So, the government’;s negotiations with politicians in Manchester and the EU have collapsed and CV19 deaths are back up to a daily Grenfell Tower toll. Apparently S Yorkshire and a lot of other places are heading for Tier 3, while Serco, Accenture and their mates have made a dog’s breakfast out of Test and Trace., even though they spent billions. The furlough scheme is slowly being pulled. Oh and by January, Brexit driven, proper shortages in the shops and pharmacies will kick in.
Genuine questions. Have any of us lived in more perilous circs? Any predictions where this is heading for UK society?.What is the End Game?
It feels to me a bit like the mid-1970s; we are in stasis. To quote a favorite poem we are waiting for the barbarians to provide a solution. My one prediction: following on from the BJ shit show an Independent Scotland within the next 5 years is nailed on now
Sorry for the doom I got some very bleak family news this weekend and watching the Downing Street briefing is not helping.
His failure in negotiation having led him to declare war on his own second city doesn’t bode well for Brexit.
Birmingham has upset Bojo now? Bostin’ !
As one of our number has posted on Facebook.
http://imgur.com/a/nFVet9u
On the subject of Brexit, Anybody in a position to know about these things says that a Hard Brexit will be a disaster, so can anybody explain why Johnson, Gove etc are so determined to get one?
Just in case Fuckjumbo thought this had gone away
https://twitter.com/andrew_adonis/status/1318540078940114944?s=21
It didn’t seem to occur to No 10 that a year isn’t long to unpick an agreement which took 45 years to evolve. Their strategy seems to have been:
No 10: Wait until 2 months are left, backtrack on legal arrangements and make demands.
EU: “Nope”.
I can’t decide if it is pig-headedness, self-delusion or utter incompetence.
Thinking about it only makes me angry.
In a bizarre twist, Covid will mean that the effects of Brexit on the live music industry will be hidden for a long time as no one is touring and so won’t have to deal with the inevitable customs balls up that will occur when trying to move equipment and people around.
In another odd twist of fate, some of the BS & European safety standards expire this December, including the main one the industrial printers I design are assessed to. If you run a food, drink or pharma factory, you have to use a compliant printer.
If my employer still wants to sell to Europe (spoiler alert: they do), they have to spend a lot of time, effort and money getting the products assessed to the new European standard. Double, in fact, to have the products assessed to the new UK standards as well.
It would not be an exaggeration to say this alone has cost the firm millions.
I wouldn’t categorise that as a ‘twist of fate’. I’d say that it is yet another of the lurking minutiae of which the fuckwits were blissfully ignorant when they voted to leave the EU. It is, in fact, just another cow coming home.
Rachel Johnson’s theory last year seems entirely plausible.
“The PM’s sister, Rachel Johnson, has spoken out, warning she believes the PM’s bizarrely aggressive behaviour may be due to pressure “people who have invested billions in shorting the pound or shorting the country in the expectation of a no-deal Brexit.”
Hedge funds and financiers who have poured millions into Tory coffers stand to make a mint by speculating on the economic pitfalls of a no-deal Brexit.”
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/boris-johnsons-sister-warns-pms-reprehensible-behaviour-may-be-due-to-bets-on-pound-plummeting-in-no-deal-crash-for-uk/27/09/
They’re not, they just haven’t got a plan and never have had, so all that’s left is to go over the edge. So they’re lining up people to blame – remainers, immigrants, northerners, Labour, whoever. But Covid gives them an out – ‘we would have been fine if it wasn’t for the global pandemic.’
I suppose it’s a forlorn hope that the EU might offer to save us if we force regime change. A brief civl war, Starmer’s very civil army overthrowing Rees Mogg’s Charles Hawtrey cavaliers, and some spare Belgian bureaucrat gets made Protector of the Union and marries Princess Anne. Or something. I’m grasping at straws here
occasionally I do wish for an up button. Your second para had me laughing Chiz, thanks.
@chiz
But they’re very fine straws, well said.
chiz for prez!
Or Geoffrey Palmer’s Fairly Secret Army could step in.
I thought he got elected on the fact that he had an ‘oven ready’ deal ? Or am I missing something ?
Must have been a turkey.
..which they forgot to defrost.
