Westministenders: Unilateral Ignoring of WHO rules

[RedToothBrush]

Where we are:

On 1st January the EU started to apply checks on all goods from the UK coming into the Union.

However the UK decided to take a slower route to this, and planned that on the 1st April the UK we would be carrying out Sanitary & Phytosanitary paperwork for animal and plant EU imports like meat and eggs.

Then on 1 July we'd implement a full customs check on all goods arriving into the UK from EU member states.

Obviously we've struggled with exports as we weren't ready for this and its fucked business. But ultimately the import side of things has yet to hit the shit fan still.

It sounds like there is likely to be issues with imports of food in particular, so there is talk of delaying our plan of checks until later in the day. There is concern that the reopening of pubs and restuarants which will up demands of imports occuring at the same time as checks are put in place is likely to be 'problematic'.

Remember we get 2/3 of fruit, veg and cheese from the EU. And half our wine. And to date these largely have only been affected by haulage issues NOT UK customs issues...

You might want to keep that in mind.

There's a genre of disaster fiction that would so include a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal right at this point.

I've copied the summary of Put Out More Flags (I'm a Waugh fan as well, though he was by all accounts not a nice person) below, just to remind us of the parallels between the UK today and fiction that borders on the absurd:

At the country estate of Malfrey, Barbara Sothill loses her servants, who go off to work in factories, and her husband, who rejoins his reserve regiment. As district billeting officer, she has to find accommodation for evacuees. Her widowed mother in London tries to find an army commission for Barbara’s wayward brother Basil Seal, who is sleeping with a Marxist artist called Poppet Green, but Basil fails his interview spectacularly. An aesthete friend of his, the left-wing gay Jewish intellectual Ambrose Silk, looks for a safe niche in the Ministry of Information. Basil's former mistress, the married millionairess Angela Lyne, returns from a solitary holiday in France.

Basil decides to spend the winter quietly in the country with his sister at Malfrey, where he helps her in homing problem children and then gets people to pay him for taking them away again. He meets a lonely bride whose husband is away in the army and sleeps happily with her. Back in London his friend Alastair Trumpington, refusing to try for a commission, joins the army as a private. All alone, her estranged husband Cedric having joined the army, Angela Lyne stays in her flat and takes to the bottle.

The husband of Basil's lover returns and his racket is running out of steam, so he “sells” his problem children and, returning to London, meets by chance an old colleague who gets him a commission in army counter-intelligence. There he shadows allegedly dangerous communists like Poppet Green and her friends. Another old friend who is now the army, Peter Pastmaster, deciding he ought to marry and father an heir, courts the eligible young Molly. Together they find Angela collapsed in the street and, taking her back to her flat, warn Basil about her condition. He responds with sympathy, spends time with her and tries to moderate her drinking.

Angela's husband visits her with their child before embarking with the ill-equipped and ill-organised British forces for Norway, where he dies in combat. For a projected literary magazine, Ambrose Silk writes about his lost love, a Brownshirt named Hans who is now in a Nazi concentration camp. Basil persuades him to leave out Hans' fate, so that the article appears to praise the SA. He then shows it to his boss as evidence of a cell of allegedly dangerous fascists. The publisher is jailed, but Ambrose escapes to neutral Ireland, disguised as a Jesuit priest. Basil takes over his luxurious flat and adds to it Susie, his boss's luscious secretary.

After the total expulsion of the British from the continent, special forces are set up to harass the victorious Germans. Alastair Trumpington joins them and Peter Pastmaster recruits Basil Seal, who marries the widowed Angela and looks forward at last to action: “There's only one serious occupation for a chap now, that's killing Germans. I have an idea I shall rather enjoy it.”

(Wikipedia)

To add cheer to those who like what the Tories* are doing, or to add despair to the rest of us.

Hmm we used to hear a lot about democracy. The cries are more muted now.

• From the Irish for bandit.

So more "progressive" news from Scotland: The women's group "For Women Scotland" has lost its judicial review case against the Scottish Government. The Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act is supposed to force companies to have women on their Boards, because of the under representation of women. The Scottish Government and now a Scottish court have determined that a "woman" includes a man, just as long as he uses female pronouns and a female name and ticks the female gender box on forms. He can dress and behave as a man, no problem, and of course doesn't need to have gender dysphoria, be taking hormones or anything else. Oh, and you're not supposed to ask for any evidence of his using female pronouns, etc.

