Wednesday 8th July 2020
Posted: Wed 08 Jul, 2020 6:40 am
Morning all.
A row has broken out over UK Government plans to enshrine a UK “internal market” in law after Brexit, after the Scottish Government’s Constitution Secretary has warned it would undermine devolution.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/ ... ab-2904277" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Holger Hestermeyer
@hhesterm
The problem is: you look at the competences you have, what’s devolved to Scotland, and it turns out you want to negotiate what is devolved. Either because everyone puts that stuff into a trade agreement, or because your partner is asking for it.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/07/anot ... ture-wars/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;In 2009, journalist Johann Hari pointed out that Roberts had in 2001 spoken at a dinner of the Springbok Club – a pro-apartheid association of expat South Africans. Roberts – who has a first class BA honours degree in Modern History from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge – says he didn’t realise the club was a racist organisation and didn’t recall anyone saying anything racist.
The chairman of the Springbok Club is Alan Harvey – a former activist for the far-right group, the National Front. Thomas Mair, the far-right terrorist who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, subscribed to a print magazine published by the club called SA Patriot. The organisation has the apartheid-era South African flag as an emblem.
Today’s interview with Roberts was again hosted by Reasoned UK – a new, mysteriously-funded platform fronted by Grimes. The subject of the piece is the supposed attempts by Black Lives Matters activists to “cancel” Winston Churchill.
On Britain’s colonial legacy, Roberts has also shared some controversial opinions. The London-born academic once claimed that author Caroline Elkins had committed “blood libels against Britain” for claiming that colonial forces had carried out the systematic torture and starvation of detainees in the Mau Mau detention camps of Kenya in the 1950s.
After Roberts made his comments, the Foreign Office opened up historical files on the camps, largely confirming Elkins’ account.
History is not a series of facts but now a tangled web of opinions and interpretations. And right-wing culture warriors seem determined for their interpretations to win out.
George Peretz QC
@GeorgePeretzQC
I don’t think you need to be a political genius to see that the SNP and the current U.K. Government might have different answers to the question of whether you should change the devolution settlement or tolerate disruption to the U.K. internal market.
Was just passed another on that subject --gilsey wrote:Good morning.
Interesting* stuff re trade agreements interacting with devolution.
A row has broken out over UK Government plans to enshrine a UK “internal market” in law after Brexit, after the Scottish Government’s Constitution Secretary has warned it would undermine devolution.
Holger Hestermeyer
@hhesterm
The problem is: you look at the competences you have, what’s devolved to Scotland, and it turns out you want to negotiate what is devolved. Either because everyone puts that stuff into a trade agreement, or because your partner is asking for it.
* possibly for those with nerdish tendencies
https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/the-frac ... the-union/The wheels quickly came off the devolution wagon when the EU withdrawal bill was published, which showed the “wholesale transfer of powers” from Brussels to Whitehall and Westminster, including policy areas traditionally devolved to Wales and Scotland. It led the Welsh and Scottish first ministers to accuse the UK government of a power grab. Subsequently the pair tabled 38 amendments to the withdrawal bill and wrote to Theresa May to insist that, while they wanted to work with the UK government, they would do so only if their suggested changes were accepted.
Oonagh
@Okeating
·
14h
Government: All children have to go back to school in September or their parents will be fined.
Civil servant: Shall I confirm the venue for the conference?
Government: GOOD GOD, NO!
Alan Gibbons
@mygibbo
·
2h
“I’m a capitalist, but we need a different model for capitalism,” Chuka Umunna to the Financial Times.
Thank you, Mr Umunna.
All through our wild days, our mad existence, we never doubted it.
The Labour Party
@UKLabour
Thanks for the meal deal, but we were promised a new deal.
#SummerStatement
Thing is, that should be their actual statement rather than the almost impenetrable block of text they tweeted beneath that.Willow904 wrote:The Labour Party
@UKLabour
Thanks for the meal deal, but we were promised a new deal.
#SummerStatement
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... he-is-told" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;AndyPSmith 34m ago
WHO, 6 March: "80% of infections are mild or asymptomatic."
Hancock, 22 April: “Asymptomatic transmission does occur [and is] one of the very significant challenges of the virus.”
Johnson, today 8 July at PMQs: "one thing nobody knew early on during this pandemic is that the virus was being passed on asymptomatically".
Johnson’s gaslighting is now so blatant and contemptible that he doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he’s lying. We know he’s lying. He knows we know he’s lying. We know he knows we know he’s lying.
It’s all a game to him and he doesn’t care.
I can’t listen to him and his cronies any more.
-------------------
LordBunster AndyPSmith 27m ago
... and UK Govt NSRA comparison between SARS and Covid-19, 10th February (SAGE meeting documents, 11th Feb):
“Asymptomatic transmission cannot be ruled out and transmission from mildly symptomatic individuals is likely.”