I’m pretty sure it was a turkey (stuffed of course). I’m also pretty sure it would defrost and be ready for Boris Bananas to ‘’whack it in the oven’.
I think the problem lies in the manufacture of the oven, designed and made mainly by Johnny Foreigner but incomplete due to a few nuts and bolts stuck in a large car park somewhere in Kent.
(BJB – sorry for your loss).
I’m a bit puzzled by this Tier 3 business. If it is so imperative that Manchester and other regions enter them then why did the government not simply impose them at the time instead of spending ten days on ultimately fruitless negotiations during which time there have presumably been a number of infections that could possibly have been avoided.
Also I would like some clarity on the criteria that have to be met to trigger moving from one tier to another which the government seems unwilling to provide unless I’ve missed something.
Some suggestions on interweb the Manchester thing is a gesture to the EU. Like when the Bond evil genius or sadistic Nazi kills a random innocent in front of the protagonist so that the narrative can illustrate he has no morality; “we are not fucking around look what we do to our own people” Surely, surely not.
Interweb conspiracy theory bollocks.
Straight bananas and no metric imposition on greengrocers.
And we can keep all that fish that we don’t want to eat that appeals to our EU neighbours.
Happy days!
Which we won’t be able to export either at this rate.
We’ll have to cook it in the microwave and stink the place out.
If Manchester is at war with government, will they intern Ian Brown?
I Wanna Be Lord Haw-Hawed…
Moose I hope Ian Brown and that other Covidiot Noel Gallagher get rejected by my Greater Manchester neighbours for their insulting and unhelpful behaviour during the pandemic which has slammed us harder than most parts of the UK. I suspect they won’t and there will be a big Oasis comeback gig in a couple of years time in Heaton Park with Foghorn Brown supporting and probably they’ll invite Van Morrison on for a couple of numbers.
Re: “they’ll invite Van Morrison on for a couple of numbers.”
A Sense of Wonderwall.
Born to Sing Out of Tune: No Plan B. Unfortunately
in John Peel voice; “following recent events in Manchester here is the mighty Fall”. Surely, enough to raise Mark E from his grave?
Of course, you do know that Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown and Boris Johnson are the same person.
He goes by the name Complete Shiiiiite.
Looking forward to Boris’ debut album when he retires from politics on that basis.
A song about making buses would be good!
No Guru, No Teacher, No Covid
A Sense of Blunder
Unlightenment
Hang about, am I having a CRAFT moment or didn’t we use up all the VTM puns a couple of weeks back?
We did…I think a couple of the ones above are mine.
I think anyone expecting any clarity from this government is going to be waiting a long time. Maybe because of my (maybe misjudged) optimism I still think we will reach a deal with the EU over Brexit and do not share the gloom of the original post (Yet). The proclamations are nothing more than posturing and I think there will be a shift in the next 2 weeks. We will see on that one.
The last bit of the OP about a separate Scotland really gets my goat. Knickerless Sturgeon isn’t fit to lead the SNP and is hell bent on following her own personal agenda. Scotland is a devolved Government already and according to friends and family in Scotland they haven’t done too good a job of it. The site of her smug face revelling in lower Covid cases in Scotland than in England just highlights how low our Union has sunk. And now the Shetlands and other Scottish islands are seeking independence from Scotland – you reap what you sow you silly cow.
She’s the leader of the Scottish National Party… there’s a clue in the name. She’s not doing anything that she hasn’t been campaigning and was elected for.
Those phone calls Mr S made to the polis about wee Alex Salmond will come back to biter her on the arse.
“Nooo wurr’s ma clecky pin?”
Can’t help thinking you’re a bit harsh on Nicola Sturgeon!
Anyway, it’s great up here. Shh, don’t tell anyone. Your Scottish relatives are probably just playing along with the rest of us, as we are trying not to shout about it too much. We are all living off fine whisky with grouse and venison, and endless repeats of Still Game and Tutti Frutti.
Plus Jimmy Shand is secretly still alive and is doing a new album with Donovan and the Incredible String Band.
@Arthur-Cowslip be sure to save me some of the Venison as I will be up there in about 4 weeks – that’s if she hasn’t put roadblocks up at the border.
