My brother is in a senior position in Environment Agency, and while he feels like us re Brexit (and Covid) he says these will soon be dwarfed by the significant negative impact of climate change.

It is about surviving Brexit and Covid with the economy in sufficient state to make a stab at tackling climate change,
rather than becoming a basket case within the next 10 years

I see it as analagous to maximum immediate effort to deal with torn arteries spurting blood,
before thinking about attending chemo sessions over the next months

Also, to be selfish, climate change is not something that will have anything like the effect of the other 2 in my lifetime - in UK & Europe
About 25% of the population is my age or older

@DGRossetti

Another gem:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34439965

Take pension benefits away while no one is looking, says Liam -Werrity-Fox.

It's funny - in a twisted way - seeing all the people that lubed the country up for Tory rule starting to realise that the probe has nails on it, and is tearing us all a new arsehole, and they are now surplus to requirements. The 1922 committee. The gladrag press. Pensioners. All starting to realise what they let the cat bring in.

At every turn. At every pause. At every outrage and at every scandal, people need to be reminded this is what they voted for.

Older people would understand the need for cuts to their benefits to help the next generation Liam Fox... suggested. Right

At least Alex Wild is being pretty damn open in his views, which seems to amoun to letting the old get cold and die. Won't affect him. How old is he? About 12? And clearly expecting to be a millionaire before he retires so no worries about letting pensioner freeze during winter. Lovely fellow.

Yes on the one hand anyone who voted Tory ought to know DGR what they were voting for, but the problem is that they didn't. At least not necessarily. There is a wider, deeper structural problem at work here.

This was illustrated for me by watching the interview with the single mother living without heating in a damp one bedroom apartment with her disabled daughter saying that she was going to vote Tory in Dec 2019.

Let's admit that the right has been so much more strategic in shaping voter beliefs through Think Tanks, creating so-called NGOs' and grass roots (called astroturfing) groups, media, not to mention massive influx of FB misinformation ahead of elections/referendums, and in coming up with pithy yet completely wrong sound bites that stick. This is real power. To convince the voters that they share the same interests when this could not be further from the truth.

The right never gives up, is continuously innovating, and seeking to adopt new technologies because they are consolidate around the one key objective: to get and keep power.

Of course the right, supported by money, has financial resources not available to other political parties, but Labour and the Democratics need to somehow get much more strategic in terms of informing the electorate of what is actually happening.

If the older generation cared about longterm prospects for the young,
then there wouldn't be many of the other deep-seated problems making life much more difficult for the young:

disgraceful cuts to schools and lack of investment, especially atm to make schools safer
massive student debt
massive housing crisis
the young paying for much better pensions for the old than they themselves will receive
the growth of ZHCs, casual work, the precariat youg with little employment protections
Brexshit ...

When something for the old is cut, it is always what hits the poorest,
not e.g. the owners of multiple houses - they continue to receive boosts and subsidies, to keep property prices high

Bigchoc
Also, to be selfish, climate change is not something that will have anything like the effect of the other 2 in my lifetime - in UK & Europe
On the basis that you are likely to live at least 15 years
your confidence is misplaced

"the single mother living without heating in a damp one bedroom apartment with her disabled daughter saying that she was going to vote Tory in Dec 2019"

This is why we have the constant distractions of Brexit, nets in the Channel etc

Dogwhistles to distract people from how their own personal circumstances will be hit by rightwing policies and divert blame onto scapegoats

People can want to live in an authoritarian society whether they are rich or poor
Authoritarians are the easiest to distract with scapegoats, whether of the "expert mc elite" as demonised by the decidely non-expert uc elite,
or just the bog-standard blaming of foreigners doing down poor old England

However, scapegoating is inherent in us all from evolution, reflex reactions to danger from outside, anyone or anything appearing different, from a different group

@ListeningQuietly

Bigchoc Also, to be selfish, climate change is not something that will have anything like the effect of the other 2 in my lifetime - in UK & Europe On the basis that you are likely to live at least 15 years your confidence is misplaced

... Major environmental changes that significantly affect my standard of living ? Not in 15 years, probably not in 35 years

Devasting changes already in parts of the developing world, but - as with all problems - money gives choices & protection
and richer countries have those choices, as well as not being in areas where higher temps mean much higher deaths
(10k in France that summer is ⅕ of Covid deaths and anyway measures now would avoif that reoccurring to the same extent)

PMK

We were repeatedly warned back in the 1970s that environmental change would change our lives within 40 years
Changes happen for all sorts of reasons, but the really devastating changes in the West have been caused by policies of the increasingly hard right political parties
The developed world has been affected of course

There is some argument that an increasing numbers of virus pandemics will be coming from people & animals mixing too much,
but that is more down to social behaviour / choices and wilful stupidity wrt food preferences and folk mediciine

Boris Johnson 'plans to resign next spring after complaining about £150k salary'

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-plans-resign-next-22863780

That sort of stuff annoys me. Because he is basically shafting the country and then refusing to take any responsibility for it whilst he is leaving others sorting the mess out.

BCF m’y friends in France are actually looking at relocating to areas where you water vs where they live (the Med where restrictions on water use have already been going on for years)

It’s not as simple as the temperatures been higher. It’s the sea levels, access to water, possible massive changes in weather ( I’m thinking of the possible influence on the Gulf Stream etc....), issues with fires etc...

So yes richer countries will fare better. But I think they will suffer a lot too.

Meuniere
Indeed, its why we need joined up government that can think strategically.
Even the richest countries are getting more affected by

• fires, floods, storm surges
• limitations on clean water affect Italy, Spain and parts of France every summer
• food security is absolutely critical

as the UK is just about to find out

The modelling in the 70's versus what we have now is totally different
and in the 70's China had not industrialised

Black Swan events and all that

I agree.

But it seems that apart from a teenage girl, not many of our politicians (regardless of the country) are ready to step up, look at the big picture and actually do something about it.

I’m starting to wonder if we won’t have a re run of Covid with (Most) governments flapping around whilst achieving very little.

The local FB page was set up and is administrated by the Conservatives. Anything even mildly critical of the Government is removed.
People used to discuss politics at the pub. Nowadays, it's online and being censored.

There's a suspicion on FWR that an MP's staff may have suppressed emails they didn't agree with so the MP never got to see them. I wonder if it's true and, if so, how widespread it is.

Stories about Johnson planning to resign are about squirrels and testing the water about preparing to remove him. Nothing to do with him resigning.

You think so Red? Not a case of him having considerably less fun than he pictured whilst also making less money? Chequers not quite being enough to offset that drop in income. Plus, imagine how much he'll charge for after dinner speeches where no one is expecting to actually provide substantive details.

Oh if he goes he will choose to resign rather than have an ego crushing ejection.

He isn't up to the job. He knows it by now im sure. Its not what he thought it was. He must know by now hes the fall guy. Its just when he knows that will now catch up with him...