OR TWO
Boris Johnson’s daddy is apparently applying for a French Passport… a real one, a red one… not a blue one made in Poland by a French company, like ours will be… in order to escape the rigours of Brexit Britain. Rachel Johson thinks she might have one too because their mother is of French nationality.
It would be hard to make that family up.
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Erm, yeah… You know you’ll probably only get an MBE or something Stephen, don’t you?
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Anyone ever going to go into a Wetherspoons bar again?
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But… the plus side is Blue Passports!
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This horoscope seems to be relatively accurate. Well, I never!
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Just how much of anything this Tory government tells us can we truly believe? What ulterior motive(s) might they have in suddenly switching from totally laid-back to all draconian??
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Well, you never can tell with Johnson. He’s such a maverick. There’s nothing even vaguely reasoned about him.
He appears to have in common with Trump a complete inability to sit through a briefing and understand it.
Maybe we should send him back to fight the Trojan Wars or something…anything as long as it’s nothing to do with us.
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I think the man is an utter nincompoop. We are (blessed?) at a time of crisis with yet another thick Etonian. That’s what the nation voted for and wanted, apparently.
Oh! Except for us.
Shucks, how unlucky can we continualy get?
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Well, it was only England that voted for him.
Scotland voted SNP; Wales voted Labour and NI voted DUP (only just)
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What we are seeing in the USA and England is public health policy driven by right wing ideology and their slavish adherence to market forces.
Top that up with the Brexiteers turning their backs on all things European,apart from passports it seems,and you have the complete failure of governance that we are now seeing.
Neither of the two “leaders” of those countries are fit for public office and history will not be kind to them.
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I fear you have it there.
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As to your final remark … well, we can but hope and the sooner they’re ‘history’ the better for all of us.
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Agreed bringiton, but unfortunately a lot, an awful lot of people are going to die because of their uncaring, incompetent “leadership”.
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At least stapling his cuffs to the desk limited that ridiculous speach cadence and sporadic emphasis he does. Still couldn’t watch him all the way through though, same with Trump. Could be a hangover from those days of hippydom, Kahil Gibran “avoid vexations to the soul” or I cannot thole listening to pricks.
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Sometimes I watch Trump, becasue there is a certain comic value in him. Perhaps becasue, despite devolution, Johnson can actually be the difference between my life and death, I rarely manage to watch his rubbish. What he is saying is usually untrue.
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trispw,
I would not, willingly, allow our current PM within a mile of me or you. I doubt any of your commentariat would either. The man saw an opportunity to kill all of us and grasped it with both hands.
That is evil. That is wrong. We, the general public, need protection from an out of control lunatic.
Least that is what I think.
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Well, I don’t even want to be in the same country as him. I’m more than happy that he’s in London. I suggest that he follow the law and stay there, unlike His Royal Highness!
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Isn’t there some biblical reference to “kicking against the pricks”? In this case, the harder the better, I’d think. And the other side too for good measure.
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Danny wherever you are, one for you.
http://thesaker.is/china-locked-in-hybrid-war-with-us/
also for the rest of us that are interested in global politics.
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Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
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OK my post has been there long enough, so here is part two. I’ll either be a dork or correct, time will tell
During the lockdown, sources suggest that (good journalistic phrase) the
Far Right Extreme Eejits Major Arrests Starting On Now and
Jewish Eejits Super Union International Traitors too
italy has a high rate of deaths because that is the location of the vatican bank and mafia. There will be a
change over of the financial system to a gold standard as per the constitution of the usa
high profile people testing positive is code for them being arrested, military trial to follow as usa is still in “the war on terror” announced by dubbya after 9/11.
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I’m not sure that I follow that, Kangaroo.
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Well try this tweet for a different angle on the same subject matter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ir0nbelly/status/1243635945045479426
Bye bye. The Federal Reserve et al.
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I guess an emergency is always a good time to change the power structure and take new powers to yourself.
