Westminstenders: Off he pops to Brussels

[RedToothBrush]

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex
There's no way Johnson has not already decided whether or not to concede on Level Playing Field. Which makes the trip to Brussels dressing. Whether it will dress a concession as "I have saved us" or No Deal as "I tried my best" remains to be seen. But the choice is already made.

Amanda Cole @amandajanecole
What's your gut feeling, will he put his job ahead of the country? Given his past self serving form?

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex
I think he is so cornered - and has done so badly on Covid19 - his instinct will be one last, double-or-nothing throw of the dice. Only no deal does that.

The issue is that coming back with a deal will earn him much heckling and zero back-slapping from his peers. But no deal will earn him just as much heckling, but also plenty of back-slapping. What I don't know is just how ominous the departmental briefings he's getting are.

Its also worth noting the following:

Mujtaba Rahman @mij_europe
I understand @BorisJohnson wanted @EmmanuelMacron & Merkel to join his phone call with @vonderleyen last night, but she rejected the idea

So even yesterday he was STILL looking to undermine the EU and split its leaders. After all this time and the number of times he's tried this on.

Have no doubt that a) everything will be blamed on Macron (probably personally, with Conservative hardliners coming out calling for the public to boycott French cheese and wine - I'm serious btw) and covid b) covid provides a handy distraction at least for the moment. It will be used accordingly - that means its possibly now not in Johnson's interest to stop a spike in January. All efforts will be put into the vaccine rollout for PR but thats going to hit the breaks fairly soon. No doubt the EU will be blamed for that too.

What I'm not anticipating is another full lockdown. I think at least parts of Greater Manchester will now get out of T3 on 16th December. Traffords numbers look exceptional and I think it politically impossible for Johnson to keep it in T3. Its Graham Brady's patch and Manchester as a whole looks far far better than T2 London.

Anyone who gets out of T3 before Christmas won't go back into it. I'm not anticipating London to go T3 unless No Deal turns really ugly and its useful to quell civil unrest.

I think if we head into no deal then tight restrictions won't be used for covid reasons no matter how bad the hospitals get - it will only be about civil unrest, it will all be about keeping the economy going - backbench revolts are what scare Johnson most, and he's already said no more Tiers after the start of Feb.

We shall see what the day brings...

Just told my Mum that I've been buying as much lactose free long life milk as I can because when there was no long life milk left in March, every fucker bought the lactose free stuff (and well as my much needed gluten free bread and pasta) cos there was nowt else left.
So, I'm buying in plenty of time - as preppers do - rather than clearing the shelves in January.
Currently having a flare up, so I need to be on the ball.

@RedToothBrush

Barbour clothing. Made in the UK. Well the classic wax jacket is. Everything else? Turkey, Portugal, Croatia, Lituania, Indonesia, India ... etc.

Good work there Daily Mail.

Barbour closed a factory in the Rhondda in 2007 - it made polo shirts, if memory serves.

Barbour clothing is still made here in the North East of England, where it originated from.

@FrolickingLemon

Barbour clothing is still made here in the North East of England, where it originated from.

how much cotton grows in England?

@FrolickingLemon

Barbour clothing is still made here in the North East of England, where it originated from.

No the old traditional wax jackets are. But pretty much everything else isnt.

I have double checked this as i thought it all being made in the uk was bull. The majority of their stock is made outside the uk.

@ListeningQuietly I said it was made here. I never said all of its components are from the UK. The waxed barbour jacket is something my region is proud of and is made 2 miles from me. Of course the cotton comes from furher afield. As we have discussed on this thread many times, some components of what we deem to be British, come from abroad. As we are discovering, very little is entirely made in the UK. My own business is largely self sufficient from what I grow myself. I'm striving to make this more so. It is actually my sole aim.

The majority of bloody everything appears to be made in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, all over the Far East (as it used to be called). Which has been puzzling me for a long time now, as surely the point of Brexit was so we could trade all over the world...which we do anyway...

Though I suppose we’ll be able to set up our own sweatshops now and sell stuff back to them

Frolicking
The UK has for hundreds of years built itself up on goods and services imported at full or minimal cost from all over the world.

