ForenSix Opposition - Politics in the Soon To Be Former UK in Autumn 2020

Another 10 years

Laura Kuenssberg talking absolute twaddle on #PoliticsLive. Repeating the "no money left" nonsense from 2020. Talking about "maxed-out national credit cards". @BBCPolitics this is an utter disgrace and totally irresponsible. Please educate your reporters in basic economics.

— (((Frances "Cassandra" Coppola))) (@Frances_Coppola) November 25, 2020

The interest rates are like free money ffs! Economically illiterate lies from the BBC shocker!

funny how economic illiteracy in the media always works in favour of entrenched power structures innit

Yeah, what if these tales are convenient..

thing is reducing the spending power of millions of people (just to buy necessities like food and clothes) is fucking lousy economics and the Tory addiction to austerity (even though they say it is over) is why the UK economy will continue to be the most stagnant basket-case of the European post-Rona ones. And I honestly don't believe Starmer Labour's approach would be any different. Shit times.

if only there was a large and credible evidence base that showed post-2008 austerity didn’t work, or a report from the un rapporteur that blamed austerity for crushing deprivation across the uk, which could change their minds

but as ever the cruelty is the point

if the credit cards are maxed out how did Gabriel González Andersson pocket £28m?

the amount of money that goes to absolutely corrupt and moronic procurement - just staggering sums - dwarfs anything any council needs in order to just keep the car on the road and it seems nothing can or will be done about it

libraries in Wolverhampton did corona

why the fuck is Dudds rambling on about "policemen with less in their pockets" in context of public sector wage freeze, they've already had a recent 2.5% payrise ffs, any excuse to bum a copper.

They deserve a pay rise. pic.twitter.com/z3OsPy8eHA

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 25, 2020

give me a fucking break lad, this is taking the piss.

they got a 2.5% pay rise last year, there are NHS nurses and hospital porters who haven't had one in almost decades

Truncheons don't come cheap you know.

yeah but every time they give some cheeky young blighter a tap on the noggin with it they get a bonus - it pays for itself!

Starmer Labour putting out messaging that makes it look like it was clap for fucking pigs while the NHS were at the coal face of one the worst Rona death rates in the world. He said NHS nurses should get medals and now he says coppers should get (another) pay rise. Seriously I wish nothing but death upon this man, he's the worst possible LOTO you could have during a crisis like this. I'd love to batter him! I don't mean kill him - just swing a shovel into his bollocks and listen to that satisfying crunch as he falls to the ground in agony!

cover him in egg and flour and slowly lower him into 250 Celsius vegetable oil

How did you know about his usual skincare routine?

In one of the other pics they've put out it features a fucking armed cop as a "key Worker". a bit awkward for Kieth seeing as he was involved in the de Menezes whitewash.

Just awful..

NEW: Housing benefits cut for low-wage renters quietly slipped out in spending reviewhttps://t.co/CupRgbSnhS

— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) November 25, 2020

the bbc - actually quite surprisingly - covered this on the R4 money program earlier, they had a decent expert on who basically said people who are just about getting by are going to struggle, and people doing a bit worse than that are going to go under as in develop deeper problems with rent arears and go into a death-poverty spiral down the drain.

I hadn't thought of Tesco as a hostile environment, which was apparently naïve on my part:

According to @Tesco, if you can read this poster, you are a thief. #Romanian pic.twitter.com/1fb2QsZufv

— Oana Gurau (@OanaGurau) November 24, 2020

Did anyone find these posters translated in the other minority languages of the UK? Or did @Tesco just opt for the "language of thieves"? #Romanianhttps://t.co/tPlGoX4tqa

— Oana Gurau (@OanaGurau) November 24, 2020

fucking hell

Disgusting. I’ve boycotted Tesco for years for other reasons, so might as well add this to the charge sheet.

moneybox is consistently one of the most progressive shows on radio 4 just by actually reporting on regular people's financial issues. i think a lot of the guests are surprised by how persistent the questions actually are, they're like ah, a cozy little consumer affairs programme, and this man sounds polite.. hmm ah whoa

yeah they did a really good job today I thought. heads will now roll obv!

lol nothing matters

An acquaintance and former neighbour of Matt Hancock is supplying the government with tens of millions of vials for NHS Covid-19 tests despite having had no previous experience of producing medical supplies.

Alex Bourne, who used to run a pub close to Hancock’s former constituency home in Suffolk, said he initially offered his services to the UK health secretary several months ago by sending him a personal WhatsApp message.

Bourne’s company, Hinpack, was at that time producing plastic cups and takeaway boxes for the catering industry. It is now supplying about 2m medical grade vials a week to the government via a distributor contracted by the NHS.