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If true, the bombshell there is that there are three different strains of covid19. A quick Google proved insufficient for me to find any corroboration, but that doesn’t mean much either way.
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In its voyage across the world, it would be surprising if it was exactly the same as when it started out, Illy.
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Anent the previous post about Chazza, breaking news from the BBC –
“The Prince of Wales has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has confirmed.
Prince Charles, 71, is displaying mild symptoms “but otherwise remains in good health”, a spokesman said.”
I suppose we’re supposed to be grateful that the bastard has only brought “mild symptoms” to Mummy’s Scotch Holiday Home in Jockland. I wonder if the loyal British meeja will give as much coverage to “Elderly man in risk category ignores advice to stay home and moves to holiday home” as they did to the eejits who held a barbecue dahn Saff.
Where are the tumbrils when you need them?
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Good lord… He actually has it and he still came here, despite government demands that people not move to their holiday homes.
Utter bastard.
Let’s get rid of the super privileged prats.
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India is going into lockdown,with the threat in some places “shooting on sight” transgressors of the curfew.
I know it’s brutal, just putting it out there.
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Well, it is to be hoped that they don’t start that here. Who is to know if a person it getting food or medicine; taking things to a housebound relative; going to an urgent medical appointment.
But yes. I’m not sure what we can do to persuade people to stay indoors. And it will get worse as time goes on, people get more and more bored and families start falling out.
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I was thinking, “tasers on stun Ballater”
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Buggering knew it. Charlies Windsor who travelled from London to Deeside recently has tested positive for Covid 19. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary should tell him to bugger off if his currently “mild” condition needs hospital treatment. Everyone else with mild symptoms isn’t tested and is told to stay at home.
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I can’t think of anything more to say about this, PP.
After Airmiles, he is the most selfish self centred bastard in a family of selfish bastards.
Hell mend him.
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a wee cast off remark, elsewhere.
They’ll all be looking at the pecking order now.
Chas the turd might have to wait to get his head chopped off.
Billy the filth moving up in the running order.
Georgie the seventh. plus a few spares.
Harold’s return from the colonies isn’t needed as yet
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We have Airmiles standing in the wings, with no sweat anywhere on him.
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I just can’t take BoJo seriously as PM or any of his oft-failed minions either.
Maybe the Daily Mail prat is nearly right – we don’t need him but with the high degree of selfshness shown by the public since this started, perhaps he’s the one we deserve?
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We don’t deserve him.
We didn’t want him or vote for him.
There are just as many irresponsible morons (by %) as there are in England. Maybe they deserve him.
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To change the subject, does any contributor of a certain age share my view that Matt Hancock plays the same role in government as Elisha J Cook played in gangster films and westerns ?
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Cairnallochy, do you mean, as it says on Wikipedia, “playing cowardly villains and neurotics”?
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I was thinking more fall guy and victim – I thought these terms shd have been tattooed on his forehead. Hancock fits the former category as he is trotted out to deny the undeniable.
But Cook played a good guy in Shane and inevitably a victim when he stood up to Palance’s villain. Perhaps that’s the role earmarked for MH.
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Well, I’ve never heard of Elisha J Cook, but if it was a creepy bugger, then yes!
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Danny will be interested in this:
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/03/24/missouri-walmart-coronavirus-licker-charged-with-terrorist-threat
Dunno where Warrenton is, but I hope it’s not close to you… or that you don’t shop at Walmart, mate.
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A wee bit mair from the BBC –
“A Clarence House statement read: “In accordance with government and medical advice, the prince and the duchess are now self-isolating at home in Scotland.
“The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire, where they met the criteria required for testing.
“It is not possible to ascertain from whom the prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks.”
“At home in Scotland” – FFS!
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Has Mrs Parker Bowles got it?
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When they say it’s not possible to ascertain who he caught it from, what they are actually saying is it’s certainly not going to be possible to determine who he might have given it to.
