POLITICS CORNER

[PanBiker]

I saw a report today that said Hancock while Health Minister has been using his personal email under the radar to do deals with his mates. Anyway he has gone and been replaced by the bloke that resigned from the cabinet. I wonder what Dominic has on him?

[Tripps]

I never thought I'd say this, Chinese Communism has a lot of good points

(Mussolini made the trains run on time..

Speaking of China (again ) Looks like they can do that trick too.

High speed to Tibet

That's 270 miles long for abou $5 billion over rough terrain. perhaps we should get them in to do HS2?

[Stanley]

You're right David, I had a look at the pics and that bridge over the river with its tunnels would cost £5billion here.
A theory emerges that it was someone on the health team that got the image and shopped Hancock because of the way he was behaving.... If so, well done!
The Probation services revert to government control today reversing the changes introduced by Chris Grayling which were condemned after an enquiry. One more bit of Grayling damage addressed.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS report in the Sun about Priti Patel's latest moves to deal with migrants. When I read this I had to do a double take. Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda? Haven't they got enough problems of their own? This is like the prison ships she was looking at. Anything to get migrants away from us is her view. This is despicable.

[plaques]

Dealing with asylum seekers is defined by International treatise. Someone is going to have to read the small print very carefully this is one we can't blame on the EU. And then who pays for it? Rishi Sunak will say I've enough problems without yours. The Foreign Office will say 'Not me Gov. International Aid. part of the 0.7% GDP, doubtful. Defence budget, forget it. I know reduce the police force?? Sounds like a lot of hot air to impress the fascist wing of the Tory party.

[Stanley]

We Had T May and her 'hostile environment' that led to Windrush. Patel is continuing the policy even though it was officially dropped. See also our illegal detention of families and children in 'detention centres'. How long before she advocates Capital Punishment?

[Stanley]

Ken mentioned on another topic that he thought that on the quiet herd immunity was the aim now. I have a feeling he might be right, Sajid Javid seems to be agreeing to everything and don't rule out an early end to the restrictions.

[plaques]

Posted on Politics rather than Banks. Mobile phone roaming charges being introduced again. When we left Brexit there was the option to continue with the free roaming, no ties, no cost, no agreements etc: A please yourself option. Good old Boris with the best interests of the UK in mind said "No thank you" anyhow the providers have NO PLANS (where have I heard that before) to re-introduce charges. These charges won't affect me but may be an embarrassment to those who think its will be all free and then find it isn't. A self inflicted wound.

Later, the NI sausage war has been put back on the grill. An agreement to extend the current unilateral extension by another 3 months. Some logic in this although Boris has failed to carry out the border checks as agreed in the Protocol the quality of meat is no different than in the past so it should not affect the quality passing into the EU via the Republic. But here's the cunning plan. The UK is about to start buying beef from Australia with hormone growth in it. A standard that the EU will not allow. If this lower quality beef does come into the UK you can forget about the Chilled beef going into NI. Boris has 3 months to sort it out. Don't hold your breath.

[Stanley]

In nine weeks they will have to decide about how to do the seasonal booster jabs which look as though they are on the cards. If given with the flu jab they will not be an added burden but will they have the sense to realise this?

[plaques]

In nine weeks they will have to decide about how to do the seasonal booster jabs which look as though they are on the cards.

One small problem. The countries where we take our lead from of which flu virus to protect against have been in lockdown, masks etc etc, The result is very few influenza cases in these countries. Now we are left with tossing the coin which of these small outbreaks is likely to hit the UK this coming winter. Second guessing which one has always been difficult but this time more so.

[PanBiker]

I think the annual flu jab is a broad spectrum cocktail of the most prevalent strains. I believe it is the intention to roll it out with the flu jab. Over 70s first, then everyone else in reverse down to 50 year old's and over plus vulnerable groups who also qualify for the flu jab.

[Stanley]

It will make sense if they do it at the same time as the normal flu jab. They say one in each arm.
See THIS report on the Batley and Spen by-election. Keir Starmer must be a tiny little bit worried....
Later at 05:30, Labour hold the seat by 300 votes despite strong Tory challenge.
Worth noting that Galloway's 8,000 votes that put him in third place with the Worker's Party were almost certainly mainly taken from Labour voters. This result is better than it looks but funnily enough nobody is talking about this.

[PanBiker]

Indeed, that smug bastard David Davis was on Question Time last night and he said that they had it in the bag. Galloway is just a chaos stirrer but a dangerous one. Andy Burnham talked the most sense last night on the program and pointed out that when the Tories ever want a beneficial policy for the general public the just turn to the Labour manifesto to get one.