My favourite Andrew Roberts moment was a Question Time appearance quite a few years ago when he had a complete hissy fit much to the audience's, and my amusement. As far as I recall he began lecturing someone in the audience who'd questioned him on their manners which eventually led to the audience laughing at him, at which point he began shouting that he had a first from Cambridge so how dare they think they knew better than him which just made things worse/more hilarious. After Dimbleby calmed everything down he sat looking petulant and sullen for the rest of the programme and refused to answer any more questions.frog222 wrote:Following David Starkey last week ... the spotlight is now on Andrew Roberts , another rightwing stalwart I've heard quite often on Radio4 over the years, along with such authorities as the Heritage Foundation.
Sorry I've been out and am a bit behind the curve today, does anyone know if this requires businesses to retain their staff on a guaranteed number of hours? Because if I were an unscrupulous scumbag boss with desperate employees I'd be thinking, "Bwa ha ha ha, I'll slash their hours and still get my thousand quid bonus."A jobs retention bonus will help to wind down the scheme: businesses will be paid £1,000 to retain furloughed staff. This would cost the Treasury more than £9bn if every job furloughed is protected, Sunak says.
https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/est ... un-engano/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Nurses who traveled from different locations across the country to work in hospitals saw the horrors of the coronavirus up close
They rushed patients to crowded intensive care units, monitored oxygen levels, and held the hands of the sickest as they died.
However, now that many of them have returned home to the southern and western states, they face a new challenge: trying to persuade their friends and family to take the virus seriously.
"I've already lost my temper a couple of times," said Olumide Peter Kolade , a 31-year-old California-born nurse who grew up in Texas and spent more than three months caring for patients in New York.
"When someone tells me they don't believe the virus is real, I take it as an insult. I take it personally ”.
If only this had been completely fucking obvious to anybody with any sense at all before and during the General Election last year.An extraordinary cabinet row has erupted over Brexit with Liz Truss warning that Boris Johnson’s border plans risk smuggling, damage to the UK’s international reputation and could face a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization.
Facebook’s decisions over the last nine months have resulted in “serious setbacks for civil rights,” according to the damning conclusion of a two-year-long audit commissioned by the social network to review its impact on the world.
Right so we're being bribed into restaurants are we? Well they can fuck right off with that. I noticed in Tesco earlier they're not bothering to clean the handles of baskets or trolleys anymore. They've got a cleaning station inside the shop so you can do it yourself after you've already picked up the basket/pushed the trolley. I was one of three people I saw in the whole place wearing a face covering including the staff. If that's how it's going down in supermarkets now imagine a restaurant. Let's think of all the things you could potentially touch, let's see...chair, table top, cutlery, glass, plates, condiments, and how many people could breathe on your food and drinks...chef, bar staff, waiters. If I'm not going to sit in a pub there's no way a measly tenner off a meal bribe is going to tempt me into a restaurant.Meals eaten at any participating businesses, from Mondays to Wednesdays in August, will be 50% off up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children. Businesses will be able to register through a website launching on Monday. Firms can claim money back to have money in their bank accounts within five working days. Sunak says 1.8 million people work in the industry, whose jobs can be supported. “We can all eat out to help out,” he adds.
I haven't been able to track down any details - but the Government has, more or less, already said with reference to the furlough scheme itself it's only to be expected that there will be a bit of fiddling. It's only to be expected and can't be helped. Much like their attitude to the benefits system.Sky'sGoneOut wrote:Sorry I've been out and am a bit behind the curve today, does anyone know if this requires businesses to retain their staff on a guaranteed number of hours? Because if I were an unscrupulous scumbag boss with desperate employees I'd be thinking, "Bwa ha ha ha, I'll slash their hours and still get my thousand quid bonus."A jobs retention bonus will help to wind down the scheme: businesses will be paid £1,000 to retain furloughed staff. This would cost the Treasury more than £9bn if every job furloughed is protected, Sunak says.
I mean I know the Tories find the idea of unscupulous bosses a hard one to comprehend but surely even they must have included stipulations about exactly how the staff must be retained.
The pretence that top of the list of priorities is the health of the public, and not money, is being ditched very swiftly.Sky'sGoneOut wrote:
Right so we're being bribed into restaurants are we? Well they can fuck right off with that.
Tee hee.PorFavor wrote:I haven't been able to track down any details - but the Government has, more or less, already said with reference to the furlough scheme itself it's only to be expected that there will be a bit of fiddling. It's only to be expected and can't be helped. Much like their attitude to the benefits system.
Maybe it could work if restaurants moved their tables out onto the pavement to avoid the virus, I wouldn't mind so much if I was outside enjoying my Escargots à la Bourguignonne while being harrassed by seagulls and pigeons and breathing in car fumes.Anyway, I was too excited about the reduced cost of meals out (for a whole 13 days, according to my diary) to pay much attention to anything else.
Imagine being in such a state of affairs that Liz Truss is having to raise the alarm and lecture her own colleagues.adam wrote:[If only this had been completely fucking obvious to anybody with any sense at all before and during the General Election last year.
From what I can see yes.citizenJA wrote:£15 billion is how much this government says they've spent on personal protection equipment (PPE) for frontline staff
Is that correct?