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Much more important!
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““At home in Scotland” – FFS!””
At fucking home? Tell the bugger to fuck off.
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Well, it does mean that all these ordinary people with ordinary red blood who are off to their tiny holiday cottages in Wales or the highlands or the lakes in England can say…well, it was OK for Saxe Coburg Gotha. Why not for me, Mr Johnson?
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How very social of the prince.
His last public duty was on the 12th March and he’s been working at home since.
Now self isolating in the castle.
Sounds a normal type of chap, no sign of exceptionalism there then, he’s working at home.
That will be the waiting on lizzie to move onto another job then.
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If it was anyone else the press would be on them. He knew he was at risk. He’d been in close contact with someone who was positive and yet he flew to Scotland.
I read somewhere that 6 of his entourage have tested positive?
But it’s OK the health authorities in a tiny Scottish village have bugger all else to do but look after that prat.
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https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/25/royal-coronavirus-prince-charles-met-queen-event-albert-monaco-12453845/
Oh well, as Ed said, elegantly in French, there’s a pile of spares. On the other hand, not very many spare doctors and nurses and other emergency staff.
The press has by and large been toe-curlingly respectful.
Twitter, that is to say, the public, not so much. In fact, this has done the royals no good at all. Shame that.
Seriously, doctors and nurses are asking why he got a test while they, who face this danger every day, did not.
Time for a change.
Où sont les tricoteuses?
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“Où sont les tricoteuses”
Well I’d volunteer but this has ripped my knitting 🙂
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PP 🙂
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https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18333632.prince-charles-ignores-coronavirus-advice-heads-second-home-scotland/
This sums it up.
I think that despite all the toe-curling arse licking sycophancy in the Tory press, Charlie will find he made a very very serious error here.
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Anent Vestas’ report ydy on supermarket stocks in England, I though it would be interesting to compare how we’re doing in Bulgaria. The Resident Sassenach was due to do a rations run today so I asked her to make detailed observations so we could beg MNR readers to send food (or drink!) parcels if necessary.
Yambol, the regional capital about an hour’s drive away, is in lockdown, so no access to Lidl or Kaufland. That’s usually only a once a month trip anyway, for stuff that’s not stocked by the local supermarket. The village shop is always good for day to day stuff – milk, bread, eggs etc – so the rations run to Supermarket Diana, 20 minutes up the road in Elhovo, our nearest town of any consequence, is usually a weekly event. Diana is a small local supermarket group, not part of a big European chain.
New opening hours are restricted to oldies until 10:30 am. The RS qualifies but not neighbour Kay, so they timed their arrival to overlap. Only a few people at a time allowed in, but no huge queues – just a few minutes wait for entry.
Customers inside observing distance-keeping (reasonably) and everything very normal. Shelves and fridges well stocked, likewise fresh meat counters and fruit and veg, and no shortage of the usual brands of beer, wine, and spirits. Plenty pet-food, soap, washing powder, bog rolls etc. “No change from any time else I’ve been there over the past four years,” was the verdict. “I couldn’t see any difference – and I was deliberately checking, just as you asked, Sir!”
She was out before the 10:30 deadline for Kay to get in, and went off to load the car with fresh supplies. Kay was equally quick in and out so they were home a lot sooner than expected. “Well done,” I said. “I was going to make myself breakfast, but now that you’re back, I’m sure you’ll find a wee spell of kitchen activity will help you relax after all the trauma of driving, pushing a trolleys, and carting the rations inside and stacking them away.”
Despite such thoughtfulness, I still had to make my own breakfast – and got an earful for my pains. How typically English!
My old Greenockian mate, now resident down south and a retired medic, tells me: “Even in rural Suffolk the wee shops are cleaned out by mid morning. Disgusting behaviour by the locals. Stupid bastards all bunched up in the doorways etc. Are all going to spread the virus among themselves and vector it to everyone else they bump into.