Brexiters now pretend that we can somehow "go it alone"

It was, is and always will be
bullshit

@ListeningQuietly

Frolicking The UK has for hundreds of years built itself up on goods and services imported at full or minimal cost from all over the world.

Brexiters now pretend that we can somehow "go it alone"

It was, is and always will be
bullshit

When I saw David Cameron, I didn't doubt his conviction that Britain is a trading Nation .

He's still a grade A tosser. But that's something we agree on.

DM reports today that Boris offered an Aus deal to UVL last week. Ie No Deal but to negotiate series of bilateral agreements on key issues. “Tariffs for freedom”.

Turned down flat as was inevitable.

Source close to the negotiating team said: ^“We thought this would be the moment. But they just weren't interested.” Ya gotta laugh.

So they went for their managed No Deal and failed. I thought the EU may just hang them out to dry, but responsibly they are soldiering on.

U.K. gov have been out-manoeuvred and out-classed at every turn.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9047055/Officials-say-Angela-Merkels-distaste-libertine-Boris-Johnson-blocked-Brexit-deal.html

Two points to avoid if the government want avoid to the public stockpiling.

1. Don’t warn supermarkets they must stockpile.

1. Don’t warn people they must not.

You’d think they were stupid or something.

Will the winning never stop?

Has anyone read the Times lomg read:

'48 hours in September when ministers and scientists split over Covid lockdown'?
archive.vn/UWnAm

Here's an archived link. It put Johnson into an unhealthy light over regard to citizen's wellbeing. And ironically there seems to have been a clash with Cummings over it in a strange twist of fate.

The detail of what was happening in Manchester is also hard to read.

If you were in any doubt that Johnson wouldn't willfully disregard the interests of citizens this article doesn't leave you with a glowing picture of him. He and Sunak deliberately found alternative scientists who they liked what they were saying and totally undermined SAGE repeatedly.

He put the economy ahead of Covid but Brexit ideology ahead of the economy.

Yep they opinion shopped - to find some (very fringe scientists ) that would say what they wanted to hear, so they said they are following the science.... even though that particular science was funded by a far right American think tank.
They don't give a fuck.

What I do think - is that they have identified a level of deaths that they think the populace will accept ..... and they do enough to keep them at that level. However I think they have been lazy with their thinking - abs January is going to be appalling.
Also telling people they can get together with their relatives - and then some will invariably die..... will that be the straw?

Years on, they're still trying to cherry-pick.

But Tatiana- Covid and economy are linked. High covid - greater economic damage. Suppress the virus- less economic damage.
But they are too entitled abs hard of thinking to realise that.

...

@mrslaughan

But Tatiana- Covid and economy are linked. High covid - greater economic damage. Suppress the virus- less economic damage. But they are too entitled abs hard of thinking to realise that.

Well yes. Just as Brexit and the economy are linked.

I was pondering to myself how I'd be feeling now if the government had a Brexit deal in place, as, I believe, was advertised. It was (obviously) still about leaving the EU, but a proper agreement had been organised etc. It was ideologically not what I wanted and economically damaging to people and industries that were vulnerable etc ete. But sorted. And legally binding. But pleasing to Brexiteers.*

So it made me want to a ask how regular posters (or anyone) would feel?

*bearing in mind it would be impossible to please all brexiteers as they all have their own fantasies....

A level playing field would give me some hope for the future. Likewise a competent government. And we might not have burned all our bridges.

I've only just seen this video www.irishtimes.com/news/boris-johnson-you-run-a-tight-ship-here-ursula-1.4432793?mode=amp

What a patronising, bumbling, ridiculous idiot. How the hell could anyone think he a good representative of your country? He just comes across as a joke.

How would we feel if there was a Brexit deal in place as advertised in January? Well, it would depend what the deal was. If they had made concrete plans to sort out aviation, food and medicine supply chains, given guarantees on the quality of food, been fully signed up to protect the Good Friday Agreement then I might have thought, OK let's see what they make of it. It's still a poor deal, but it could have been worse.

But they didn't do any of those.

Oh God I saw that video too. Such a tit and so embarrassing.

And why doesn't he get a decent haircut and a suit that fits properly?