So if you're a (biological) man, but happen to have a unisex name and title - say you're called Dr Leslie Jones - all you have to do is tell people you use she/her pronouns and you qualify as a woman if a company appoints you to their board. Job done - the board now fully represents women!
The Scottish Government is now fully expected to use this in other legislation. Everyone who wants to be a woman - for ever or just for a (convenient) day - can be one now.

Pity non of this gender stuff applies the other way so that women who self-declare as men can enter all male institutions. One could think for example of 16 year old girls applying to Eton because they say identify as male.

I really don't know what to make of this commentary.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/24/nicola-sturgeon-union-scottish-independence

Has Katy Balls, who is after all a Spectator commentator, got her finger on the pulse of what is happening in Scotland? I could imagine 'love bombing' being met with profound cynicism.

Seventrees
The Libdems are open about the fact that
50% XY men and
50% Transwomen (also XY men)
would meet their view of ^sexual equality)

Look at the winners podium from the 2008 olympics Womens' 800m and weep.

I think her article is pretty even handed. I personally don't think "love bombing" will work, but it's certainly a better strategy than a scorched earth one.

I also don't see Rishi Sunak becoming leader, so the Conservatives are going to have to thole the deadweight in Scotland of Johnson while campaigning for the benefits of the Union. Long may he continue to make trips to Scotland to gee up the troops

I don't think that Sarwar will make the mistake of aligning themselves too closely with the Conservatives in any Better Together campaign. That contributed to their downfall in Scotland. That was evidenced in their abstention in yesterday's VoNC (as did the LibDems - but they're now the 4th party in the Scottish Parliament - and I don't see them recovering much in the upcoming elections).

@Peregrina

Pity non of this gender stuff applies the other way so that women who self-declare as men can enter all male institutions. One could think for example of 16 year old girls applying to Eton because they say identify as male.

Isn't it the case you need your name put down at birth ?

So it would need some parents to try that. Leading to an interesting avenue of legal debate around whether parents can say how their child identifies ? After all, they're allowed to identify their child into a religion, so why not a gender ?

I'm waiting for the first MP to twig there's a bandwagon pulling up that they can jump on over some grandstanding piece of legislation to make it a criminal offence (sentence: 10 years) to "disrespect the Union flag".

(Fans of PJ O Rourke might recognise the setup to his section in "Parliament of Whores" looking at SCOTUS)

Some highbrow political debate ....

I don't think you put your name down at birth any more for Eton. But I specified sixth form level because someone at that age could self ID themselves as male.

As far as sport goes, I would be absolutely sick if I were into sports myself, trained hard and was beaten by a man masquerading as a woman. I agree that there are people with intersex issues who genuinely have difficulty identifying as one sex or the other, but is that the case in sport? The best solution I thought was a suggestion I saw of a classification by testosterone levels. Why not? We have different weight categories in boxing and we have different age categories for children.

Peregrina
The best solution I thought was a suggestion I saw of a classification by testosterone levels. Why not? We have different weight categories in boxing and we have different age categories for children.
Simpler is Chromosome testing - its cheap and immediate.
If you have a Y Chromosome you do not compete in Women only events.
Testosterone is already covered by doping laws.

But that would involve people accepting
FACTS
over
FEELINGS
(like that nice man from Lock Fyne moaning about his EU exports)

LQ yes that would do. Sisters and sympathetic brothers this is what we have to push for.

I well remember the time of the old Eastern bloc where sports bodies had sex testing to get round the problems of those big beefy women competing in events like shot putting. All found to be drugs related, and completely mucked up the hormones of the young women involved, who were almost certainly innocent victims.

Drug cheating is regarded as wrong, chromosome cheating is Fine, apparently. If it worked the other way, in women's favour, oh yes, suddenly chromosome testing would be seen as the only fair way to proceed.

@redcandlelight

mobile.twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1374438210315513864

container ship stuck in suezkanal causing massive shipping delays.

just what's needed right now.

Many many years ago, it was worked out how trivial it would be to cripple the UKs transport infrastructure. The biggest problem being that there was no real way to prevent it as it meant proper investment in infrastructure, not the cronymint version generally practised in the UK.