“Of course, everything they touch and breathe on will also be contaminated by virus for days and act as fomites. The unseen dangers of handles and light switches, phones and touch screens etc. will catch the unaware oldies who are obeying the self isolation rules.”
Maybe we’ll be sending relief parcels from Bulgaria. Orderly queue please!
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I think most places seem to be doing a relatively better job than here, John, and I include Scotland in this, I’m ashamed to say.
I saw a video made by an Englishwoman in France where she lives. Inside Carrefour or Casino shelves full of everything except pasta. No crowds and social distancing.
I just went to Lidl for bread and wine… very biblical… and both were in short supply.
Had to buy white bread which I loathe and there was little choice in wine.
Munguin was quite disgusted when I returned.
So he said if you could manage a package just address it to Munguin, Munguin Towers, Dundee and he will be eternally grateful.
I do feel a little sorry for you having to make your own breakfast. I mean, you really would think that a man of your distinguished station in life would be served breakfast on a tray. Rather like Munguin, in fact.
I tell you what though, my hands are fair sore with all this washing business. Not that I was a dirty fellow before, but wow…
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France has a lot more in the supply chain at any given moment than the UK and a lot more produce is grown in the country – unsurprisingly given its geography/area.
Its probably fairer to compare the Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark with the UK in terms of food in the supply chain. I have absolutely no idea how they’re doing though.
NB – this isn’t any sort of defence of people’s behaviour in the UK, just more a case of pointing out differences between countries which may not be immediately apparent.
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Although having said that the Netherlands isn’t typical either as they still have the group memory of the entire country nearly starving to death in the winter of 1944/45….
Concentrates the minds somewhat & produces a more resilient system.
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Oh yes, every country is different. Many people in France don’t buy so much from supermarkets. When I lived there we bought fresh stuff from the outdoor markets. But I don’t really think that they went quite as wild on the toilet paper.
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Depends where you live really – Carrefour isn’t Europe’s biggest retailer/supermarket for no reason 🙂
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Just been speaking to Abu. He sends his best regards to you all.
Munguin has invited him to stay next year when hopefully all this is over.
He said there’s a room in the cellar empty 🙂
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On a happier note and definitely OT, I’ve just seen the first chiffchaff of the year. Not singing yet as it’s probably exhausted after the long journey back from Africa. Unlike the sex-crazed song thrush that has taken to starting up at a ridiculous hour in the morning and keeps going all day.
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What a cheering though, erm, Daev!!!
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I’ll bet there’s no shortage of hand gel in and about his “home” at Balmoral.
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Yep. Can’t imagine Mrs Parker-Bowles getting back from the shop and having to admit that they were out of hand gel and soap and gloves …
Chic would be straight on the phone to the prime minister demanding that he order that the next consignment be delivered straight to Balmoral tout de suite.
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Ok, so Charlie got tested and we are reassured by our Chief Medical Officer that there was a clinical reason for this and that it met the testing criteria. Who am I to disagree with her? She’s the expert.
Any comment though on whether there was a clinical reason for testing Camilla, and whether or not her apparent lack of symptoms met the testing criteria?
Any comment on whether or not any others at Balmoral were tested from among his entourage of equiries, lackeys and fart-catchers?
As an aside, why are official statements being issued from Clarence House and not from Balmoral Castle?
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I have to say jake I think our C.M.O was being, “economical with the truth”. Very disappointing. Preferential treatment for those and such as those, once again.
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Whether that is true or not, Alex, I suspect that it will have done him and his family a load of harm.
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I noticed that the BBC Radio Four news was making nothing of it at all. Not a mention in their bulletins.
I’m not about to argue with the Chief Medical Officer. I don;t know for certain what the criteria are and of course I don;t know what underlying health issues Charles has.
But I can’t help being suspicious of it.
As for Mrs Parker Bowles… I have no answer. It’s appalling.
