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

The House of Lords has just voted by huge majority of 226 to indicate its likely rejection of Johnson’s Internal Market Bill provisions for override the Good Friday Agreement & international law

564 peers voted: one of the largest votes in the entire history of the Lords!

— Andrew Adonis (@Andrew_Adonis) October 20, 2020

Looks like Greater Manchester is about to have restrictions imposed upon it without financial aid?

Leading to the vexed question of how exactly the restrictions are going to be imposed.

the_government_source_stenographer has logged on

5. Govt source says ‘Other local leaders in GM were more reasonable and constructive but Burnham was too proud to make a deal.’
6. GM source says there was 'unanimity' on their side, and govt was 'trying to grind us' into accepting a deal that was too low

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020

3. PM raised offer to 60m in call with Burnham, but he felt couldn't accept it as wdn't be enough to pay wages of low paid at level he had promised
4. So Tier 3 being imposed, with no deal yet on the cash and final offer likely to be under 60m

Looks like a test and trace will buy you 200 greater Manchesters.

https://t.co/xiVKLef4Bg pic.twitter.com/pgyLudGpks

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) October 20, 2020

This is an extraordinary moment. A government acting out of pure, politically-motivated spite at a time of national crisis. Shame on them.#manchesterlockdown https://t.co/wEuwfpheN1

— Phil Harrison (@MrPMHarrison) October 20, 2020

Looking forward to seceding tbh

this is nice but can whoever is writing his tweets please rephrase to 'I Support Andy Burnham, this offer is disgraceful' rather than this word salad? Thanks https://t.co/XuO8BzT5VN

— Owen Hatherley (@owenhatherley) October 20, 2020

it's great when other Labour mayors chime in with such a strong message of support for beleaguered regions getting fucked over by the tories

does anybody including Sadiq think Sadiq's in the Labour Party any more?

Yeah let's see how much money they stump up when it's a region with a few more Tory marginals in it.

jfc, why isn't anyone wearing a fucking mask in the UK?

Oh mate you have no idea. It’s insane out there!

hey we wear them in Aldi

except i started noticing people dicknosing in there today

We are! But we are wearing them in enclosed public spaces and on the buses and tubes. We are only wearing them outside if we’re between shops, unable to keep 2m distances from others, or about to pass a huge gaggle of schoolkids.

I think if you were representing a city with the highest rate of covid in the country and you were closely conferring with other aides on camera it might be an idea to wear a mask even if it is outside.

FWIW dicknosing is an incredible term and I will be using it from now on.

not my coinage, of course

Where did dicknosing originate? I’d never heard it once and then everyone on slack just kept using it.

I thought it was a thread on here but maybe it was the slack :D

Not original to ilx I don’t think

Dicknose: Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

I saw 'dicknose' on twitter or Facebook a few days before any ilx usage.

This Manchester thing will either end up with on-the-cheap half-arsed lockdown, which the government wants

or

refusal to lockdown, large scale protests and starving people back to work, which the government wants

and

everywhere else accepting less per capita than Manchester refused

You have to hand it to them.

It’s from a sign that did the rounds in the summer, it was posted here at the time iirc

https://www.shutupandtakemymoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/no-dick-noses-mask-sign.jpg

jfc, why isn't anyone wearing a fucking mask in the UK?

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Lol, is that what you got out of the video?

it's the thing in the video i have a question about. i got some other stuff too, but sometimes i decide not to post everything i think. it's an interesting approach.

is this good

Grant Shapps has threatened to seize control of Transport for London unless Sadiq Khan accepts package of measures inc higher council tax, pension reforms, larger congestion charge zone and higher fares in return for rescue funding https://t.co/6RGJs0pBkd via @financialtimes

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) October 20, 2020

what is going on

Sadiq Khan better not lie down on this.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, here’s giant knitted poppy season.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eky1lMlXUAYHLAF?format=jpg&name=900x900

I see FMHoP have done Kier Starmer's hair and poppy on Rob Brydon

Secretly in favour of the congestion charge zone expansion because a) fuck cars even mine b) it’s so transparently the Tories that they‘ll get the blame. But the rest is ... whatever the word is for a scandal in the time of lol nothing matters.

