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

it does give off strong "i'll park where i like" vibes

It is but it kills the story.

Also he was a guest and not the organiser, it’s the responsibility of the organiser to limit numbers.

My @guardian story: Hundreds of thousands who lost jobs in pandemic denied universal credit, official figures show https://t.co/vPIRWJIhk8

— Patrick Butler (@patrickjbutler) October 1, 2020

Piece on the FT blog on the EU lab markets looks v bad, even if the support schemes across the EU are better than UC.

About 26% of new universal credit claimants are from managerial, administrative and professional backgrounds, according to findings by the ESRC-funded Welfare at a Social Distance academic research project, a trend that may bring fresh scrutiny of a welfare system designed primarily for people on low incomes.

damn, they are treating them as badly as they do to working poor people, this calls for reforms.

The number of people who seem surprised the system is in such bad shame is one of the main reasons why the Tories have been able to get away with it for so long. There isn't really any reason to be surprised at this stage but it does show quite how little attention a lot of people pay to what's going on.

"I had assumed that we still live in a society where there was a safety net for people who from no fault of their own need support at time of crisis."

Idk I distinctly remember spending some time in a north London jobcentre about 7/8 years back and watching a a posh man raging at staff because he was an architect and got the same rate as everyone else... if they didn’t know by then I don’t know if you’d ever get through to them.

Nobody votes Tory because they're blissfully unaware of poverty

Grenfell Tower providing a big charred reminder of that.

if i was an architect, i would simply be good enough at my job that i would never be a position where i needed to claim universal credit

#dishyRishi please come to our rescue!

Literally the worst kind of pricks, he’s not even attractive and he’s way to the right of Johnson.

Politics Hot is a v different ballgame to normal standards of hotness tbf

He’s not even the best-looking male Asian Tory with hideous politics! That’s Ranil Jayawardena!

Don't start me on Priti again please

> Grenfell Tower providing a big charred reminder of that.

they very quickly wrapped it in a green <3 Grenfell covering so it wasn't an eyesore for all those people living in the new expensive flats that used to be television centre.

I'd love to tell the architect: you think this is shit money, pal. Wait till you see some of the brutalist jobs we've got lined up for you!

lol I can remember being almost as pompous as the architect when I signed on for a 6 weeks in between a company liquidation and a new job. "Do you mind madam, I don't work in biscuit factories.. I'm an apprentice trained fully qualified professional you know". lol that would be an instant sanction these days.

Wait til they find out they're supposed to do 35 hours a week of job searches if they're going to be allowed to collect their pittance

Have to say the people interviewed in that Guardian piece don't come across as natural Tories, we know full well how many people enthusiastically endorsed eviscerating the benefits system. Architect sounds awful though.

Like, you would think the collision of the middle classes with UC would drive a change in government policy but if it's mostly going to affect young or metropolitan Labour or even LibDem voters the government will conclude it can probably cope with a few people complaining to the Guardian. But a trickle is likely to become a flood including in areas they actually care about.

They've been all over Radio 4 too so it's definitely affecting Tories

sowing ... reaping, sympathy rating minus ten etc!

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/01/rishi-sunak-winter-destruction-britain-workers-job-support-scheme?

This sounds right, but again a lot of the affected might be either saving for a mortgage or trying to keep on top of one. What is the end game here? Is this a calculation that not enough ppl will be affected?

Can't make a Singapore without breaking a few spirits

there is so much projection on Rishi as a successor and future leader, but the thing is he is a dim but not nice lightweight imo. RLB had him for breakfast on a televised debate in December and he was like some overpromoted out of his depth office junior, his best retort was some weak stuff about the primacy of capitalism and how great it is etc and then he went very awkward and quiet when she pointed out the actions of people like his boss whilst a deutsche bank executive directly caused the 2008 financial crisis. I doubt he has any strategy at all other than pursuing his own career ambitions.

Also Johnson and Cummings will want to hang him out to dry over the next few months to nobble any leadership challenge. Any anointed one will be taken down a peg or ten.

good news everybody

Brilliant to see Keir recommit to his leadership campaign pledges, which should form the foundations of a transformative programme to rise to the challenges of #COVID19.

No stepping back from our core principles.https://t.co/OX0uFfOeHJ

— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) October 3, 2020

that's great news, he is fully committed to the one or two pledges he hasn't run a fucking light blue labour tank over just yet!