The royals are (and have always been) less popular here than they are in England. I’ve lived in both countries and found to my surprise, as a kid, that criticism of royals, which went down well in Scotland with one’s class mates, sank like a stone in England.
But I’d say his act of selfishness in coming to Scotland will have done him no favours with an already indifferent public, and then getting tested when even doctors and nurses and other medical staff can’t…
Bye bye Windsors.
I’d say that
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One for Danny – an anti-Trump PAC video
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Reasonable and true.
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Politicians are nutters.
Macron has visited a hospital at Mulhouse.
Gave a speech about the great work and sacrifice by medicos.
What happened to ‘Stay at Home’.
He has travelled with his staff.
They don’t get it that this isn’t a joke but They are.
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It’s not like we don’t have Skype in France.
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Johnson you hardly see him, could this be the difference between an eighty seat majority and a shoogly peg?
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He’s so out of his depth that in a way I feel sorry for him.
I also feel sorry for all leaders having to make incredibly difficult decisions that none of us would want to make, with the knowledge that they may be wrong. They may have done too much or not enough…
I’d say the exception would be Trump who’s an even bigger jackass than Johnson. He should sand down or shut up, or self isolate… or something.
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Aye, Johnson acheived his ambition and at the same time confirmed the Peter Principle a truism. He doesn’t seem to be able to deal with focus or hard work, and can only manage conflict/questioning if a large fridge is nearby.
The shoogly peg, I mentioned, was the one holding Macron’s coat.
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The hilarious thing is that he still has to get Brexit done before December 31.
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Ah, so there is a plan. Bring in rationing before “brexit gets done”, we don’t notice. Cummings cunning.
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Brexit will seem easy after this.
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A call tonight to release prisoners from jails.
I wonder what the infection rate is in a prison.
I wonder if the prisoners would actually want to be released into a society that has empty shelves and shortages.
A nice wee holiday with 3 meals a day and a free tv and licence, a nice warm bed and a single room.
I’ve not been in a local one, I certainly wouldn’t want to be in a Saudi one which I have visited.
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I once visited Perth Prison and was taken on a tour. Very interesting it was too. (No, it wasn’t Munguin misbehaving, it was part of a project to try to find training and then employment for ex-prisoners.)
It was a grim place. Quite frightening really. It must be hellish hard to keep them in their cells all day with no mixing.
That will take very skilled officers, which we may still have in Scotland. In privatised prisons in England, they got rid of most of the experienced officers and replaced them with cheaper and inexperienced ones.
Heaven knows how they’ll cope with this regime.
They would be better to let the short-termers out of the already overcrowded prisons.
If people die in cells which are meant for two but have three or four in, there could well be a lot of suing going on.
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Already been one death in an English prison.
Its likely that someone carrying the virus – prison officers most likely or visitors – has already been inside the prison (all of them). Once that happens you’re going to get very close to 100% infection rates across the prison population. Sanitary facilities and cleaning in prisons are abysmal pretty much guaranteeing full exposure to the virus. Hospital facilities are basic which in turn pretty much guarantees they’re going to be overwhelmed in very short order.
Scottish prisons are likely 2-3 weeks behind English ones in terms of infections.
Likely to see large numbers of deaths in the prison population – but if LBJ & Cummings didn’t give a shit about pensioners then they probably view prisoner deaths as a plus point….
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I’m sure some smart-arsed Tory will make a feelingless statement about how they deserve it.
Patel maybe. She’s a tactless hard righter.
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I am absolutely astonished that the story re. HM eldest son and wife has seen the light of day.
Maybe their spin doctors have come down with something.
Normally the state apparatus would have kept this quiet and televised a message of support from him to the plebs using a fake London background.
Reminds me of Churchill’s speech about “Never surrender”,meanwhile making plans for the government to escape to Canada.
Perhaps Charlie should have made plans to visit his son in Vancouver.
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Astonished? Not really.
