Westminstenders: What the winds bring

[RedToothBrush]

The next few weeks are crucial. Eu talks, covid handling, the US election and any other unexpected events (its nearly November, lets face it will probably be the weather).

It feels a little like the car crash in slow motion is about to hit the wall of reality. I guess that just means all there is left to do is to brace for impact.

I would worry about the army on the streets - it could so easily turn to being something used against us.

And without it what else will be used against us? Who is 'us'? Violence went up in the 80s, and the much-publicised minor downturns of the early 2000s were not enough to return it to 70s levels. Violence against women and girls particularly is rising. I was a teenage girl in the 80s on a shit northern drug-ridden estate and had quite enough of it then. Seeing the trend return so far, so fast, against that high background is terrifying quite frankly.

@Peregrina

However, my posts above are something of a distraction. I would worry about the army on the streets - it could so easily turn to being something used against us.

You only have to look at what happened in NI to see what can happen when the army hit the streets. The nationalist community welcomed them initially as they thought they were there to protect them

It's a good question who is 'us'? Well, I think if you are in a Labour council in the north, then you are part of the us that will be turned against. Naice comfortable south east Tory constituency - somehow, I don't expect an Army presence there. Am I too cynical/

LQ - BCF link is a thing of beauty. It is but it does not tell the whole story and the slightly Marshall music is a bit jingoistic. For a start in 1975 China, a country of a billion people, was the most equal nation on Earth as in equally poor and nowhere in the world’s economic tables. However it did have a culture rooted in two millennia of a thriving commercial economy, skills and motivation that were suppressed by Mao. So when Deng took off the lid it was all there to take off. However it has been a fine line between growing and exploding. Even now when Xi’s hardline seems to be suppressing sedition and corruption it is far from stable. He needs his belt and road initiative to tie in other countries to China’s economic growth to keep his growing middle class content and cooperative.

Emily
The other way to look at the chart is that the West outsourced its production and pollution to China
and now virtue signals while China supplies us

remember when the Iron curtain fell and we found out where West Germany had been hiding their waste all those years

BigChoc sent me that link more to highlight the collapse of the UK since 2016 than anything about China

@52andblue I have sent you a PM

@52andblue

I’ve only read about Humphry Wakefield and he’s always struck me as upper class eccentric, with all of the unpleasant traits that come as part of the package, which in his case includes a belief in eugenics.

www.fieldsportschannel.tv/sir-humphry-misses-pheasant-season-to-go-riding/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

@RedToothBrush

DH has been saying this week that he expects that Trump will employ a 'red barrage' strategy tomorrow.

He thinks that the early declarations will be red, and trump will declare he is winning / has won. Then when state declare blue he will call it voter fraud.

I've now seen tonight that Trump is already preparing lawyers to make legal challenges tomorrow.

Trump WILL NOT go quitely even if the results go Biden's way.

I've said this for a long long time, but it's interesting that DH now thinks this. I know this has been speculated about for a while but I do think this is now almost a certainity if things go badly for Trump tomorrow.

He beleives he can always get his own way through the power of positive thought. And that includes bullying his way to it, if he doesn't get it legitimately.

Even if Trump appears to win, then there is already talk of how postal votes have been deliberately stolen / gone missing.

Tomorrow looks very very scary indeed...

Yes, Trump has said as much. Just seen this: www.axios.com/biden-transition-plan-election-day-65caa1f6-886e-42cd-b205-5ee8f89941f2.html

I've seen the GDP graph linked from @BigChocFrenzy email. An analysis in GBP would be interesting - the chart is in USD and sterling has taken a huge hit since 2016 referendum.

I see George Osborne is lecturing over FSM

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/03/covid-decade-long-lie-benefits-lifestyle-choice-george-osborne-free-school-me

in an attempt to rebrand himself.

However, it's interesting that "nuLab" became extant - and eventually an insult. But isn't it fair to say that Boris is most definitely "nuTory" ? Which no one has really coined ....

All the talk of Trump echoes Theresa Mays desperate dash to the palace in 2017 when she had clearly lost her majority but managed to hang on.

I read that piece about Humphrey Wakefield. First (and last thought): what a knob!

Just because the army are coming in to help with test n trace does not necessarily compute to covert operations to invade our streets with armies!

That George Osborne link isn't working DG. Read the potato one though. I'm quite worried about that. We eat 2kg of potatoes most days. I'm half thinking of keeping some smaller ones for seed.

@Apileofballyhoo

That George Osborne link isn't working DG. Read the potato one though. I'm quite worried about that. We eat 2kg of potatoes most days. I'm half thinking of keeping some smaller ones for seed.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/03/covid-decade-long-lie-benefits-lifestyle-choice-george-osborne-free-school-meals

@Sostenueto

Just because the army are coming in to help with test n trace does not necessarily compute to covert operations to invade our streets with armies!