[Tripps]

All this politIcs in the news - I tried to find a list of every candidate who stood at Battered and Spent, and how many votes each received. I failed.

Got me to thinking about politics here. I'm on the record as being a fan of serial flouncer Heidi Allen - who now has a position at the RSPCA, I think. She with whom I spoke at my front door before she was elected. Afterwards, she was rarely out of the public eye, with a monthly column in the parish magazine, regular interventions in the Commons, and surgeries which she took to the people by touring the villages. I still have her picture on my kitchen wall (in an ironic way) mainly to tease the neighbours.

It struck me today that I don't even know the name of her successor, who seems to have risen without trace. I know more about the Barlick MP than I do about my own.

[PanBiker]

Media seem to be playing down the Labour win. One news item that came through on my phone describes it as a shock win for Labour? You only need to be one vote ahead to win in our electoral system so although reduced, 323 or whatever it was majority is more than enough.

[Stanley]

"I know more about the Barlick MP than I do about my own. "
Do tell. I didn't know we had one....
Ian, the majority of the media are right wing as you know and on the quiet they are running scared, they can see through the fog of Covid what is happening.
Later.... Mr Gove and his wife have decided to part company. See this LINK.

[plaques]

"I know more about the Barlick MP than I do about my own. "
Do tell. I didn't know we had one....

Obviously you're not up to speed on these things. I can't believe that in spite of Matt Hancock denying he had a hand in killing off thousands of old people in care homes and Boris Johnson's tardy reactions to lockdowns and travel bans the Conservatives are literally trying to COVER it all up with a magic quilt.

PENDLE MP Andrew Stephenson has appealed to his constituents in West Craven to help create a Covid memorial quilt.
The quilt will be made up of patchwork blocks of contributing parliamentary constituencies and once finished will travel around the country.

Talk about the Ministry of truth, this is a master class in chutzpah, Pathetic.

[Sue]

PENDLE MP Andrew Stephenson has appealed to his constituents in West Craven to help create a Covid memorial quilt.
The quilt will be made up of patchwork blocks of contributing parliamentary constituencies and once finished will travel around the country.


.......Not a new idea, the U3A with local artists and community groups in huddersfield have finished theirs and it is already on display ....

[Stanley]

Thank you Ken for alerting me to that fascinating factoid....
All this talk about memorialising Covid is nonsense. You don't do it while the circumstance is still ongoing. To do so looks like a deliberate attempt to distract.

[Whyperion]

BBC Reports:
Sir Desmond Swayne, a Conservative, aims to hold ministers’ feet to the fire on making sure restrictions are never re-imposed.

He asks the Commons: “We will never again sacrifice freedom of association, free enterprise and, indeed, freedom of worship in order to manage hospital admissions ever again, will we?"

Hmm, That Freedom of Association bit, not near parliament and not noisily protesting.

[plaques]

When is the penny going to drop that it makes no difference what a local MP says, writes or opinionates its how he votes in Parliament. If the Whips say vote like this... then that's how they vote. Democracy evaporates and what the voters thought they were getting is nothing of the sort.

[Stanley]

As usual Ken, dead right and it was ever so but most people don't realise how regimented MPs are under the party system. They are looking at advancement and they don't get that if they are in the 'awkward squad'. Gordon Prentice was a fully paid up member of that august body! That's why he never got a government job.....

[Stanley]

A dreadfully cruel and destructive decision was made in Parliament this week. See THIS BBC report on Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey telling MPs the £20 a week boost - introduced in April last year to help deal with the economic effects of Covid - would face an "adjustment". In other words, just as all the other Covid subsidies are coming to and end and what looks like a harsh winter starts, the government will take £20 a week off the poorest families.
Will the people who made this decision be suffering depredation?

[Stanley]

I've been listening to Sunak doing his thing on Today. All I can say is that he is a hard man when it comes to poor people and them losing £20 a week. His response is that unemployment is lower than it was thought it would be.
I never have liked this man or his policies and nothing has changed. It's the old workhouse policy, those in benefit should be worse off than those in work. At the same time they have made certain that thousands of working families haven't got a living wage and the really poor have to be worse off than that. They reckon this will encourage them to work.....

[Stanley]

Some very interesting speculation about the blind trust Sunak's investments are in while he is in government in PE this week. The general opinion is that no way will he crack down on hedge funds as long as there is a possibility some of his dosh is in one....