Still Game was indeed excellent
Like SG, Two Doors Down (or should that be Doon?) is also brilliantly written and cast, and very, very funny
‘Knickerless’. ‘Smug face’. ‘Silly cow’.
Nice.
Criticise her by all means but let’s have a bit more substance than playground name-calling.
Well said, BB.
@Blue-Boy Where is the substance to her assumption that Scotland would be a better independent nation? They had the referendum and they lost. Now the Shetlands and other islands want their own independence. Independence does not address the issues that Scotland faces. I think it is clear for anyone to see that she used Covid for point scoring and even insisted that English people from Blackpool should not visit Scotland when Scottish Track and Trace identified 186 Scots who went to Blackpool and brought the Virus back with them. I think there is an issue of people in glass houses.
As Neil Young said meet me at the wrecking ball.
Dearie dearie me.
“Knickerless Sturgeon … you reap what you sow you silly cow.”
Class.
Why thank you.
I don’t think I am at the top of the class for acerbic wit – I have seen much worse on here.
What actually happened next was that Dan Jarvis in South Yorkshire apparently struck a deal with government for support in Tier 3 relatively quickly. Make of that what you will.
Jarvis became Mayor purely because Sheffieldians saw his name on the ballot paper and assumed they were voting for the Cunts Are Still Running The World Hitmaker.
Cummings wants Burnham’s blood, that’s what this is about. Will no one rid us of this troublesome advisor?
Yet the planned reorganisation of local government, now pushed back to at least 2021, proposes merging district and count councils under elected mayors. It might be interesting to see how they sell that proposal if they don’t want the mayors to fight their corner on behalf of their residents.
I suspect what slap-head Cummings really wants is some of Andy Burnham’s hair.
That’s what this is REALLY all about.
His hair looks like a flat cap. That’s taking the “I’m a northerner, me” thing too far.
Full disclosure, I can’t stand either of the main protagonists. Johnson we have covered many times. Burnham is utterly shameless and has a good nose for the next move to further the career of A. Burnham. I’m sure he’d have liked the £65m but that footage on the steps looking all resolute and King in the Northy will do nicely thanks. I predict a move back to parliament once Kier Starmer is looking like winning, front bench shoo in etc.
Plus he looks like a Thunderbirds puppet after a big night out.
“Utterly shameless?”. Andy B may not be everyone’s cup of tea but the boy has a heart and , rare these days, a knowingness of what’s Right.
Sure, he’s a politician and by that very definition needs to be taken with a bucketful of salt but utterly shameless is just lazy, vindictive and what’s that word? Ah yes, Wro..
What’s lazy about utterly shameless? Perfectly sums it up. If you fall for it, that’s fine. Just my opinion. As they say about AB’s principles, if you don’t like them he has others.
I agree with you @Twang – on the face of it principled but dig underneath and there is something else at play.
One is never sure with politicians, they are after all politicians, but several articles recently have quoted AB as saying he bitterly regrets some of his career decisions which he made purely on the basis of which one would get him to a position of power quickest. To me at least, he has genuinely matured and is anything but “shameless”.
Utterly shameless might be an over statement, but both Steve Rotherham and Dan Jarvis have essentially called out Burnham for posturing in the last week or so.
Burnham looks like one of the Tracy brothers, OK, but Cummings looks like The Hood when he’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Yes! And Vince Cable is Parker. There’s a thread here.
It might be more instructive to see this one through internal Labour party politics. Burnham has run for leader twice (? at least once, anyway) before, and then buggered off when the Corbynistas took over. Maybe he’s on maneuvers? In any event, the Labour party has a clear interest in trying to recapture the “red wall” and should be making a lot of noise. Consensus over covid-19 has broken down and the normal rules of politics apply.
More importantly, BigJimBob, I’m very sorry to hear about the “bleak family news”. I wish you and yours all the best in coping with what life has thrown at you.
Yes, BigJimBob. Hope your news is manageable and looks less bleak after a couple of nights’ sleep.
He was a Blairite, then swiftly hopped sideways to be a Brownite, then happily joined Corbyn’s front bench when others returned sadly to the back benches, till he spotted a parachute and when he won, dived into a night club to avoid giving Jezza a bit of reflected glory after he shot up on the train when the results came out.
