Westminstenders: The New Era

[RedToothBrush]

Scotland.
The GFA.
Its not Brexit Honest.
Levelling Up Shitholes caused by Tory austerity.
Babymilk Shortages
Cronyism

But we did good with covid jabs.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/18/anger-as-patel-delays-publication-of-report-into-private-detectives

@mrslaughan

Jas - I am seeing speculation(from people who have followed the case) on Twitter that also some Murdoch Journalists may have been involved in corruption- abs that could be a motivation as well. I can't comment - but it's interesting and would be hardly surprising

Nothing would surprise me from these bunch of crooks, well publicised acts of corruption and lying to Parliament & yet the mimes still go around trashing Starmer.

That panel has sat for 8 years, even May wanted their report published.

It's not really an independent enquiry if it has to been approved by the Home Secretary is it.....

@mrslaughan

It's not really an independent enquiry if it has to been approved by the Home Secretary is it.....

Lol Yes as Independent as the Parliamentary standards lot whose recomendations can be overruled/ignored by the PM, inc investigations into his or hers behavior.

Thanks for the poem prettybird, heartbreaking.

I don't think Boris is doing what he thinks is best for the country, he only does what is best for Boris, he is not known for being honest. Theresa May seemed much more genuine, despite her shortcomings.

It's been mentioned before HappyWinter but with an assumption that people knew Niemöller's words. That's why I thought it was worth posting a full version. To bring home the point how easy it is to slide into the risk, unless we pay attention and are prepared to challenge infringements to our liberty and rights, even when the infringements don't directly affect us yet

MayYouLive, by the country I obviously mean the UK. There are 56 million not 79 million

Not that it changes the point made but for clarity and accuracy

www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/population

Closer to 70 than 58.

MayYouLive wrote 70 million, not 79 million.

According to some figures, the UK population is estimated to be around 68 million:
www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/
worldpopulationreview.com/countries/united-kingdom-population

ONS: population was an estimated 66.8 million in mid-2019. Since the census was delayed, current figures are unavailable, and Covid has altered things.
www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/

I've linked to 3 sites (in case one of them might be deemed biased or dishonest for any reason), because apparently this is an important squirrel issue...

You're showing your English-centricity Yelllowspanner

Population of England is 56 million. Population of the UK is 68 million

So you don't "obviously" mean the UK

We're bullying him or her with pesky facts

Hadn't seen they other posts when I wrote mine.

Prettybird, I was wrong saying 58million. I was not being England centric. I simply got my numbers wrong. Sorry

Apology accepted

Would you vote for Joe Biden?

What it's been like fact-checking Joe Biden through 100 days. By CNN's rough count, Biden has made 29 total false claims in his first 100 days, about one every three-and-a-half days on average.

I'll answer that one... yes, I would. Not quite sure what the point of the question is though? Is the question one of whether I'd vote for Trump or Biden? If so, even asking that question is worrying.

Because Trump was responsible for 511 falsehoods in the first 100 days of his presidency, or 5.11 inaccuracies a day.

Or... is the question a bit of whataboutery? Someone complains about Johnson lying and the response is 'well, what about Biden lying'?

Apart from this having absolutely nothing to do with concerns about Johnson repeatedly lying, as far as we know, Biden was never fired for lying, has never engaged in serial adultery, acknowledges all of his children, and has not had his former boss go on the record stating that he was not fit to to be PM.

Thinking about it, his former boss absolutely supported Biden as the best man to run the country.

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/17/uk-faces-labour-shortage-as-covid-and-brexit-fuel-exodus-of-overseas-workers

uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-missing-out-on-global-trade-upswing-due-to-brexit-142919227.html

www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/post-brexit-product-certification-rules-wont-be-ready-in-time-expert-warns/5111864.article

Nice bung for the Brexit backers (as predicted). Luckily all the potential buyers - although foreign - will speak excellent English.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57149744

UK government to pay older farmers to retire

Do we think paying older farmers to retire would work? I don't know many farmers well enough to ask (actually all the farmers I know here are young - so wouldn't qualify) - the older ones I know are in NZ ..... and I would say see farming as a vocation, a way of life...... so this just wouldn't work.

Plus I don't think it's enough - given housing is associated with their work...... where would they live?

So how will they fund this? Financial sector wiped out..., arts sector via Fatima told to retrain.....fishing sector gone (it was tiny I know)...... the only sector growing is real estate- but that's a bubble and has to burst.....

I lived through the consolidation in farming in NZ in the 70's/80's - it was incredibly painful. And what will happen to the land? Yes some farming practices are environmentally unfriendly- but in my experience huge consolidated farms are more environmentally unfriendly. And consolidation is the only way you will make the farms profitable enough is three consolidation.

Potentially food prices will rise - or food standards will drop through the floor.....

James Dyson gets all his subsidies he received from the EU replaced with ones from the British government..... nice little earner that we will all pay for.....

twitter.com/nicktolhurst/status/1394898480456417280?s=21

What a fucking mess

I think I see the plan. Agree a trade deal with those nice friendly Aussies, and then, shock horror, tell everyone that as we're already letting in hormone infested beef, we might as well let in chlorine washed chicken as well.

And to c&p - the EU are never going to do a deal that allows beef grown with hormones banned from the EU in.

Quite besides the point that the Irish have a veto on any trade deal anyway. Oh, that pesky sovereignty...

Then encourage older farmers to retire, but find that no younger people come forward to take their places.

I imagine farmland will be sold to developers, especially now that planning laws are being "liberalised"

I think I see the plan. Agree a trade deal with those nice friendly Aussies, and then, shock horror, tell everyone that as we're already letting in hormone infested beef, we might as well let in chlorine washed chicken as well.

Yes - the Aus deal will definitely set a precedent (and if future trade deals contain a most favoured nation clause, it will be a binding precedent).

A twitter thread by Dmitry Grozoubinski
twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1394942626424623104?s=19

1/ Since no one asked, here's a thread on the UK-Australia FTA.

Biases on the table:
- I was an Australian trade negotiator
- I have trained many of DIT's negotiators, likely including some of the ones working on this FTA
- I'm neoliberal scum who generally thinks tariffs = bad

2/ Like we all warned, most Free Trade Agreements, and all Free Trade Agreements including Australia, come down to agriculture.

Australian trade policy tends to be laser focused on getting beef, lamb, dairy and wheat into markets it's currently locked out of.