It does mean that in a couple of weeks he’ll have recovered ( now doubt to great national rejoicing and a “special” on the BBC), at which point he’ll be declared not only Covid free, but with an immunity from the pestilence that stalks the realm. They’re thinking one move ahead.
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I don’t wish him, or anyone else, any harm.
But frankly I don’t care any more that he got it than I do that Mrs McGinty of Bank Street got it.
I won’t be celebrating when he recovers, nor will I mourne if he doesn’t. Not any more thn for Mrs McGinty.
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I listened to the Today programme today and very little was made of it. I imagine that it’s in all the tabloids in one form or another, but even in the newspaper review, it was barely mentioned.
This is an interesting thread.
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The chancellor or chancer for short.
Will announce a bail out for the self employed,multi billion cash BUTT it will be means tested, if over £50k a year , just use your savings. Everything they announce has Ts&Cs.
They say the self employed are the bedrock of the economy and need help of up to £1700 a month.
Compare with the UC payout of £95 a week, £380 for 4 weeks.
The worrying part is they’ve closed parliament for 4 weeks, thought we had a big fight about that a few short months ago.
Aye charlie 3, still to be, didn’t jump a testing queue, that’s probably correct as there isn’t any queue to jump, he’s an essential worker.
The testing kits are
Not here yet.
Not tested for safety.
Not tested for accuracy.
Any wee clips show them as like a pregnancy tester except you need to take a BLOOD sample.
They only show IF your immune system has cured you of the virus by detecting antibodies.
In the meantime the death of young people should be a huge worry.
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It’s really odd why some people are expected to live on £93 a week and others expected to live on 80% of their salary up to £2,500 a month. But then, this is Britain and this is a Conservative chancellor.
I wish one of them would make a comment on how Rothsay and Mrs Parker Bowles managed to get a test when surgeons and doctors can’t.
Statement Prime Minister!
Indeed, statement First Minister since it happened in your country under Scottish rules.
Where are the journalists asking ministers of both governments to explain why blue blood entitles you to skip queues; why being royal is more important than being a frontline doctor.
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That’s why I said what I said tris. Interesting by James Cook, especially from the B.B.C.
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Indeed. He might find himself unemployed soon.
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I wondered if Trump’s monumental ineptitude in this crisis was going to be totally ignored in this election year because the media might consider it “unpatriotic” to bring up his past public statements.
Priorities USA, the largest Democratic Party super PAC (Political Action Committee), has produced a video that is now part of two multi-million dollar ad campaigns in swing States, widely reported by the media. The New York Times runs the ad in its story.
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It would be good in a crisis like this if the main parties could work together. To an extent we have seen this in Scotland. There has been a lot of agreement across the parties and even Jackson Carlaw has managed to not bang on about SNP BAAAAD, at least not too much. The Scottish government has been working closely with the English government too to try to keep things more or less the same across the UK.
But it would he hard, I imagine, for the Democrats to work with Trump.
The idea that anyone could say that “it will all be over by Easter” and then go on to talk about how wonderful Easter is, and how he loves Easter, is a striking example of just how unhinged he is.
I can see why some people think that he is suffering from dementia. It was like he was in another place.
How can an opposition work with that?
I don’t think it is in the least unpatriotic to call him out for what he is. Au contraire, I think it is essential.
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Yes Tris, I agree. Working with Trump is clearly impossible in any conventional political sense.
I think that at the State level (perhaps similar to the countries of the UK,) there is quite a lot of bipartisan cooperation, but the federal response has been abysmal….and that’s Trump’s fault. His statements have been all over the place, reflecting not even a pretense of knowing simple facts, with nothing that could be called a coherent federal response. The best that he could do would be to simply shut up and get out of the way. But he has assembled underlings in the cabinet that are in many cases as inept as he is. Fortunately, the doctors of the CDC, etc, seem to know what they’re doing…..although the federal response started late.
