Month: March 2023

ANOTHER BREXIT BREXIT BONUS

IF YOU ARE A FAN OF HORMONE-FED MEAT AND DUBIOUS ANIMAL WELFARE

I apologise for the appearance of the butcher’s apron on this blog.

Liz Webster is chair of Save British Farming. They campaign to join the Single Market in Europe to Save British Food.

She is worth a listen and I think it’s worth signing her petition.

EU/EEA/EFTA food standards are very high. Elsewhere in the world the hygiene, animal welfare and phyto-sanitary standards are lower. So this is important from a human health and animal welfare point of view.

It also makes no sense to ship food around the world when there is, or should be, absolutely excellent food available on our doorsteps, here in Scotland and across the EU.

If we join a trade organisation situated in Asia, we may not be forced to adopt their lower standards ourselves, but we will be forced to accept their much cheaper food produced to and at their standards. Liz Truss’s deal with Australia has already done that.

Oh, that is what raw food looks like, before the servants being it to ones table. And what is it you do? Are there always seven of you to see to your customers’ needs?

Of course, the well off will still be able to afford to buy good quality meat, but many people won’t, particularly with food inflation currently at 17.5%. And of course, who can be sure when you eat in a restaurant that you will be getting the standard that you have been used to.

Lots of cheap food flooding in from Asia, coupled with much reduced grants for farmers (compared with what they got from the EU), and I suspect that many British farmers will have to give up.

That would seem to me to present an opportunity for factory type farms to buy up small farms (just as happened with fishing) and for the government to relax the standards in Britain, including in our country… making it harder for us to move back into any arrangement with Europe.

And that means we will no longer be able to trust Scottish produce to be up to the high standards which we’ve been used to.

And who is in charge of farming in England and will have the final say on farming matters in the British Single Market?

None other than the Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP who was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 25 October 2022.

I have the impression that all these cards we held were jokers.

WE ARE NOW THE POOREST COUNTRY IN NORTHERN EUROPE

WELL DONE, TORIES. MAKES YE PROUD TO BE BRITISH… NOT

What on earth is SHE doing here?

There is a Panorama programme available on BBC iPlayer (which I cannot watch because I have no tv licence) but, for those of you who DO have a licence, it may be worth having a look.

The description of the programme is on the Panorama web page, but a summary from Marina Purkiss says:

This Panorama is explosive… We are now the poorest country in N. Europe.

The average Brit is 60% poorer than average American.

We’re suffering a national pay cut that is years in the making.

It’s exacerbated by Brexit and this lying government is blaming Putin and Covid.

Here are Ros Atkins posts on the subject.

If Putin and Covid were solely to blame, as Hunt and the rest of the Tory government (and their house magazines) are trying to tell us, you’d have thought that all European countries would have suffered more or less equally, because all of Europe is affected by the situation in Ukraine (some very much more than Britain is) and we all had the Covid Pandemic to deal with (although we all dealt with that in different ways).

Strangely, though, they haven’t suffered equally.

But just imagine if we were all £4 000 better off… You could all switch on the heating and have a decent meal.

I can’t comment further because I can’t see the show. However, I know some Munguinites have a licence, so I’d appreciate your comments if you decide to watch it.

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

I’m not sure if this is true, but Dr. Tyson’s is an academic and respected scientist, so the chances are he’s probably not made that up. His professional research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of the Milky Way.

It figures too that those anti-masker MAGA types who tell you that “I’m safe from this virus because I’ve been bathed in the blood of Jesus” or “I stuck an infra-red light up my ass just like president Trump said to” types. You know, the ones who demand all manners of freedom not to be vaccinated or wear masks… but want to remove choice from other people and want to bad books containing anything that could be construed, or misconstrued, as “woke” philosophy.

If it is true, there should be a fair number fewer Republican voters by the time of the next election.

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“We are unashamedly British & we want to be Britain’s NEWS channel” – Angelos Frangopoulos, GB News’s Australian CEO.

“It will be a more friendly approach to NEWS” – Andrew Neil.

“GB News is Britain’s News Channel” – GB News.

”GB News is not a news channel” – Ofcom.

Aye, well, whatever you say, Ofcom.

It does make you wonder what on earth you can trust in this British state. Pretty much nothing, I’d say.

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The first illustration there doesn’t mention the name of the “newspaper” but David Gooding works as the editor of the Sunday Express, sometimes known as the Boris Johnson Lickspittle News.

The S*n seems to be in agreement … indeed, despite barely clinging to life, Boris appears to have given them an interview.