10 would probably do it, but 20 would be a sure fire way. That is key points to disrupt for long enough to the network to solidify.

Anyone who remembers how that F4J knob managed to paralyse 3 main arterial motorways in the midlands that reached to Manchester and London by dangling from just the "right gantry" will have an idea.

(Notice, nothing more needed than a reason to make the police shut the road. 10 coordinated protests could probably achieve the same effect. If you've read this far, you're now guilty of possessing knowledge that could help a terrorist ....)

Hmm, sneaked out at 3 in the morning.

"UK government censured for a lack of transparency and accountability"

"The rare intervention means the UK will become the ninth of the international coalition's 78 members to be placed under review, joining a list that includes Bulgaria, Malawi, Malta and South Africa."

.

Isn't it the case you need your name put down at birth

No, that hasn’t been the case for many years.

Reading up about the Lord High Commissioner, he is but the Queen's representative. It does not make him the Head of the Church. I would imagine that for religious Scots who belong to the denomination the effect will be zilch. Other members of the RF have represented the Queen in the past and we haven't heard a word about it in the rest of the UK.

I see the prominence of the announcement as Johnson not seeing the result he hoped for with the Sturgeon enquiry, so he has to try something else. Hence making a big noise about it.

@Peregrina

Reading up about the Lord High Commissioner, he is but the Queen's representative. It does not make him the Head of the Church. I would imagine that for religious Scots who belong to the denomination the effect will be zilch. Other members of the RF have represented the Queen in the past and we haven't heard a word about it in the rest of the UK.

I see the prominence of the announcement as Johnson not seeing the result he hoped for with the Sturgeon enquiry, so he has to try something else. Hence making a big noise about it.

It's impossible not to see this as the Queen getting ready for independence. Presumably Boris has assured her it will never happen.

It's a temporary appointment, lasting at most 2 years - and is very definitely not the Crown having any say in the operation of the Church. It's more just being the Queen's representative at the General Assembly - although he or she opens and closes the proceedings, they are not allowed to participate or vote. you wouldn't expect that anyway, given that there isn't an "Established" church in Scotland.

The "important" person in the CoS is the Moderator, who chairs the proceedings and then goes on to represent the Church for the rest of the year and which similarly is only a year long post.

But you're right: given that there is usually no publicity whatsoever given to who will hold the role, this is a useful distraction from the failure to "get" Sturgeon Part of the "love bombing" strategy?

I wouldn't expect it to work, would you?

But a lot of English voters, and indeed some posters on these threads, won't realise that the CofE is not the established Church in Scotland, but would interpret the appointment as though it was.

It's impossible not to see this as the Queen getting ready for independence.

She could still be Queen in Scotland if that was what the Scottish people wanted - as James VI/I was King of both. It would be quite interesting to see her titled QE II/I. No problem with Charles though if he does take Charles as his regnal name.

The Union of the Crowns pre-dates the Union of the Parliaments by about a century.

But the longer it takes for Scotland to achieve its independence - especially if WM (and by association, the monarchy, since the "democracy" in UK is via a constitutional monarchy) continues to appear to resist "the will of the people, the more republican the independence supporters will become.

"Scotland's Future" explicitly said that we would retain the monarch. One change at a time But I suspect that future White Papers might be less explicit. Leaving it up to the newly independent country to decide.

@Peregrina

It's impossible not to see this as the Queen getting ready for independence.

She could still be Queen in Scotland if that was what the Scottish people wanted - as James VI/I was King of both. It would be quite interesting to see her titled QE II/I. No problem with Charles though if he does take Charles as his regnal name.

Oh, exactly.

I saw that announcement (which I can't help but feel either bypassed, or contradicted any government advice) as starting to get their house in order (apt phrase) for when Scotland separates, and the Queens role as head of state remains unchanged.

Or, to reverse the optics, if this announcement was the result of a Boris brainwave, it seems strangely off-key as it does nothing other than make him seem increasingly desperate.

My money is on her madge being crafty. Either through advice or her own sense of self preservation. Which is the 5th universal force after gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/24/trust-britain-covid-vaccine-compromise

Worth a read in it's entirety ... makes some interesting points about the vaccine row being the first symptom of 3rd country UK.