Wasn't it suggested in April (if not before) that it would be much better to use the army for certain tasks, rather than a bunch of posh boy tory cronytwats ?

Seems it takes sound about 6 months to get from Boris ears to brain. I guess it's denser than we thought.

Just because the army are coming in to help with test n trace does not necessarily compute to covert operations to invade our streets with armies!

No, but it could. Who, for example, would ever have thought that we have as corrupt a government as we do now?

Sostenueto we have the law of unintended consequences in play here.

We have the end of transition coming too. There is an argument that we might need the army for some logistics for that too.

So the potential for us to have army on the streets for testing. Then transition logistics... And then what? Whats the next crisis? Protests at food shortages?

Its a process of normalisation where we cease to find the army on the streets a civil liberties concern.

The army has been ready for civil unrest since at least July in my county. In fact I wish they had been used all along then we may not have to face yet another lockdown more deaths Covid related as well as non Covid related economic disaster blah blah blah. Trouble with Western societies who are predominantly individualistic is that only societies doing well in this Covid pandemic are the collective societies like S Korea who decided that they would eradicate Covid rather than control it and do it together. I'm so sick of hearing people say our rights being eroded, oh using the army must ultimately end in taking our human rights and our freedom blah blah blah when it is clear that upholding your human rights does not include endangering others!

I think that, if the army had been deployed in March, and then again now, I wouldn’t feel as bad about it.
In France the army is routinely called when their is a disaster (eg a storm). They are in the U.K. too, albeit maybe not as visibly.
Calling the army for the testing centres would therefore feel right in a ‘we are are intervening in a situation of natural disaster’ type of way.

Calling the army much later on, just on the edge of brexit when we all know things are going to go to pot is different. And the potential for it to be used in unsavoury ways is clearly there. I mean we just have to look at Trump and his tactics. BJ seems to be taking his lessons from him unfortunately

Re mass testing, I’m not an expert on this but know someone who is (and is v cautious, pro lockdown, so not trying to underplay Covid at all) and they said if you test a large population (ie not limited to symptomatic people) due to the false positive rate only 10% of the people who receive a positive result will actually have Covid. If you test symptomatic or exposed people the accuracy rate is very much higher. I don’t know about the false negative rate, but these are just points to bear in mind regarding whether it is the panacea.

They are starting to use new tests that give a much quicker answer (under 10mins) at a much much reduced price.
I’ve seen them for sale already (about £200 for 20 tests) and they are been trialed by the government in Liverpool I think.
This has the potential to be a game changer both to be able to able to test more people and in a cost pov.

At the very least, if we could ensure all people who have Covid actually self isolate as well as the people they are living with, I suspect we would be making some progress.
Plus a tight control of arrivals from another country with compulsory quarantine.....

@SabrinaThwaite
that's an interesting article, thank you!
the 'black & white' horse called Obama - grim 'humour' there :(
I have heard that sort of person being described as:
'A product of his / her class and time'.
But, certainly, his daughter only has half that 'excuse'...

I am still undecided whether he was pulling my leg re his comments on 'those who advise politicians'? I think not, having heard him chatting (cluelessly) to his staff about his own 'internet presence' too.
Although I am sure he is a terrific snob and well aware that most of us don't have (more than 1!) Castle to live in, I think he is genuinely unaware of how VERY differently the 'common herd' live and what a massive chasm in comprehension there is between the current Govt and many of the current voting populace?
However, I can imagine that IF he privately considers DC a twat he'd be blunt enough to say so over Lunch en-famille, Prince Philip style.
Intriguingly, the teashop manager (whom I buttonholed the second he left, ...) said: 'Sir H calls a spade a spade with everyone, always been that way, including family...!' but perhaps she was pulling my leg too? !

I was slightly disappointed that his memoirs have already been written...
Clearly, I have an unhealthy fascination, and need to back away now!

I don't think Covid will work as a cover excuse, if this scenario is right:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/03/uk-will-be-unable-to-deal-with-brexit-alongside-covid-demands-says-thinktanks

I am not sure if this has been covered: the food standard watchdog is to get teeth:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-food-standards-chlorinated-chicken-hormone-beef-liz-truss-trade-deals-b1503282.html

I know the north west quite well, unfortunately

What a sneery comment. I spent most of my life in Lancashire/Greater Mcr (sadly don't live there now).

Complete nonsense to say most northerners think everyone is Christian given the huge numbers of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus residing there. Likewise there isn't a catholic/protestant divide.