But…

So yes, two Tory MPs moonlighting as News Presenters at £100,000 a year, each on top of the £85,000 we pay them for being in parliament… And Boris says that his COVID was very mild… although, a the time we were told he nearly died.

He couldn’t have been lying, could he?

PS: It’s a small point, but Sunday Express please note that it should have read “Boris’s Covid Hell”. If you pronounce it, write it.

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I wonder who is paying for this. Someone on the honours list?

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When will they ever learn?

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Well, there’s a thing…

Richard for Indy – #FBPE/FBSI  

In 1933 just 3 months after being elected, the Nazis staged a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. Plumb by name doesn’t cut it.

He is a Nazi.

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JUST FOR A LAUGH

Once again, as I did a few weeks ago after hearing the news about John, when Panda Paws let us know that Bugger Le Panda had died, I wondered if it was appropriate to have a page of j0kes.

James didn’t comment much on here, but he’d been around since pretty much the beginning and he met Munguin in Edinburgh, probably 10+ years ago when he’d come from France for a march.

Recently he’d been sending jokes for this page, so upon reflection, I thought it probably WAS appropriate to go ahead.

Today’s “Laughs” are dedicated to the BLP. Repose en paix. James.

  1. Putting the clocks forward the easy way.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. “If you don’t study, you’ll end up like him.” “There is no such thing as shabby or shameful work. What IS shabby is the judgement of those who think themselves superior.”

7.

8. And crawling out of bins.

9.

10. Not the fussiest of hyenas.

11.

13.

14.

15.

16. This is Munguin to me!

17.

18.

19.

20.

Thanks to AndiMac and TMc.

SOPPY SUNDAY

We’re all late today. Something to do with Scottish Summer Time. Even Munguin is still having his breakfast in bed.

2. I’m babysitting this little human. It needs an animal of strength and intelligence… Me!

3. Did someone say breakfast with Munguin?

4. Ring-necked Duck more normally found in the USA, but spotted by AndiMac on one of his nature journeys, here in Scotland.

5. Aye Aye. Welcome to Madagascar.

6. Is this one the cutest wee beetle? European Oil Beetle snapped by Kay. Looking like he or she facies a drink of water.

7. Rock Wallabies from Quokka.

8. Mum and 5 babies.

9. What are you doing down there?

10. Don’t get stroppy with me, Tris. Munguin and I are on the best of terms and I cold easily replace you.

11. So this is Munguin Towers? We’d better be on our best behaviours.

12. You can scratch behind my ears.

13. What a gorgeous Orache Moth .

14. This one is for DonDon. It’s a spider hunting scorpion, from Quokka. He also sent some huge spiders, but unfortunately the pics won’t copy so here they are in their original article. (Thanks to Mrs Quokka.)

15. I’m an Arctic Fox. Don’t tell all the Tories about to be made lords. They might mistake my fur for ermine. And you know what Tories are like with foxes!!!

16. Nanoralic, Greenland.

17. Mum, don’t make such a fuss. I look smart enough to meet Munguin and the Factotum.

18. Roof garden in Seoul.

19. Spiders have to live somewhere.

20. My pal’s come round to play, so were gonna go do some climbing. I’ll leave Tris in charge. He’s not a lot of use but he makes reasonable coffee and he’s always got loads of bananas, so you should be ok.

Munguin says thank you to Quokka and Mrs Quokka, Kay and AndiMac.

This is a little tree that Tris and his mate found out in the country. It had been in someone’s house for Christmas and they had just abandoned it in its pot at the side of the road.

Its top branches were all dead and it looked in a terrible state, so Tris and Nik got some tools and trimmed it up a bit and left it in a safe place in the forest, having removed the bottom of the pot so that its roots could grow into the soil.

And every week they went to see the tree which had become known as Tiny Piney (TP).

But after a few weeks TP still wasn’t looking great, so Tris went out in Munguin’s Limo, chauffeured it back to the Towers and re-potted it in a bigger pot with some fertiliser.

Hopefully it will start to grow again (already Tris can see some new needles).

When new growth is established, we’ll tidy up the dead bits… and hopefully in a year or so we’ll be able to take TP out to the forest and re-plant him.

In the meantime, he’s a much loved addition to Munguin’s grounds.

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MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

Who said this?

“We are paid handsomely for the job we do and if you need an extra £100,000 a year on top then you should really be looking for another job”

I’ll give you a hint.

It’s a bloke who, as well as being an MP, now has a job presenting a programme on GBNEWS (the ‘not a news channel’ despite the inconvenient mention of NEWS in the title) on a salary of £100,000 a year.

Yes. You got it.

So does that mean he’s resigning his seat in parliament?