Khan will accept everything except the congestion zone which will be his "win"

/prediction

idk what leverage he has, other than the probability that the government doesn’t actually want to be directly responsible for TfL.

If we want London to be anything other than clogged up with traffic, some sort of congestion charge will be necessary IMO, but do it in the wrong way and you will wind up really hammering the people who can least afford it, set up perverse incentives (already driven the kids to school today? Already paid the charge, might as well get your money’s worth and do the rest of the day’s travel in the car) AND have a massive increase in surveillance cameras into the bargain.

From what I can see the proposed congestion charge zone encapsulates huge swathes of some of the poorest areas of the capital, mostly Labour seats as well. More to the point, for the foreseeable future, who in their right mind would get on public transport when they could get in the car?

Khan is also an easy target for the government for all the obvious reasons and they'd calculated they can pick a fight with him without any real downside, especially as he is almost certain to win next year regardless. IDK, we all know what's happening here, again.

Iirc ownership is already heavily skewed to older white people earning >£50k so in my dreams there’s a shared service effect which sees it lead to public transport improvement in the outer areas to the net benefit of poorer families. Obviously it would play out more like Tim says with richer people driving more, not less.

Who hasn’t this government picked a fight with yet? It will be pensioners any minute. They remind me of that Simpsons ep where Homer makes everything into the threat of a duel.

Rashford and others rightly rinsing Baker (who'd blocked anyone-can-reply).

You have 3.4M followers Marcus, to my 96K. The power is yours here.

Everyone knows feeding hungry children is a top priority. I'd like to see UC boosted.

But if the economy and currency collapse, the poor will be devastated.

Alleging a blind eye is just wrong.

— Steve Baker MP (@SteveBakerHW) October 21, 2020

Saving Secret Cinema cost us £977,004. But children need to starve to prevent quantitative easing. https://t.co/jDGX2viScG

— Dr Xand van Tulleken 🏳️‍🌈 (@xandvt) October 21, 2020

I know it's low level in the grand scheme of things but fuck knows how secret cinema got that much money.

Ooooh!! On that Andy Burnham now-viral meme in which he found out Greater Manchester funding on live TV.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick says:

“He didn’t”

“I phoned him and told him”

At 2pm he says. 😬

— Sophia Sleigh (@SophiaSleigh) October 21, 2020

Ignoring the "what a lark this politics game is" tone, somebody is lying about yesterday. Given the time this took to come out (and who they chose to tell it) suspect it's Tories trying to cover the whole thing in mud.

Political theatre or otherwise I doubt that four-hour difference is going to offset the missing £40m or so in the minds of most people in Greater Manchester.

Tory with a cravat on NN last night explaining that the money doesn't matter, it's about saving lives why can't the people of Manchester see that

I bet Burnham regrets sticking up for his "nice lad" tory pal jenrick on Any Questions a couple months back when he should have been sacked, and as a member of the opposition he should have been calling for his head. It didn't make him seem classy or rising above politics, it just made him look like a typical gutless pol, all in the same club together - covering each other's backs when they caught out red-handed committing grand-scale corruption.

lol Andrew "Keep Havering White" Rosindell

Trade envoy isn't a government job, and includes at least one Labour MP. Not commenting on the rights or wrongs of @AndrewRosindell vote last night, but this doesn't look like a good move. pic.twitter.com/rhdP2xxRSg

— David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) October 21, 2020

idk what the problem with sacking him is, tbh. He was presumably only a trade envoy at the ERG's behest.

Have never known a government Labour or Conservative so contemptuous of their own backbench MPs.

— David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) October 21, 2020

Irrespective of whether this is correct, has he seen who those backbenchers are?

I know it's low level in the grand scheme of things but fuck knows how secret cinema got that much money.

questions are being raised locally over a pub venue in St Leonard's that was opened last year by someone from London with music biz connections getting £237k while established venues are getting a couple of grand or nothing at all.

I've been to a few gigs at the new pub and it's an OK place, although definitely v pricey for St Leonard's, but something's not right there.

The Fountain?

no, The Piper

(the Fountain isn't in St Leonard's, unless you mean the Marina Fountain, dunno if they got anything though)