Best hopes and wishes though BJB.
He shot up on the train? Good grief. Where are the Transport Police when you need them to nab a junkie?
Guys thanks for your thoughts. Death of someone who was far too young but whose life spiraled out of control. Not helped by this Situation.
Very sorry to notice, rather late I’m afraid, your final paragraph in the OP. I was already well into ‘no such undertaking has been received’ mode and jumped ahead with Gov bashing.
This Situation, as you put it, hasn’t helped anyone or anything has it? Sorry you have to navigate already choppy waters through a viral storm. My condolences to you and yours.
322 Tory MPs voted today against giving children free school meals over the holidays. Now of all times. Beyond shameful.
Well they weren’t elected by people who want to make things better. People have to be hurt – preferably those who are already suffering. Good old England.
One of them dropped the fig leaf on the radio and said “there have always been hungry” children. That’s ok then.
It’s unconscionable a statement like that. And yet it will only go unheeded for so long.
Man it sounds grim there in merrie old England. Me and @Dai and @H.P.Saucecraft Have gotten together to offer a solution. Half of y’all to Canada 🇨🇦 and half of y’all to Thailand 🇹🇭. We asked @Gary, 🇮🇹 if he’d share the burden but he gave us the hand on an upturned arm.
Unless you are a rich Chinese, you stand little chance of getting into Thailand.
(Compere) “Put your hands together my little slit eyed friends and please welcome our newest Chinese member of the people’s republic of Taiwan! You guessed it! DOHN- NALD-TERRR-UMPPP!!!”
(Producer) I thought this was about Manchester in Thailand 🇹🇭?
Or Canada.
Actually, there is a points system, dependent on wealth, age, language ability (English or French is necessary) and qualifications.
Or you can get sponsored by a relative who is then legally financially responsible for you should you be unable to support yourself. And it takes a lonnnggg time.
Unless you get a good immigration lawyer.
Doesn’t necessarily speed up the process.
A colleague got into Vancouver pretty quickly but that was 10 years ago. A customer recently got into Toronto in about 3 months but that was an inter company transfer which I suspect is quicker.
When I lived and worked in USA we submitted an application for an L1 inter company transfer – after 6 months of waiting we employed a legal company who got it through in a month. 2 months later the first application was rejected and they never tied up that I had another authorised Visa.
Huh. Try getting into England*. There are going to be all sorts of barriers over which, and hoops through which you will need to jump Priti soon.
*I’d have said Great Britian or perhaps the United Kingdom, but it isn’t either any more.
I am British too, was thinking of getting a small place there to at least spend part of the year in Blighty after retirement. Not sure now. Of course it could have been France …
My uncle was an early immigrant to Thailand. He was in the RAF in the second world war in the Far East, and when he was demobbed he stayed out there in Bangkok. He told my mother that there were only a few hundred legal European immigrants at the time in the country, and the government was open to more settling if they brought useful skills and contacts with the West. I suppose Thailand wasn’t that known outside of Asia at that time because it hadn’t been colonised by a Western country. Things have obviously changed a lot since then.
ping pong
Not content with voting against free meals for children my local (Tory, of course) MP has now descended to attacking people who have chosen to help them out.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/selaine-saxby-free-school-meals-businesses-government-support_uk_5f93fae7c5b6a2e1fb619d2a
Words fail me..
Apparently her words were ‘taken out of context’. Jesus fucking wept!
“Taken out of context” now means “someone’s quoting me accurately in a way which I’ve just realised looks terrible”. That bloke from Mansfield is trying the same thing with his very much in-context claim that poor parents were using FSM vouchers to buy hoors and crack, despite that being literally impossible (not to mention laughable).
I’ve lived in Mansfield and I can tell you that saying shitty, ignorant things about poor people will not cost him one single vote.
Unfortunately that holds true here as well. The school meals issue combined with the Covid/Brexit clusterfuck seems to to be stirring up local opinion and if there was an election tomorrow it might make a difference, but we’ve got another three years of this shitshow and by then it’ll have been swept under the carpet.
People will vote for who is cruellest. Competence means nothing.
If anyone in Wales breaks their kettle in the next fortnight, I have a spare in the shed.
Unless “non-essential” post is embargoed as well.