Ian Byrne - probably best turning off your notifications for a few hours!

1. Sunak’s planned cut to benefits is MUCH bigger than Osborne’s in 2015. This time 6m households will lose £1,000 each next April vs 3.3 million 5yrs back - that adds up to an £8bn income reduction this time vs less than £4bn last time pic.twitter.com/VbZ7NGz07e

— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) October 3, 2020

could do with some opposition right now as Rishi is plotting some deeper cuts than Gideon's.

i didn't even realise the current UC was a bonus amount ffs

How fucking depressing, and you all you ever hear from the clowns on our state media is "how are we going to pay for this oh so generous extravagance"

could do with some opposition right now as Rishi is plotting some deeper cuts than Gideon's.

― calzino, Saturday, 3 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Donald Trump is ill in his hospital bed so I doubt he'll be able to provide any of this opposition. Sad!

that Torsten Bell thread is a strong indictment of Rishi's economic "brain" and pretty much backs up the notion that he is nasty little clueless cunt who is going to be responsible for yet more austerity driven poverty and his inadequate response to C-19 is causing much more serious long term damage to the UK economy than any of our Euro neighbours will suffer.

5. This is terrible macroeconomics. Just as now is exactly the wrong time to be raising taxes and weakening the recovery, it's an awful time to be taking £8bn out of the economy by cutting benefits - reducing incomes for the households that actually spend it

— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) October 3, 2020

Yeah aside from the obvious moral concerns that's £1000 a year that would be almost immediately be spent by the recipients, stimulating the economy. I like how the blog post is basically "yeah he's gonna u-turn it's completely obvious and here's why".

It's gonna be open season on Sunak for the next few months, he represents a threat to too many people in Westminster to be anything otherwise. Aside from the fact he was until recently spraying cash everywhere, his popularity is largely down to the fact that he's literally the only member of the government who has been able to appear vaguely reassuring to enough people, or convince them that he knows what he's doing. So he's gonna get clowned from now on, the narrative spun that he's lost control.

Meanwhile in Britain

Tory MPs have this week been circulating a photoshopped image of Dominic Cummings as a dominatrix in a leather jacket

Boris Johnson, Hancock, Raab & Gove are kneeling naked at his feet wearing chain leashes - the image is graphic

‘It’s caused some amusement,’ said one

— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) October 3, 2020

Blimey: 12.872 new #COVID19 cases announced in the UK.
V big number. Biggest single daily number by a long distance.
Explanation is they left some cases out of the past week’s numbers down to “technical” reasons. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/a6AbYKKApp

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) October 3, 2020

Eight days - EIGHT DAYS - of #COVID19 case numbers were being under-reported due to “a technical issue which has now been resolved”.
And even tho it’s “resolved” no clarity abt how much of the shortfall is left to be reported. Hundreds? Thousands?

so all of last weeks numbers were probably much higher than reported because of a "technical issue", but they aren't saying by how much and are just going to add them in bits on a daily basis to this weeks numbers!

Banks stopping issuing 95% mortgages because they are too risky at the moment

Boris Johnson wants to change rules to make it easier to hand out riskier mortgages (though he can’t control house prices and if they go down people end up in negative equity)

From @Telegraph pic.twitter.com/LoQLESQ9eS

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) October 3, 2020

didn't they just spend the last decade blaming the other lot for the carnage caused by sub prime mortgages? anyway who actually cares anymore!

How are you enjoying all the grizzly political death fantasies (San hammers) on the US threads calz?

sans

fuckin keyboard thinks it knows better than me what I'm trying to type with a drink in me

well Kier says wishing death on fascists isn't "progressive politics" so therefore it must be good praxis imo, bring on the political death fantasises I say - more the merrier. Kier reminds me of P Badshaw of the Graun when he was saying it wasn't nice to celebrate Thatcher finally getting planted, because this abhorrent celebration of political enemies deaths is so crude and beastly and downright common!

colour me common

Apparently cineworld are closing until next year, making most staff redundant.

Cineworld to close its cinemas until next year, making most of its 5000+ staff redundant, reports Sunday Times pic.twitter.com/lBTiRpkfJy

— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) October 3, 2020

I presume it's the hedge fund that owns that is really blaming the delayed release of a lousy James Bond movie that would have saved them - yeah sure!