At least as the economy went into a tailspin….as stores and businesses started closing and people started being laid off…..Trump had the good sense to let Congress write the disaster relief bill and promise that he would sign what they send him.
So (with considerable bickering) the Democrats and Republicans worked together to write the biggest single disaster relief bill in American history. The Senate passed the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” UNANIMOUSLY today….96 to 0. It will pass the House Friday, and Trump should sign it into law by this weekend. It has a breathtaking price tag of 2.2 TRILLION Dollars……which is 2.2 THOUSAND BILLION Dollars…….or 2.2 THOUSAND THOUSAND MILLION Dollars. WOW!!
This is on top of what was a projected 2021 budget for the ENTIRE federal government of 4.8 Trillion. It includes a check for $1200 to EVERY American adult (who makes less than $75,000 per year with reduced checks up to $99,000) plus $500 for each child, to tide families over into April when increased unemployment and sick leave benefits and other disaster relief measures take effect. Then there are massive bailouts for everything from big corporations to small family businesses.
Once could of course be cynical and point out that EVERY politician can agree to send more than a thousand dollars to almost every American in an election year. 😉
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/26/senate-trump-coronavirus-economic-stimulus-2-trillion/
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I’m inclined to agree that Trump would be well advised to take a back seat. Go inside, self isolate, leave the grown ups to get on with it.
But rather like JOhnson with his cabinet in London, he has necessarily surrounded himself largely with equally incompetent idiotic people.
Intelligent, thinking people wouldn’t want to be associated with the likes of Johnson or Trump.
They would find it impossible to tolerate his idiotic behaviour and they would also know that it is bound to end badly.
We should, perhaps at what is an unprecedented time in the world’s history, have in each country or state, a council of elders.
In your case ex-presidents and governors and here ex-prime and first ministers.
This is even more pressing now that the parliaments have been stood down.
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Tris…..A council of elders without political exposure sounds like a good idea for both nations. The state governors have generally done well assuming the role of leadership within their states, but of course federal leadership should be there to sensibly allocate limited resources across state lines.
Congress will not be in session now until about the third week in April, when the situation will next be assessed. Another relief bill may well be required.
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Almost undoubtedly it will… I mean you guys have to be ready to pack the churches at Easter, because, you know, Easter is beautiful. It’s a beautiful time… Ooops, gotta go vomit. 🙂
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Yes Tris. Trumpy is SO religious…..getting all worked up about getting church services back in operation by Easter. Maybe someone should have asked him what church he plans to attend. A religious man who almost never goes to church. 😉
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Didn’t someone once ask him what his favourite Bible story was… and didn;t he not know?
He reminds me of Sarah Palin, but at least she was easy on the eye. (No sexism intended; you’d have to be mad to think that Trump was easy on the eye.)
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Tris…..Yes that’s right. It occurred back during the 2016 campaign. He couldn’t even name one, but declared how very special the Bible is to him…..LOL.
It was similar to the Sarah Palin incident when she couldn’t name a newspaper she reads. She went into a spiel about how she reads ALL or ANY of them, and that Alaska does have contact with the world, even though she couldn’t give an example.
(I was asked online once if Kansas City has satellite communications. I replied NO, but that the Eastern papers DO come in on the Noon stagecoach. Unlike Sarah, I could have even NAMED the New York Times and the Washington Post. 😉 )
Con artists running for office DO have trouble answering those difficult questions from reporters. 😉
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LOL, Danny.
Can you imagine them on the same ticket?
Mind you, I don’t know what Pence is really like. He never seems to say much. He just stands there with a dead look on his face.
Oh well, it will all be over by Easter!
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Sarah (back in 2016 when she still had some media celebrity) made a much publicized return from Alaska to campaign for Trump for president. But she didn’t really get much attention after one or two appearances.
Yes, a Trump-Palin ticket would be….well……something! 😉
Poor Mike Pence! He just stands over to the side looking uncomfortable. I suppose he’s disappointed that Trump’s impeachment didn’t make him president, and now he’ll have to wait four more years until he can run for the office himself….LOL.
