[tomtom]

Streets are paved with gold here in 'ull.

[Oldmanmatt]

Streets are paved with gold here in 'ull.

Nice.

But..?


Isn't that a bit slippery when it rains?

[tomtom]

(1) it doesnt rain much over the east side (5-600mm year of rainfall)
(2) the pavements and walkways are covered

:p

[galpinos]

Streets are paved with gold here in 'ull.

I drove through 'ull last week. You got the colour right but are you sure it was gold?

[tomtom]

Streets are paved with gold here in 'ull.

I drove through 'ull last week. You got the colour right but are you sure it was gold?

Could have been the tints on your ride..

[Oldmanmatt]

Doooommmm!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/07/food-inflation-doubles-uk-shoppers-feel-pinch?CMP=share_btn_fb


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jfdm]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/07/peers-vote-in-favour-of-veto-over-final-outcome-of-brexit-negotiations
Why are the peers so peevish.
Having a laugh is one thing but preventing the will of the people twice in a week.
Well that is something else.
They are an undemocratic, unpatriotic bunch of wasters.
Theresa if you read this post can you do two things.
1) Have show trial for peers who are preventing will of people.
2) Send those guilty peers to gulags - Guantanamo will do.
Kind regards.
Mr Britshit

[Oldmanmatt]

It is, of course, opinion; it does however reflect the same questions I had yesterday:


http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/03/shock-philip-hammond-seems-hint-brexit-problem

And:

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/03/12-bits-brexit-bad-news-hidden-budget-2017

[Fultonius]

It is, of course, opinion; it does however reflect the same questions I had yesterday:


http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/03/shock-philip-hammond-seems-hint-brexit-problem

And:

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/03/12-bits-brexit-bad-news-hidden-budget-2017

Matt, come on, you're forgetting some short term pain is worth it for gaining control of immigration and bringing sovereignty home and... and...

It's like having your feet stuck in slowly setting concrete with a juggernaut driven by Mayhem, with Hammond et all hanging off the side, bearing down on you at 2mph. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh..........

[petejh]

It's like having your feet stuck in slowly setting concrete with a juggernaut driven by Mayhem, with Hammond et all hanging off the side, bearing down on you at 2mph. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh..........

Much like the feeling of being a labour supporter right now I imagine, or perhaps sinking slowly into oblivion in the quicksand..

[Oldmanmatt]

It's like having your feet stuck in slowly setting concrete with a juggernaut driven by Mayhem, with Hammond et all hanging off the side, bearing down on you at 2mph. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh..........

Much like the feeling of being a labour supporter right now I imagine, or perhaps sinking slowly into oblivion in the quicksand..

Whilst I sn**ger at the demise of the Green socked and sandalled Red-brigade, I don't see much to laud in the rise of the ignorant right...

[Oldmanmatt]

I read the Torygraph most days (amongst others), I suppose it's a ritual for me; breakfast, coffee and the papers. Over the years I have slid from a light blue, to a fairly deep orange, with some redish/greenish edges and the odd blue patch.
(Which, as a painter, the voice in my head whispers; makes brown. The colour of politics, is brown. Don't even mention the smell).

I think I've watched the Torygraph begin a long, subtle, turn; which may (or may not) reverse it's course completely. It's happened over the last two months, taken with the rumours of certain donors threats to withdraw funding if May continues her current course and the possible cabinet rift over the Budget; seem indicative of a failing government.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/12/lurking-disaster-could-mean-brexit-crashes-uk-economy/

[Fultonius]

Paywalled. Any chance you can summarise the gist of it?

[Oldmanmatt]

"E
ver longer grows the list of potential disasters that lie ahead for Britain, thanks to Theresa May’s decision that, on leaving the EU, we should also leave its single market. But rumbling away now in the background is one that dwarfs them all, because it will affect every one of the 170,000 UK businesses that trade with the rest of the EU, and much else besides.
We are, of course, wearily familiar with the argument that, because the rest of the EU sells more to us than we do to them, they will happily concede us that “one-off deal” Mrs May wants, allowing us to continue trading much as we do now. But this relies on a complete failure to grasp the real nature of the regulatory system that is the essence of the single market, and what would be facing us if we leave it to become what it calls a “third country”.
We would be excluded from that fully computerised system which for 25 years has allowed us to trade with the rest of the EU without having to go through customs controls. Only our trade with the outside world has been governed by a system called CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight), designed to handle 50 million customs declarations a year.
As long ago as 2010, HMRC realised that this system would soon be hopelessly overstretched. By 2014, when they had already been working for four years on upgrading their software, it became clear that they would now need a new system to be compliant with the proposed new EU-wide Union Customs Code, covering 1,300 pages. An £87 million project to create a new Customs Declaration Service (CDS), capable of handling 90 million declarations a year, proved so tricky that this was unlikely to be in place before 2020.
But all this has now been totally changed by Mrs May’s decision that we are no longer to remain “within” the internal market as she earlier promised, and as we could have done, on leaving the EU, by remaining within the wider European Economic Area (EEA). As a “third country”, Britain will now have to create its own unique customs code from scratch, to cover not only trade with the outside world but that with the EU as well, And obviously work on this cannot seriously get under way until the details of Mrs May’s trade deal are finally agreed.
I asked HMRC how long this might take, since they have already spent three years in dealing with a very much smaller problem. Their reply notably failed to answer the question of how they are planning to face this colossal new challenge. Indeed, it is inconceivable that, on day one after leaving the EU, we could have in place our own wholly new system, which it is estimated would now have to handle 350 million or more customs declarations a year.
This would result in chaos on an unimaginable scale (much of which, of course, could have been avoided if Mrs May had not been talked into leaving the EEA by her fluffy-headed colleagues). The disruption to our trade, not least the 30 per cent of all our food that we import from the EU, would not just be a car crash or a train wreck, it would be a whole fleet of jumbo jets crashing down on our entire economy,
When the Prime Minister shortly confronts her 27 EU colleagues to trigger Article 50, they will be gazing at her in disbelief that she could be asking for anything so silly: that would be a catastrophe not just for Britain but for the rest of the EU as well. Margaret Thatcher in 2003 famously looked back on our decision to join “Europe” as having been “a political error of the first magnitude”. But entirely through our own ignorance and stupidity, it looks as though the way we are choosing to leave it could be even worse."