Yeah, right!

Just how repulsive do you have to be to be taken on by the Tories, then despite the lies, gaffs and cheating, get promoted … and then get another job for £100,000 with a loonie loss making broadcaster?

I suppose we have the answer.

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Does anyone know why Douglas Ross’s constituency got the lion’s share of the levelling up fund? Are there an abundance of Viscounts living there?

And why do we have to have this bloke, who bought his seat in parliament and his job in the Scotland Office, explain it to us?

Where is the person that was ELECTED in this joke of a democracy to explain this to us. Why do we never see him? Is he out shopping for ermine?

Also, don’t want to get too personal but…what on earth does his nobleness look like?

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And if, heaven help us, he was prime minister (or first minister) for a day, he would go for the Gypsies.

I seem to recall someone else did that.

Charming bloke .

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How dim is she? She was caught a few weeks ago indicating that Stanley Johnson breaking his wife’s nose when he smacked her about, was a small matter, because he only broke her nose once (although how she knew that is a tad dubious).

She said this in her role as the chair of what used to be a respected discussion programme on state funded television.

She was, as a result, sacked as patron of a women’s charity, which presumably reckons it’s not the imagine that it wishes to portray that smacking your Mrs about is OK as long as you don’t do it every week.

However, unlike Gary Lineker, who also made a political comment, not on television, but on his personal Twitter account, she was not suspended by the BBC, thus giving the impression to licence fee payers, that as long as you tow the Tory line you CAN make political comments and be employed by the state broadcaster.

So, does the management of the company that produces this programme admit that they load the audience with Tory voters, perhaps based on an election (fought pretty much on a single issue of getting Brexit done) from 3.5 years ago? And if so, how do they justify that in an ever changing political scene and on a programme where they move around the UK to different areas each week?

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Bloody hell!

BYE, NICOLA

THANKS FOR ALL YOU’VE DONE

I’m taking a bit of a risk here. The Independence movement is so divided and there is a fair measure of pure hate for Nicola Sturgeon that I expect I’m inviting some Nicola bashing with this brief post.

So be it. I shall simply ignore it.

You’d have thought that Douglas Ross might have acted with a bit of class, or, given the parlous state of his country, at least have kept the criticism down to reasonable levels on this last day. It’s usually what opposition leaders do. They find something pleasant to say about their opponent.

And then you remember what an unpleasant little man Ross is, and has always been, dating back to when he bullied people at school. And how he’s never had even a modicum of class in anything he’s ever done. He’s cheap and he’s nasty.

And he’s unpopular in the country too.

In a IPSOS survey dated 17-21 March, Nicola has a positive rating of +8, Anas Sarwar has a rating of -4; his Noble boss, Sir Keir, has a -9 rating; Sunak has a rating of -37 and Ross has a -39 score.

That’s 47 points behind Nicola.

I’d never pretend that Nicola or her government were perfect. Lord, far from it. But they have initiated many superb policies at home and they have developed excellent relations with many countries in Europe. (So much so that the jealous English government have now said that Scottish ministers must be chaperoned by someone from London when they meet anyone from abroad. )

Maybe of course the inept English/Brit government are hoping to pick up a few tips on how to make friends and not enemies, and how not to leave meetings as laughing stocks and figures of ridicule.

This government also got us through the pandemic, in most cases with better outcomes than the rest of the UK, although, again far from perfect. We also didn’t spend £37 billion on a track and trace system that didn’t work, nor, as far as I know, did we allow aristocrats sell us unusable equipment to our health service staff.

Our ministers weren’t perfect, but I’ve yet to hear of any who were as ridiculously stupid and inept as the likes of Dorries or Rees Mogg, or indeed any who are under investigation for bullying staff like the Raab, deputy prime minister in England, or Gavin Williamson who held a variety of jobs for which he was ridiculously under qualified.

“If you’re thinking of snitching on me, remember this little book. If your name appears in it… you’d be best to keep quiet or who knows who will find out!”

And although Ross, some time ago, accused Nicola of breaking the ministerial code just as his on-off supported boss has been, our first minister sat though what I seem to remember was a 7-hour session of questions with a cross-party panel, without the tax payer having to fork out £200,000 for a top lawyer, and was found innocent.

Not perfect, but better, fairer and more compassionate than the Welsh or English governments.

So, Nicola, Munguin and I, at least, are sorry to see you go. You should be seriously proud after serving as Deputy First Minister and then First Minister for 16 years, to leave with a plus 8 rating and a long list of achievements.

We hope that after a break from a seriously hard job, you’ll find some other way of serving us, or maybe the world.

Good luck.