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I always thought he looks like a stiff that someone has propped up to make it look like someone was willing to run on the same ticket as the orange buffoon.
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Perfect description! 🙂
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If only Boris would give money up front to every man woman and child. The way he is doing now by the time everyone is allowed back out and into shops, bars,, restaurants nobody in Britain will have any money to spend. And the shops,bars and restaurants by then will be desperate for customers/money. No forward thinking going on
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It’s because he lives in a world that most of us have never encountered. A world of privilege beyond measure. A world where you snap you fingers and it happens. Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon, money money money.
If this lasted 10 years he’s still have millions.
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Tatu……Yes, the cash up front was an amazingly good idea to come out of Washington. Exactly as you said, without such cash, when the economy started up again, there would be very few people with enough money to buy anything.
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These are Tories…they don’t give money to poor people. They give money to the rich, the capitalists, responsible sorts, chaps in the club, their kind of people…all on the understanding of course that it’ll trickle down.
At the end of this, the NHS is going to be thoroughly knackered and it will need “private” investment. Where do you think the “private” investors are going to get the money from?
Have you not heard our politicians right now talking about how much “government” money they’re spending? It’s not government money though is it?
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No it’s our money.
Richard Branson and American Pharma must be rubbing their hands together in glee.
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Jake……You might be interested in an article in the Times a few days ago. It describes the political heat that the Democrats took in blocking and delaying earlier versions of the relief bill that they felt lacked assurances that what happened in past bailouts (and past Republican tax cuts that favored big corporations) would not be repeated. Namely that corporations would take the money, use it for stock buy-backs that shoveled the money to big money Wall Street investors…..AND then proceed to lay off middle class and poor workers anyway. It’s the REPUBLICAN way!
Tempers flared and angry shouting erupted on the Senate floor. But the Democrats held their ground and received concessions that are intended to insure that WORKERS receive the benefits, and not (for example) business interests of the Trump family or members of congress.
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It’s why I’ve never understood austerity for the poor.
When folk have money, they buy stuff. They go out for meals; they take in a show; they replace the lounge carpet or the washing machine. It makes the economy work.
When rich people get more money, pfff… maybe they buy another yacht, but probably they stash it in the British Virgin Islands.
When poor people don’t have any money, they buy only the bare necessities, and the restaurants , bars, cinemas, theatres, car showrooms, furniture shops…etc lose out.
Austerity is counter productive.
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Tris…..You’ll note the Times article I posted in the response to Jake (above.) And as regards the up-front cash payments to individuals in the relief bill, you might look at an interesting article in the Times (from a few days ago before the bill was finalized) that notes how some support from key conservative Republican Senators made it possible for such a traditionally UN-Republican idea to appear in a bill that ultimately received unanimous approval from both Republicans and Democrats. (Having an economy in free fall in an election year probably helped Republicans do something as sensible as this.)
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Thanks, Danny. I’ll read that.
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Stashing money overseas really only became an option with the abolition of the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
It was, as you might expect, a Conservative Government ( under Thatcher) initiative.
As a consequence, of course, the rich in this country got richer and the poor in this country got poorer. British industry was starved of investment and so we lost international competitiveness . The Thatcher era, so we are told, was all about bad industrial relations and labour strikes and while that was certainly true to an extent, the real problem was not labour strikes so much as a capital strike. The best the workers could do was withdraw their labour ( until starved back to work), the money-men withdrew capital and far from starving they prospered and grew fat on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Controls_in_the_United_Kingdom
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Thanks Jake.
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It appears that the government lied about not getting the email that the EU sent, generously inviting us to be a part of their scheme for ventilators. They did get it and according to Handcock, we were going to take part. What the hell is happening? This is life and death and, as usual, they are lying.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1243186626202927104/shK5ESIi?format=jpg&name=small
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