[Fultonius]

Cheers Matt.

[Oldmanmatt]

Fancy a quote from an anonymous "senior government aide"?



Loving these guys. They fill me with confidence and a warm fuzzy feeling.

A bit like a combination of morphine and rabies, really. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TobyD]

Much like the feeling of being a labour supporter right now I imagine, or perhaps sinking slowly into oblivion in the quicksand..

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/19/jeremy-corbyn-labour-threat-party-election-support

An excellent piece of political commentary from Nick Cohen, which expands your point rather well.

[Fultonius]

I'm going to put it out there - I think I was wrong on Corbyn. I was wondering if the media's incessant attacks on him had ground my support down, but no, I follow a few of his most ardent supporters (Canary etc.) and I feel he really is just missing too many open goals. When even the Canary's gushing praise of him can be seen through for what it is, maybe it's time.

However, another attack from the right is not going to cut it - it will also (in my opinion) further the destruction of the party, as the Corbyn faction will call foul. I think what's required is a strong leader with good centre/left credentials, supported by Corbyn(istas) to succeed him, but one who can bring the whole part together and form an effective opposition. FFS it should be easy as fuck to destroy Theresa Mayhem every round of PM Qs - the SNP certainly seem to manage pretty well!

Right then, who's the new leadership candidate?   

[tomtom]

I suspect the time for leadership change and a rescue of the party's standing has now passed - or is perilously close to passing...

[shark]

Right then, who's the new leadership candidate?   

Alan Johnson - always has been

[TobyD]

I'm going to put it out there - I think I was wrong on Corbyn. I was wondering if the media's incessant attacks on him had ground my support down, but no, I follow a few of his most ardent supporters (Canary etc.) and I feel he really is just missing too many open goals. When even the Canary's gushing praise of him can be seen through for what it is, maybe it's time.

However, another attack from the right is not going to cut it - it will also (in my opinion) further the destruction of the party, as the Corbyn faction will call foul. I think what's required is a strong leader with good centre/left credentials, supported by Corbyn(istas) to succeed him, but one who can bring the whole part together and form an effective opposition. FFS it should be easy as fuck to destroy Theresa Mayhem every round of PM Qs - the SNP certainly seem to manage pretty well!

Right then, who's the new leadership candidate?   

Agreed. My enthusiasm for the corbyn novelty lasted until his first pmqs i should think. Or perhaps until it became apparent that he was more concerned with keeping a vice like grip on the party he is destroying, that with providing any kind of meaningful opposition to the government.

David Milliband, but the family connection pretty much excludes him politically, and he's said he won't run many times.  Even Ed is beginning to sound effective next to Corbyn. Come to that Blair at least sounds like a bloody politician, rather than a retired union rep.

[dave]

The main problem we will have with ANY prospective labour leader is that they won't get in while the majority of the print media is controlled by Tory donors. The Murdoch/Dacres of this world dictated the last election, they dictated the vote on Brexit, and they are likely to dictate any future elections. ANY labour leader is going to have a constant stream of negative publicity and belittlement from the right wing press, including right-wing favouring political editors working in TV. Anything positive they do will be ignored or buried. Them looking funny eating a bacon sandwich will be front page news. Let's not forget the only reason Blair got in was that Murdoch backed him.

[tomtom]

Let's not forget the only reason Blair got in was that Murdoch backed him.

Whilst Blair aligning the Murdoch press (but note not the daily mail/express/Torygraph) with New Labour is certainly a factor - its not the only reason... and not the main sole reason IMHO.

Its whoever takes the middle ground/vote in a GE that wins.. thats what Cameron did - thats what Blair did - thats what even Major did! 

Cohens article is interesting - especially the last sentence which is full of anger - that I didnt expect to see.

Next year, as austerity grinds on, as we crash out of the EU to find ourselves with Donald Trump as our last ally, they will run candidates against Corbyn and ask for your support. That will be the moment when you need to look at your country and ask whether this was what you wanted when you first cheered “Jeremy” on.

In my respectful opinion, your only honourable response will be to stop being a fucking fool by changing your fucking mind.

[dave]

Its whoever takes the middle ground/vote in a GE that wins.. thats what Cameron did - thats what Blair did - thats what even Major did!

Aye, and it's much easier to take that middle ground newspaper/media backing.

We now have a Tory MP and ex-chancellor inexplicably working as a newspaper editor (apparently being an MP in a safe seat is a part-time job now?). Probably got the most rightwing mainstream press in europe.

[SA Chris]

Not like he has nothing else to do

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/every-job-millionaire-george-osborne-10045939

Wonder how he afford to pay income tax on all that?