Bourne categorically denies he profited from his personal contact with Hancock. However, the case raises questions for the health secretary and is likely to reignite the row over alleged government cronyism during the pandemic.

Contacted last week by the Guardian, Bourne’s lawyers flatly denied that their client had any discussions with Hancock in relation to Covid-19 supplies.

However, on Monday, after being confronted with further details about his interactions with the health secretary, Bourne backtracked. In a phone call with the Guardian, he conceded that he has in fact exchanged text and email messages with Hancock over several months.

A Suffolk local and friend of Bourne’s, Sukhvinder Dhat, said he had regularly seen Hancock in the pub when he lived in the village and claimed that Bourne and Hancock were “friends” and “buddies”. Bourne’s lawyers denied that characterisation, saying Bourne does not now have a “close personal connection” with the health secretary.

this alex bourne guy used to run a pub called the ‘cock inn’ btw

no contact vs many emails and whatsapp messages over several months - i can see how it would be easy to confuse the two

i wish things mattered

If there wasn't something at least somewhat untoward about the prices they're paying / profit margin, you'd have people out there spinning this as a wonderful story of small businesses chipping in to help the national cause.

Nothing matters in the sense of any hope of personal accountability but, at least a little, the drip drip of these stories might undermine the 'maxed-out national credit card' narrative a touch.

Seriously I wish nothing but death upon this man, he's the worst possible LOTO you could have during a crisis like this. I'd love to batter him! I don't mean kill him - just swing a shovel into his bollocks and listen to that satisfying crunch as he falls to the ground in agony!

I derive mild catharsis from these regular, justified, comments on KS.

"In his call with the Guardian, Bourne also played down his relationship with Hancock. “I’ve never once been to his house,” he said. “He’s never been to mine. I’ve never once had a drink with him.”

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e5517000b6c4c991eff6fff9e496b1af7e52595a/0_122_2448_2613/master/2448.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=955e20ccd84a42ecfdf9a38fa0e38e4d

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e5517000b6c4c991eff6fff9e496b1af7e52595a/0_122_2448_2613/master/2448.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=955e20ccd84a42ecfdf9a38fa0e38e4d

(posted twice for emphasis, or because i thought i got it wrong the first time but in reality i just had images off. sorry)

an appropriately-named pint to be pulling

He means that once, he didn't have a drink with him.

Just got a nightmare report that I've been put into a bad kier

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Envb_wtWEAEMaZB?format=jpg&name=medium

I wish there was some English press slamming the BBC like this

🖼

xpost to koogs

Hugely important point: https://t.co/0quy1A1w1i

— Ben Judah (@b_judah) November 26, 2020

the bbc quoting straight from the Thatcher book of using a simplistic analogy to justify deadly and cruel austerity, nothing new like - they refused to report on the BMJ study on disabled deaths they were very quiet while the UN rapporteur was here - they fucking love it!

if we want to go all-in on household finance analogies let's look at how people buy houses and cars in this country

when it comes to spending money on actual people let's just pretend we live in literally pre-medieval times when credit didn't exist. when it comes to hedge funds though? let the derivatives fuckin fly!! CDOs? that's child's play, kid

I've seen it suggested that car finance might be the next derivatives bubble, even if you are poor as fuck I bet it would be easier to get a car on finance than a bank loan or an overdraft extension. Here! seeing as we aren't talking household budgets here, have two cars mate!

The household metaphor thing is standard simplify it for the plebs austerity 101 stuff. Absolutely shameless bollocks.

In a work call this morning someone said 'I hear Rishi is trying to confiscate Boris's credit card hahaha' which is so funny because we all have jobs and stuff and no-one is throwing us out of our houses.

*disconsolately waves battered miniature union jack*

The sad thing about Starmer and the PLP's pivot from PV to voting for Boris' deal is that we'll now have a much harder brexit than the one Corbyn proposed with none of the radical and transformative policies that would bring forth a new settlement for the people in this country

— Universal Basic Income Now, Fuckers! (@holski_beat) November 25, 2020

gosh i wish somebody had pointed this out earlier

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/cropped_article_image/public/blogs_2017/05/gettyimages-490521592.jpg

Realise opinions vary here, but Novara is pretty much the only political discussion media I can stomach at the moment. James Meadway was great last night on Kberg's economic illiteracy and Dr Bastano's interview with Dave Edgerton from last week is outstanding (not only for DE's awesome bookstrewn room)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7sRMIxYVVk

I like a bit of Dave Edgerton and a few of his books (britain's war machine, shock of the old, rise + fall of the british nation), he is a bit of an fbpe ultra at times, but he certainly isn't full of shit.