[kreuzberger]

If any of these young, fit, fighting-age doctors, engineers, and scientists want to get a burner phone and a doppelgänger-ID ("they all look the same") for a gig with Deliveroo, I am pretty sure that they have the wherewithal.

This is Farage-flavoured, performative bullshit which will have absolutely zero effect on Channel crossings or the voting intentions of the criminal creosote cretins. Economic growth? Possibly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is Farage-flavoured, performative bullshit which will have absolutely zero effect on Channel crossings or the voting intentions of the criminal creosote cretins. Economic growth? Possibly.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ation-deal

Probably bad for economic growth. But it's likely not performative. See here from Kiran Stacey

Governments have been trying to sign a returns agreement with France for several years to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel, though with little success.

Conservative ministers from the previous government say they got close to agreeing one but that the French government remained concerned about how the UK’s shadow economy could attract migrants to work illegally in Britain.

Just his reading of events, but I'm inclined to take it seriously because the stuff about cracking down on Deliveroo came at the same time as the deal was announced.

We don't know if the deal, and other work on people smuggling, will work yet, of course.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This sounds good. And nice of Warren to keep my spirits up.

This is where rail nationalisation should be good, though the work for this will predate it. Much easier for the centre/ minister to drive these things forward across the whole system, instead of train companies doing their own thing. Apparently some lines in Wales already have this. It would be like Oyster PAYG but for national rail. My guess is that passengers will like it, and perhaps it could boost numbers at the margins.

[kreuzberger]

Apart from being in possession of an undesirable skin colour, what in the name of Russ Abbott and all the Luton 1985 League Cup winning team has this to do with newly-qualified rocket scientists?

However we skin this cat, it all boils down to rabid racism which, rather than being rightly condemned as a criminal mindset, is being legitimised by the desperately disappointing Ms. Cooper and her flag fetish fantasies.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You mentioned Deliveroo riders. So I thought you were referring to this "crackdown". No idea what you were referring to.

[kreuzberger]

I'm not having a pop; I am merely asking you to consider what I wrote with a degree of sarcasm, intended to disassociate overseas students from so-called grey economy "illegals";

If any of these young, fit, fighting-age doctors, engineers, and scientists want to get a burner phone and a doppelgänger-ID ("they all look the same") for a gig with Deliveroo, I am pretty sure that they have the wherewithal.

If, on the other hand, you are saying that Cooper has an anointed right - Labour innit - to lump them all in to a homogenous forrin mass, then, yeah, I am having a pop.

(Mate; she is fellating someone else's voters, not reflecting the values those who swept her into office on a tide of fairness-fuelled hope and goodwill.)

[Tubby Isaacs]

I said already I didn’t support reducing student numbers.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Angela Rayner admits underpaying stamp duty on £800,000 seaside flat
Exclusive: Deputy PM refers herself to ethics adviser as confirmation puts her position under threat

Uh oh, Sounds like she got duff advice. Or perhaps accurate advice that she now realizes looks bad. Either way, pretty poor effort by her.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... aside-flat

[The Weeping Angel]

She's going to be forced out isn't she?

[Tubby Isaacs]

More likely that the ethics advisor gets to decide her future.

[Boiler]

Either way, she's given the Tories/Reform and the media a gift.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Budget November 26th, Which either means she's waiting for something to turn up, working on something massively radical that'll need a lot of time to model, or going to announce some cuts before then. Perhaps they'll redo the PIP cuts, which were far too drastic before but hard to say there isn't a problem with the expanding budget. I thought the idea of having different terms for new sign ups was OK, but that was rejected by backbenchers out of hand.

[The Weeping Angel]

I thought budgets were normally in October.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Does seem to be very late,, though I think it had to be in November because of the notice needed by the OBR.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Wow.

[mattomac]

A stopped clock is right twice a day and all that.

[Boiler]

Wow.

Ed Davey also spoke up in her defence.

[kreuzberger]

I can't add anything to what is clearly the biggest story in town apart from a personal reflection, and that is that I feel profoundly sorry for Rayner.

In an admittedly uncluttered field, she is the very best of us.

[davidjay]

Labour politicians are part of the metropolitan elite, champagne socialists, no longer represent the working class. Then when one comes along who clearly did start at the bottom and get on, they're slaughtered at every turn.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Labour could end badger cull but only with Covid-style testing and vaccines – report
Review says ministers have only ‘small chance’ of wiping out bovine tuberculosis by 2038 without more investment

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ine-report

Won't be cheap. This is the sort of thing that could be paid for from the proposed "nature fund" that developers pay into.

A sign though of what the government is up against.

Godfray said it was not the case, as some campaigners have said, that badgers did not spread the disease to cattle.

Launching the report, he said: “The evidence continues to show that badgers can provide a vector of the bacteria for cattle and vice versa. Denying badgers can be a risk can be a problem because then you have an unacknowledged source of bacteria that you aren’t dealing with.”

"Campaigners". As always.