Westministenders: Where's my milk and cheese?

[RedToothBrush]

The 'smooth' exit from transition now leads to a million and one little things that you can't get hold of or took completely for granted.

Why is sainsbury in NI selling spa milk? Why can't you get hold of your favourite food stuff?

Its a slow strangulation of the country.

In which you get to learn all about the merits of the EU and what a donkey Johnson really is.

To be fair, I think the clear blue water between Labour and the teaching unions was set up with the go-ahead from the teaching unions.

I suspect the teaching unions were trying to avoid politicisation along Party lines.

The S44 letter was a tricky strategy. It had to get membership buy-in - and that might not have happened so effectively if it had been seen as being a Conservative versus Labour thing.

(The NEU isn't affiliated with Labour because a lot of the membership don't want to be.)

The union also knew that it would be a tricky thing to do whilst bringing the public along with them. (As anyone on here knows, women are buckling with the demands of the pandemic.)

Again, that would have been harder if it had been turned into an issue with Party demarcations.

I'm pretty sure that the Labour/teaching union strategy with regard to the recent action was discussed closely.

It’s interesting that the Labour Party is still managing to forget about women

Quite. This is one of Labour's problems - it's catering for two fairly discrete groups - the old heavy industry 'heartlands' which were male dominated and the public sector workers who would tend to be female and are spread nationally. The first group are quite likely to resent the second group. So what is Starmer doing? Trying to make a play for the first group. This group got taken for granted by Party leaders for decades, because Labour votes were weighed in such places, so now Starmer is likely to take the second group - the public sector workers - for granted.

Breathable Air
Rees Mogg has been open about it all along
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-safety-standards-workers-rights-jacob-rees-mogg-a7459336.html

I don't know what's worse about that, ListeningQuietly. The fact R-M thinks like that and happily says it, or his unawareness of how that would impact on the ability to trade.
☹️

Labour definitely isn't 'agenda setting'.

The party which isn't agenda setting usually is the one which loses the next election because it doesn't have political momentum behind it. Political momentum is interest from the public in an idea.

How good is Rees-Mogg's history? Does he not know about the Great Stink which affected Parliament in the mid 19th Century and forced them to set up sewage systems?

It's a small step from reading water, to trading air, to trading space, ie the space we take up.

I may be feeling more cynical than usual this morning.

Reading? trading

@ICouldHaveCheckedFirst

It's a small step from reading water, to trading air, to trading space, ie the space we take up.

I may be feeling more cynical than usual this morning.

We already trade space.

And again, to be fair, Starmer's just been on the BBC, listing the incompetence of the government, calling it out, refusing the narrative that this is the public's fault.
But I wonder how many people have seen it?
🤷‍♀️

@Peregrina

How good is Rees-Mogg's history? Does he not know about the Great Stink which affected Parliament in the mid 19th Century and forced them to set up sewage systems?

See this is the thing workers rights need to be sold as beneficial to all.

Same with most issues atm tbh.

No one is really selling this. There isn't much of a collective improvement mentality.

The Starmer speech is here (it's from 'Labour List':

https://labourlist.org/2021/01/speech-we-can-secure-our-economy-protect-our-nhs-and-rebuild-britain/?amp&twitterrimpression=true

You'll see it identifies how hard this is hitting those working and trying to manage childcare, school-children, public-facing workers ...

I'm putting it here not to boost Starmer but as an example of just how hard it is to get a message out to people.

I think very few people will come into contact with that actual speech.
The problem with reach - and access to power - is a huge problem, and translates into a perception of passivity.

But - I really don't want to be in this thread being the Starmer-booster. It's not why I come here. I guess I really can see how much of a problem he has because I follow him quite closely.

But ... no. That's not why i want to be here. So I'm going to cease and desist now.

Helen Lewis linked to a really interesting article in the New York Times about Buzz Feed and Trump/the attack on the Capitol today. I'm going to see if I can find it.

This is the best I can do - a link to the tweet.

I had to perform all sorts of weird operations to get to the article, and can't share.

But it contains an anecdote about the editor of Buzzfeed being quizzed by Bannon as to why they didn't turn Buzzfeed into a platform to boost Berni Sanders plus an analysis of social media's role in our current mess.

twitter.com/helenlewis/status/1348576591203467265?s=21

"-It's no use teaching them to count Arthur. The ancestors of humanity are over there arguing over what colour a wheel needs to be-"

Just a reminder of the base level of stupid out there.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55613452

...
Stickers supposed to protect users against mobile-phone radiation have no effect, scientists have found.
...
The Devon-based company told BBC News the stickers were programmed with "scalar energy", which the scientists' equipment would be unable to detect.
...

Thank you for that link @thecatfromjapan

Saw this on sky news - Arnie on events in Washington and recalls Kristallnacht in 1938. Interesting ...

Ordering DS' replacement Xmas present, I notice the supplier no longer supplies Northern Ireland.

www.dickieslife.com/uk_en/terms-conditions-of-delivery

Where's that spreadsheet ?

I listened to 'farming today' this morning.
a segment of which was how lifestock transport between northern ireland and the rest of uk have almost come to a halt due to the required import paperwork.

I listened to 'farming today' this morning.

I imagine that can be trimmed to a 5 minute bulletin once a week soon. Free up some BBC airtime for something a bit more commercial.

Radio Rees-Mogg has a ring to it

Plenty of fish in the sea but no way of getting them to market ......

Consequences

https://twitter.com/santibuesa/status/1348622424758251527?s=21

I'm not a farmer, but find the programme very interesting wrt everything (food production, red tape, environment, animal welfare...)

plus it's the perfect length for my morning cuppa.

@redcandlelight

I'm not a farmer, but find the programme very interesting wrt everything (food production, red tape, environment, animal welfare...)

plus it's the perfect length for my morning cuppa.

Bit of a whoosh, I fear ...

@prettybird

Plenty of fish in the sea but no way of getting them to market ......

Consequences

[[https://twitter.com/santibuesa/status/1348622424758251527?s=21]]

First comment from a Bonehead Brexiteer (obviously).

But I do like this:

Prettybird
They were warned again and again and again
Tariffs are not the issue
Red tape is the issue
Zero sympathy I'm afraid.

If it means they leave the fish in the sea
and have to sign on to UC like the millions of people whose industries were NOT discussed in the media
so be it.

I don't think it gives any Remainer (sorry "Remoaner") satisfaction to say, "We told you so."

It's up to the Brexiters now to make the country 'Prosper mightily' starting now, not when our grandchildren have grandchildren of their own.